I have a unique memory of Hillary Clinton. Some context: I attended one of Bill Clinton's first campaign rallies after he declared his campaign for the Presidency. He was still seen as a long shot, a nobody even, and wasn't being taken seriously by the Democratic establishment; but there was clearly a lot of buzz about him among younger people. At least that is how I remember it.
Anyway, this was a rally in a college town in the south. Lots of young people. Like those going for Bernie now. And Hillary spoke first and for a while. Bill was late. I think his plane was late. In later years after learning about his philandering ways, I chuckled at the thought that he was late because he was hitting some strange somewhere.
Hillary spoke for what seemed like 45 minutes. She was electric. Everything she said was pitch perfect and authentic. I was a PhD student and not easily swayed by appeals to emotion, etc. but the woman owned the room. If she had asked if she could get a witness, I would have jumped up and shouted A-men!. Bill came later and he couldn't hold a candle to her. The opening act had blown away the feature act. And I have never seen Hillary Clinton since.
She is guarded, inauthentic, calculating, etc. I used to blame it on the right wing for attacking her so relentlessly that she was always on her guard, and to some extent I think that was correct. Other times I blamed it on hazy memory and that I was just remembering a first impression fogged by time. Also, I think it's partly sexism. On the campaign trail, her aggressive campaigning on her husband's behalf was endearing to people like me and permissible during the democratic primary but not acceptable during the general election where Clinton has to try to appeal to indepedents who might be more traditional in their conception of male/female and husband/wife roles, etc.
More recently I realized she was parroting Bill Clinton's message, passion and politics during the rally. He was the liberal democrat dyed in the wool. She was the synthetic democrat with a will to power and acting on her husbands behalf. Not for personal conviction but in a shared bid seeking power and success.
It marvels me how enamored I was with her then, and how much I consider her to be amoral and, secular if you will, now. I will not vote for her. I loathe her for the same reasons I loathe Obama. Because neither are true liberals. They aren't true believers, just seekers of power and grandiosity.
Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton had the young progressives sewed up back then. Bill's campaign was always a step ahead of Bush's old white guy campaign team. They were literally responding to every issue in the 24 hour news cycle. Now Clinton's campaign is tone deaf and can't attract young progressives. And a 74 year old socialist is running circles around her campaign. I have to chuckle at it all, then and now.