By DICK MORRIS &
EILEEN MCGANN
Published on FoxNews.com on
September 27, 2007.
Chris Wallace brings out the real Bill and Hillary
each time he interviews one of them.
For those who have ever visited Clintonland, it's
sometimes hard to recognize the slickly-scripted, post-White House media
personalities of the Clintons: the affable, smiling Hillary seen on the campaign
trial or the laid back, take-it-as-it-comes Bill who periodically surfaces for
softball interviews.
But every once in a while, there's a rare moment of
clarity. That happened last year when Wallace interviewed the former president.
At the end of the interview, Bill lost it. Suddenly the veneer was off, exposing
the enraged, snarling, lunging Bill accusing Wallace of "do[ing] his nice little
right wing hit job" when he forced Clinton to address his inability to capture
or kill bin Laden.
Not a pretty sight.
And Wallace did it again in his recent interview of
Hillary. Asked about the extreme partisan politics espoused by her and her
husband, the real Hillary challenged Wallace. "Well, Chris, if you'd walked even
a day in our shoes over the last 15 years I'm sure you'd understand."
Hillary preceded her passing moment of reality by a
loud, inappropriate and mirthless laugh - a scary sound that was somewhere
between a cackle and a screech. She was quick to follow it with a scripted
recitation about how she wants to rise above partisanship. (Of course) But, in
between, we saw a fleeting glimpse of the pervasive sense of victimization and
self-righteousness that even now underscores the vicious partisanship with which
both Clintons play the game of politics.
Amazingly, they seem to genuinely believe that they
are still the targets of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" and that they are alone
and under attack despite their manifest virtue and singular desire to do
good.
You don't see this authenticity very often.
Hillary's handlers have taken great pains to teach her the art of concealment,
hiding her raw partisanship behind a smile and, when necessary, even a forced
laugh. A laugh that's often too long and too loud.
And so, at the beginning and the end of the Wallace
interview, Hillary sounded just like a laughing hyena. Watch the video on FOX
News or YouTube. You won't laugh.
It's part of the Hillary defense. Just as Hillary's
answers are scripted, so is her "spontaneous" laughter. This is truly learned
behavior -- laughing -- or pretending to laugh at will. Over the past 15 years,
she's perfected the art of responding to people, questions and networks that she
doesn't like. In the past, she would sneer and answer sarcastically, as in,
"Maybe I should have stayed home and baked cookies." But those days are over.
Now she smiles constantly and dissolves into a flood of loud giggles. It's been
a big part of her media training.
The mainstream media hasn't had much to say about
the laughing candidate. But can you imagine if Rudy Giuliani responded to a
network interviewer by laughing loudly and hysterically for five seconds? No
doubt The New York Times would seriously wonder about his state of mind. But
they don't find it odd with Hillary.
It'll likely be a long time before we see the real
Hillary again. So next time you hear her special laugh, think about what it
really means.
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***Copyright Eileen McGann and Dick Morris
2007. Reprints with permission only***
