Bill Clinton Ever Sickens: Guest Column By Zachary R. Wood

WASHINGTON, DC - Two weeks ago, I decided to commence research for a large writing project on ex-president Bill Clinton. My first task: Review some thirty or so articles in popular press about Bill Clinton’s flaws and mistakes. After that, I talked to three political scientists at my alma mater, Williams College, about his administrative hallmarks and leadership failures. Then I interviewed Juanita Broaddrick over the phone for roughly twenty minutes. Her testimony was detailed, thoughtful, and sounded credible. The information she gave me about Mr. Clinton was violent, severe, vivid, even startling.

In Ms. Broaddrick’s words, Clinton inveighed after raping her: “Don’t worry I’m sterile. I had mumps when I was a boy. You better get some ice on that (her bleeding upper lip).” Bill, she explained to me, is a man callous with no conscience.

I paused before responding.

Since my conversation with Ms. Broaddrick, I have read another dozen articles about Bill Clinton’s shame and infidelity in The Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, and Boston Globe. Tomorrow I should revisit books by David Maraniss and John D. Gartner that explore Bill Clinton’s difficult upbringing in Hope, Arkansas. I might also peruse some books that parse his muck and sexual repulse for Hillary Clinton. For example, The Case Against Hillary Clinton by Peggy Noonan.

My writing on Mr. Clinton may take as its starting place an interesting story I heard from a former colleague at a dinner party about how Bill Clinton found himself emailing Hillary’s campaign staff with concerns — because Mrs. Clinton did not want to hear from Bill herself. As my friend explained, he emailed Robby Mook about Hillary’s deficits and received no response.

This article for ABC leads me to believe that Bill Clinton was heavily blamed for defeating his wife in 2008, so Hillary tended to ignore pudge of his ego.

Bill’s ego is gaseous and gooey. Imagine a rich spinach dip with jalapeño, cheese, cream, onion, tomato, and green chilies. A blob of fatty acid screaming excess and high cholesterol. Mr. Clinton, as one political scientist told me, was a soft populist with talent who never matured as mama’s boy.

I look forward to more.

Zachary R. Wood is an assistant curator at TED, as well as a former columnist and assistant opinion editor at The Guardian, a former Robert L. Bartley Fellow at The Wall Street Journal, and a class of 2018 graduate of Williams College. He is the author of Uncensored (Random House, 2019).