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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)

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she won't decide on a 2016 presidential bid until next year. Win McNamee, Getty Images

This post originally appeared on Slate.

As Hillary Clinton thinks about running for office again, the process of being careful to be real has to be among the least attractive aspects of the task before her. It is an impossible target to hit because, as Al Gore and John Kerry and Mitt Romney know, when a candidate tries to "be real" it can often have the opposite effect. That's because being "real" isn't something that you're supposed to need a memo to remind you to do. The most wonderful version of this is the Nixon administration effort to humanize their boss. He met small groups of reporters for cocktails and tried to peddle amusing stories to make them think he was not such a cold fish. He didn't succeed, because he was a cold fish.

When a candidate tries to be real it can enliven the great underlying fear that "authenticity" is supposed to expel: the fear that politicians are phony at heart. Still, candidates drink boilermakers and go bowling in staged events meant to convey that they are real because if their real self is wonky, excessively earnest, a little dull or introspective they're not going to inflame people.

Hillary Clinton has faced a particularly shifting form of this test. It has dogged her for her entire public life as voters tried to figure what to make of the first modern woman as a first lady, an office steeped in the past. In the recently uncovered diaries from her friend Diane Blair, Clinton is in a constant tug-of-war between trying to be herself and trying to fit the shifting image required of her. "I'm used to winning and I intend to win, on my own terms," Ms. Clinton is quoted as saying. She "professes indifference to what people think, she is acutely aware of public opinion polling of her," writes Blair. "On her death bed, [Clinton] wants to be able to say she was true to herself and is not going to do phony makeovers to please others."

A 1992 political memo contained in the Blair documents outlines several gambits intended to convey the real, warmer Clinton to help her husband's campaign and overcome people's negative image of her. In this recent batch of documents, a staffer in the first lady's office suggests a scheme where her advisers have informal meetings with reporters to drop warm anecdotes about Clinton to improve her image as a real person. Remember her 2008 campaign: It started with a video in which Clinton sat on her living room sofa looking approachable. She and Bill also filmed a Sopranos knock-off video. It was all an effort to portray her as "just like us." Polls showed that "likability" was a bigger political weakness than whether she was qualified for the office.

If she runs, Clinton will be more qualified than she was in 2008 and even more people will have an opinion of her. Will she still have to be "real"? Given where she is in her career maybe she'll be able to say no to the whole goopy kabuki. But the political benefit of being "real" is tantalizing. When Secretary Clinton broke down and cried during the New Hampshire primary, it was seen as a great political moment because it supposedly offered an authentic window into who she really is. And the advice in 1999 paid off. Clinton won that Senate race.

"Be careful to 'be real.' " That was Hillary Clinton adviser Mandy Grunwald's advice in 1999 as the first lady took her first steps toward running for the Senate seat from New York. The document was one contained in the 4,000 to 5,000 pages just released from former President Bill Clinton's administration. The line referred to Clinton admitting, in an interview, that the Monica Lewinsky scandal and impeachment had been hard. This admission helped create a bond between Clinton and the audience, Grunwald said.

Asking a candidate to "be real" in a campaign is like asking someone to put on a happy face during dental surgery. It's just not the venue for that kind of thing. Campaigns are phony by design. Candidates inhabit multiple personalities every day as they switch from one audience to the next audience. They bury complexity in favor of soothing bromides and though they are human, they are never allowed to admit mistakes or say the wrong thing. Still there is a demand that candidates "be real," because voters can make their decisions based on their heart, not their head. Or if it's not what governs their final decision, your authenticity is what may at least get you a hearing. Grunwald puts "be real" in quotes because she and Clinton know she is not talking about actual reality. She's talking about what the political press and voters think is "real" in the context of the intense scrutiny Clinton faces.

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Does Hillary Clinton need to 'be real'?

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.

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

"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

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'

WASHINGTON Bill Clinton's aides revealed concern early in his presidency about the health care overhaul effort led by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and later about what they saw as a need to soften her image, according to documents released Friday. Hillary Clinton now is a potential 2016 presidential contender.

The National Archives released about 4,000 pages of previously confidential documents involving the former president's administration, providing a glimpse into the ultimately unsuccessful struggles of his health care task force, led by the first lady, and other Clinton priorities such as the U.S. economy and a major trade agreement.

Hillary Clinton's potential White House campaign has increased interest in Clinton Presidential Library documents from her husband's administration during the 1990s and her own decades in public service.

A former secretary of state and New York senator, Hillary Clinton is the leading Democratic contender to succeed President Barack Obama, though she has not said whether she will run.

The documents released Friday included memos related to the former president's ill-fated health care reform proposal in 1993 and 1994, a plan that failed to win support in Congress and turned into a rallying cry for Republicans in the 1994 midterm elections.

Hillary Clinton was chairwoman of her husband's health care task force, largely meeting in secret to develop a plan to provide universal health insurance coverage.

White House aides expressed initial optimism about her ability to help craft and enact a major overhaul of U.S. health care.

"The first lady's months of meetings with the Congress has produced a significant amount of trust and confidence by the members in her ability to help produce a viable health reform legislative product with the president," said an undated and unsigned document, which was cataloged with others from April 1993. The document urged quick action, warning that enthusiasm for health reform "will fade over time."

But the documents also showed the growing concerns among Clinton's fellow Democrats in Congress. Lawmakers, it said, "going to their home districts for the August break are petrified about having difficult health care reform issues/questions thrown at them."

Administration officials also wanted to distance Hillary Clinton from a staff meeting on the touchy subject of making health care cost projections appear reasonable. Top aides wrote an April 1993 memo saying pessimistic cost-savings projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office were "petrifying an already scared Congress."

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Documents show Hillary Clinton's role in husband's presidency