Journal notes of Hillary's "best friend"

Are Republicans afraid of Hillary Clinton? Maybe they should be. A person Hillary described as "her closest friend" left her journal notes with the University of Arkansas when she died in 2000. They were kept sealed until 2010. Alana Goodman, an enterprising reporter for the Washington Free Beacon, went to Arkansas to take a look at the journal entries of Hillary's friend, Diane Blair.



Is Hillary pugnacious? Yes. Does she have a temper? Yes. Is she ruthless? Yes! Is she profane? Yes! Peggy Noonan notes in the Wall Street Journal today that

the Clintons were of the Democratic generation that disdained Chicago's first Mayor Richard Daley, whose administration they literally fought in the streets. He was rough, tough, the machine. The Clintons rose and went on to become . . . rough, tough, a machine. In politics as in life you can become what you hate.

The Blair papers remind us that in the past quarter-century the office of the presidency has become everyone's psychotherapy. There is an emphasis on the personality, nature, character and charisma of the president. He gets into dramas. He survives them. He is working out his issues. He is avenging childhood feelings of powerlessness. He is working through his ambivalence at certain power dynamics. He will show dad.

History becomes the therapist. The taxpayer winds up paying the therapist's bill.

This wouldn't be so bad—it would actually be entertaining!—if the presidency were not such a consequential role. People can lose lives when presidents work through their issues. This Endless Drama of the Charismatic President is getting old. And dangerous.

Finally, the Blair papers are interesting, but don't expect much more. Word in Clintonland will have gone out: Ditch the papers. Have a bonfire. Or see that they're sealed until 2066.