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Among her circle, a former top White House official says, the rehabilitation of Hillary became Topic A. They held meetings on the subject. "Unlike the President, Hillary is very disciplined," the former official says. "She kept the meetings on point, which was how to reposition her." But while Hillary Clinton may seek advice, says former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, "she feels her way by herself. Undoubtedly she did withdraw."
What made Hillary pull back was that by late 1994 her record was a ledger of error and miscalculation. Beyond the health-care disaster, she became the first First Lady to be subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, this one looking into the mysterious reappearance of her Rose Law Firm billing records, of interest in the Whitewater investigation. Earlier in the term, there had been an uproar over her involvement in the firings at the White House travel office, and later over her possible hand in the gathering of FBI files on Republicans who had worked in the White House. By Election Day 1996, every word and deed of this entirely novel First Lady was shadowed by an entirely novel question: Would she be indicted? Hillary had stood by her husband through Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones, through questions about the draft and whether he inhaled, but to see her own moral standards attacked was something new. "That stung her really hard, put her in shock," says a long-standing ally. "Hillary Rodham Clinton never recovered from that, in a profound way."
Reich, an old friend, sees it differently. "She bounces back easily. She really does," he says. "Except in the one domain of trust." Nowhere does that show more than in her tortured relationship with the media. In the rare instances when she allows reporters on her plane or dines with them on the road, Hillary is charming and revealing. She is a wicked mimic, her repertoire ranging from witty stories of wandering the White House (she and Bill still haven't seen every room) to the migration patterns of screwworms. But the First Lady enforces an almost inviolable rule that these very human encounters are to be off the record. For this article, it was easier to get an interview with her husband than with her. When she finally agreed to talk, near midnight after a punishing day of travel and official events, Hillary turned testy on even softball questions if they approached anything personal. She engaged only when the topic turned to policy, and insisted on approving even the most boilerplate quotes before they could be published.
Hillary's sense of fragility comes not only from her public beatings but also from the deep personal losses she has suffered since entering the White House. Her father died, then the President's mother. Deputy White House counsel Vince Foster, her close friend and law partner from Arkansas, committed suicide, under circumstances that continue to nourish the dark theology of the Clinton haters. Others from the Little Rock circle left in disgrace. "I could see in her eyes a real hurt and a loss of bearings," says Cisneros.