Loose Diamonds by Amy Ephron

Author:Amy Ephron [Ephron, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Non-Fiction, Biography, Humour, Writing
ISBN: 9780061958748
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: 2011-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Eight

Staying

I always wanted the New Yorker to run a cartoon of Hillary Clinton standing on the steps of the White House with the caption: And another thing, I’m keeping the house!

Having said that, Hillary Clinton may get the White House yet—and President William Jefferson Clinton will, most likely, be standing by her side.

Question: If Hillary Clinton were to be president, would he still be addressed as “President Clinton” and would she be “President Clinton,” too? (I know, he would be called the First Gentleman, but he would also be called “President Clinton” by many.) It’s very confusing (sort of like when someone calls out “Mom” in a mall and six women turn around).

But at the risk of inciting someone’s feminist wrath—I understand why she stayed (or why she let him stay). I think they love each other and that both of their lives are better for having the other one in it. No one can judge a marriage from the outside. Those that look perfect often turn out to have secrets. Those that seem flawed often turn out to work perfectly for the parties involved. But in the case of the Clintons, there was so much history, and family, and a healthy codependency that had made each of their lives a success, and, that little incident aside (and a few others, apparently), mutual respect for one another. Not to make apologies for him, but being president is a little like being a rock star and stuff happens. (Note to everyone I know who’s 25: Think hard before marrying a rock star.) But as things like that go—it wasn’t really a capital offense. Although for someone with his political savvy, he wildly misjudged the conservative backlash in the country.

I could go on about the political irony of that—Governor Mark Sanford comes to mind and, to her credit, Jenny Sanford did not stay. But it was also a slap in the face to the first President Clinton’s supporters, that he could have been so careless with their trust. (It also would have been nice if it hadn’t spiraled into an impeachment hearing and shut down Capitol Hill for as long as it did, but judging by what’s been going on around there, it seems like anything, even a benign health-care bill, can shut down Capitol Hill for months.)

A number of years ago, I was at a dinner party at a restaurant in New York. Our hostess asked if I would walk down the street with her for a minute to the convenience store on the corner. She had a young child at home and needed to buy diapers. There were rumors flying rampant at the time about her husband, sort of up there with the kind of rumors that got Eliot Spitzer in trouble.

As soon as we hit the sidewalk, she asked, her voice soft and deep, “Did you stay longer than you wanted to?”

I’d recently separated from my first husband, and her meaning was clear. “Maybe,” I said. “A little bit.”

“Why?”

“Who knows.

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