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Hillary Clinton for President
Is the U.S. ready for a female president?

By: The Deaf and Hearing Network

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Hillary Clinton for President - Video

As first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton and her team had a deep preoccupation with the press, repeatedly searching for ways to soften her image and taking stock of who her friends in the media might be, according to documents released last week from her private papers.

The thousands of pages released by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library on Friday show Mrs. Clinton intensely involved in hefty issues such as her health care overhaul and international womens issues, including briefing high-ranking members of Congress as she tried to win support for what eventually would become known as HillaryCare.

With polls showing Mrs. Clinton the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2016, after a failed bid in 2008, the documents are being scrutinized by the press and her political opponents for glimpses into her governing philosophy.

But peeking through in many of the documents are repeated signs that she and her team were searching for ways to package Mrs. Clinton, aware that she came across to many as too wonkish and not accessible to average voters something that would dog her again in 2008.

In one memo, Mrs. Clintons press team categorizes the reporters who will be accompanying her on an international trip and labels several of them a fan of the first lady. In another memo, Mrs. Clintons advisers warn her how to act as she appeared in New York in mid-1999, when she was laying the groundwork for her eventual Senate run.

Be careful to be real, admonished Mandy Grunwald, Mrs. Clintons longtime media adviser. You did this well in the [Dan] Rather interview where you acknowledged that of course last year was rough. Once you agree with the audiences/reporters reality like that, it gives you a lot of latitude to then say whatever you want.

Ms. Grunwald also urged Mrs. Clinton to look for chances to deploy humor because people often see you only in very stern situations, and advised her to be prepared to answer whether she had ever used drugs and to be prepared to defend her failed push for health care.

In a 1995 memo from Lisa Caputo to Maggie Williams, the Clinton team or Hillaryland, as they referred to themselves in some documents brainstormed a press strategy to appeal to women.

In a memo ahead of an overseas trip, Mrs. Clintons team wrote up descriptions of the reporters who would be accompanying her. It described The Associated Press correspondent as a fan of yours and therefore he will have high expectations for her performance. CNNs correspondent was described as very fair and positive toward you, while the staffers said ABCs reporter had been made a Hillary fan by a previous trip.

Myra Gutin, a professor at Rider University in New Jersey who studies first ladies, said the Clinton White Houses attention to Mrs. Clinton and the press was similar to what some other first ladies have experienced.

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Selling Hillary Clinton: Papers reveal advice, 'fans'

Talking with an ego-sensitive Congress can be frustrating and time-consuming, but theres no way around it.

Thats some of the advice offered by the staff of the Clinton health policy team as it tried to build support in Congress for the health care overhaul.

Passing a health law will be impossible without identifying, getting to know, educating, stroking, and responding to an ideologically diverse and ego sensitive Congress that, individually and collectively, has become more and more independent, one document says on p. 109.

COMPLETE LIVE DIVE: Clinton White House Papers

This is a time consuming, redundant process that can seem to be (and frequently is) frustrating. But it is essential to increase the likelihood of a positive reception to the eventual Clinton health reform proposal.

Before meeting with lawmakers, Mrs. Clinton received advice from the health policy team about how to handle the personalities and interests involved separate memos suggesting how she should approach a skeptical House member or the Senate GOP leadership, for example.

At times, advisers suggest that Mrs. Clinton make a special gesture to show how much she values a lawmakers counsel.

I might suggest that you consider throwing out all of the staff at the end of the meeting to hold a five minute private meeting with him, aide Chris Jennings wrote in April 1993 (p. 81) to Mrs. Clinton before a meeting with Rep. Jim McDermott (D., Wash.), who was pressing for a single-payer health system. This will signal to him the closeness of your relationship with him, and the value you place on his confidential advice. (The subject could be on virtually anything.)

Follow@wsjwashingtonon Twitter.

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Hillary Clinton Gets Advice on Congress

Documents released by the Clinton Presidential Library reveal Hillary Clinton's PR struggles as first lady, her "aversion" to the Washington press corps and her transition into a presidential candidate.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's advisers sought to "humanize" what they saw as her stern, defensive public image during her husband's White House days and as she embarked on her groundbreaking Senate campaign in New York.

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"Be real," wrote adviser Mandy Grunwald in a July 1999 memo as Clinton prepared for a Senate campaign. In the memo, the adviser urged the first lady to "look for opportunities for humor. It's important that people see more sides of you, and they often see you only in very stern situations."

Thousands of pages of documents released Friday by the Clinton Presidential Library reveal the first lady's struggles with the health care plan during the 1990s, "an aversion" to the Washington press corps and her transition into a political candidate in her own right as the Clinton administration ended.

Clinton is the leading Democratic contender to succeed President Barack Obama, though she has not said whether she will run. The nearly 4,000 pages of records, the first of more than 25,000 expected to be released in the next two weeks, underscore her attempts to appeal to average Americans and her aides' advice that she show a more human side, reminiscent of problems that surfaced in her 2008 primary loss against Obama.

Clinton's public image has been a hotly debated topic throughout her career and could linger into any presidential campaign in 2016. She generated headlines during her husband's 1992 campaign when she defended her work as an attorney instead of being someone who "could have stayed home and baked cookies." Her role in the health care reform effort was criticized as Democrats were routed in the 1994 elections. Establishing herself in the Senate, Clinton lost to Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary but has become one of the most admired women in the world, watching her popularity grow as Obama's secretary of state.

The documents provide more details about the concerns in her own camp about how she was perceived by the public.

As the first lady began her bid for the Senate seat, Grunwald coached her to keep her tone conversational and "don't be defensive" when handling "annoying questions" from the media. Grunwald said Clinton was sure to be asked about her husband's Senate impeachment trial earlier that year and encouraged her to acknowledge "that of course last year was rough."

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Hillary Clinton: What 4,000 pages of Clinton library docs say about her (+video)

Newly released documents open a window into the political advice she received as First Lady

Then-First Lady Hillary Clinton announces she will run for Senate in New York, Nov. 23, 1999.

An adviser wanted then First Lady Hillary Clinton to go on the kitschy 90s TV show Home Improvement because it would present her in a very likeable light. With the Internet years away from being the force in politics it is today, staffers toyed with the idea that she could have fun in the new medium and could speak to young women through Internet. They kept a running list of which reporters traveling with her were aggressive, and who could be counted on as a Hillary fan.

And as Clinton prepared to formally launch her campaign to represent New York in the U.S. Senate, Democratic media guru and Clinton confidante Mandy Grunwald gave Clinton some advice that spoke to just how hard she was trying to connect.

Be very careful to be real, Grunwald wrote to Clinton in a memo in 1999, the year after the Monica Lewinsky scandal engulfed the Clinton White House.

These revelations, contained within thousands of pages of documents released by Bill Clintons presidential library on Friday, hardly upend the public perception of Hillary Clinton, already long seen as a careful political operator, from her days as a First Lady and senator through her tenure as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama. But with all eyes on Clinton ahead of a possible 2016 presidential run, they add rare new bits of new detail to a public persona that is among the most defined in America.

Well before her first political campaign as the actual candidate, Clinton and the people around her were grappling with how to make her more appealing in the eyes of the public. In August of 1995, her press secretary Lisa Caputo wrote to chief of staff Maggie Williams, excited about the prospect of getting the First Lady a cameo on Home Improvement.

Home Improvement is the most popular television show on the air, Caputo wrote. They are willing to do a show on women, children and [family] issues or a show on whatever issues Hillary would like. The outreach would be enormous and it would present Hillary in a very likeable light I believe. Although I have some concerns that it diminishes the role of First Lady by going on a tv sitcom!, it is probably worth weighing it against what we believe we might be able to gain by suchan appearance politically and image-wise.

In the same memo, outlining possibilities for media outreach by Clinton, Caputo eyed the burgeoning World Wide Web as a way for the First Lady to connect.

Hillary could speak to young women through Internet, she wrote. I think Hullary would have fun with this and I believe it would not be too difficult to organize. We could invite womens media (i.e. the womens magazines) in to watch her do such an event. It would make for a nice story in a womens magazine.

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Adviser Told Hillary Clinton to 'Be Real'