Jane Pauley, who campaigned for Barack Obama [1] in 2008 as she declared “I want to see the cool, steady hand of Barack Obama on that Bible on Inauguration Day,” on CBS’s Sunday Morning pleaded for Hillary Clinton to try to succeed him: “If not you, who? Who is the viable woman of either party who could win a primary nomination in 2016 if not you?”
In the promotional segment for Clinton’s new book, Pauley complained “it takes two pages to cover the list of countries that have already had a woman leader,” citing “Bangladesh, Indonesia, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, of course.” She fretted: “Are we waiting for alphabetical order?”
Audio: MP3 clip [2]
Pauley then jumped back to a Wellesley College reunion the weekend before where “some of Clinton’s Wellesley friends have been waiting since graduation.” She prodded them to agree she should run.
Back at her sit-down with the former Secretary of State, Pauley recalled Clinton’s 1969 address to her fellow Wellesley College students as she pushed her to run:
“Here is why I think you’re going to run. You quote a poem in that speech. T.S. Elliott. ‘There’s only’ – this is 1969 – ‘there’s only the trying again and again and again to win again what we’ve lost before.’ That 21-year-old girl you were will not take no for an answer, my prediction.”
Clinton agreed “there’s a lot of food for thought in that.”
From the June 15 CBS Sunday Morning:
JANE PAULEY: I didn’t deliberately print this list in big font so it would cover two pages. I did it so I would be able to see it, even with my reading glasses.
HILLARY CLINTON: I understand completely.
PAULEY: I was stunned. It takes two pages to cover the list of countries that have already had a woman leader.
CLINTON: And some more than once.
PAULEY: It includes Bangladesh, Indonesia, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, of course. Are we waiting for alphabetical order?
Back at the reunion, some of Clinton’s Wellesley friends have been waiting since graduation.
....
PAULEY: If not you, who? Who is the viable woman of either party who could win a primary nomination in 2016 if not you?
CLINTON: Well, I think there are a number of qualified women who are holding office.
PAULEY: I’m not saying qualified.
CLINTON: But politics is so unpredictable, whoever runs has to recognize that the American political system is probably the most difficult, even brutal, in the world.
PAULEY: Here is why I think you’re going to run. You quote a poem in that speech. T.S. Elliott. “There’s only” – this is 1969 – “there’s only the trying again and again and again to win again what we’ve lost before.” That 21-year-old girl you were will not take no for an answer, my prediction.
CLINTON: Well, we’ll see, Jane. We’ll see. There’s a lot of food for thought in that.
— Brent Baker is the Steven P.J. Wood Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Follow Brent Baker on Twitter. [3]