Patton: Hillary Creates A GOP Book Club

Hillary Clinton tired of Republican presidential candidates saying she did nothing as Secretary of State, so she sent each of the 15 candidates a copy of her 2014 book, “Hard Choices.” “’There are so many of them, they could start a book club’, she joked.” (Zeke Miller, Time Magazine, 10/6/15)

Said Hillary, “You know, I hear the Republicans talking from time to time in their debates and elsewhere and they say things like, ‘Oh. I don’t know what she accomplished as Secretary of State. She didn’t accomplish anything. . . And then I thought maybe they just don’t know, so I have now sent each of them a copy of my book.” (Miller, 10/6/2015).

Actually, asking the average person what an elected or government official has done while in office is a great “gotcha” question. Exceedingly few voters can tell you the identity of their senators, representatives or officials, let alone what any one of them has achieved (no matter how productive they may have been). So, simply asking “What has X done while in office?” almost inevitably produces a blank stare and silence as a response.

Hillary tried to fill in the blanks. “If they want to know how to put together a coalition that imposes international sanctions on a country like Iran, they can read about it, because that’s what I did. Or maybe they’re interested in how you negotiate a ceasefire on behalf of Israel when Hamas rockets are raining down on Israel and you have to do it with the Muslim Brotherhood president in Egypt who supports Hamas. Or maybe they want to know how you get a blind dissident out of China when the Chinese government is mad because you let them go into the embassy in the first place.” (Miller, 10/6/2015).

The Republican candidates were not about to give Hillary’s comments a pass, so some responded with a little humor of their own. Rand Paul put his personally autographed copy of Hillary’s book on Ebay and received $7100 for his efforts. Sergei Gov, representing Paul, said that the senator is a “big fan of fiction.”

Rob Nichols, who spoke for John Kasich, commented, “We get a lot of junk mail. We also got this so I’m not sure who is in charge of quality control at their end.” (ABC News, 10/8/2015)

Doug Watts, a spokesman for Ben Carson, said, “We were wondering where all (her) unsold books were. But after skimming the book we now understand why it didn’t sell. It should have been in the fiction section.” (ABC News, 10/8/2015).

We are left to ponder. Will Hillary Clinton be able to write a successful new chapter to her political life or will her opponents consign Hillary and her book to the “remainders table” of unsuccessful presidential candidates? Stay tuned for the next edition of “The Continuing Political Saga of Hillary Clinton.”

In another vein, we might ask if bumptious “outtastatah” Charlie Beezer, a candidate for the New Hampshire State Senate, will break up the romance between Ann Katz and her boyfriend, Joe Tanner? Tanner wants to be appointed State Attorney General, but he will get the appointment only if he helps Beezer get elected and sees to it that the ever unpredictable Beezer casts the deciding vote defeating a bill to install wind turbines on majestic Mt. Washington. Ann Katz can’t stand the obnoxious Beezer and threatens to leave Tanner if he doesn’t end this unseemly political deal and dump Beezer.

“Selling Mt. Washington,” a satirical novel by Gary Patton, explores in comic fashion the murky wheeling and dealing of New Hampshire politics. “Selling Mt. Washington” is now available in Portsmouth at the River Run Bookstore , Discover Portsmouth, and Tugboat Alley. In Exeter, this book can be obtained at The Water Street Bookstore and the Country Store at RiverWoods. In Hampton, look for it at the Galley Hatch gift shop. In North Hampton, it is available at “The Book Outlet.” In Concord, “Selling Mt. Washington” can be found at Gibson’s Bookstore. It is also available on-line at Amazon.com. Patton is also the author of “Outtastatahs: Newcomers’ Adventures in New Hampshire.”