Is anyone else surprised by Hillary Clinton's changing public persona?
I remember sitting with my parents in the fall of 2000, watching David Letterman make jokes about Hillary "Carpetbagger" Clinton.
In the election, she then defeated Rick Lazio by a wider than expected margin.
Some people booed - some people have always disliked her.
What changed is that hating her was a partisan issue in the 1990s. When she ran for Senator in a diligent, low-key way, she earned a lot of respect, and when she trounced Lazio, she was seen as having earned it. Then she went to the Senate and, again, went in as a low-key freshman determined to do her homework.
As the Clinton era faded, people could judge him in light of the Bush presidency, which made her look better, plus she didn't seem like a politician, as people said.
The issue of Bill's infidelity and her staying with him went out of the news, too.
