I get alerts from ABC News via email, and one hit my inbox this afternoon with this subject line: “Clinton Hears Voices from Beyond: ‘Keep Going’.”
Naturally, given that ABC News’ headline suggested that a leading presidential candidate was hearing voices in her head, I was curious what on Earth the report (which had the same headline as my email subject line) actually said. Wouldn’t you know it, Hillary Clinton is not delusional.
ABC News’ Eloise Harper and Kate Snow Report: In McAllen, Texas this morning Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said she wasn’t giving up on her race for the White House.
Speaking about her work in South Texas as an organizer for George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, Clinton said two strong Texas women inspired her — Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and Texas Governor Ann Richards.
Clinton said they taught her about courage and determination. Then she suggested that she is hearing from them even as her campaign struggles to compete after a string of losses.
“I can hear their voices saying, ‘You keep going! You give the people a real choice about the future!'” she said at a campaign event.
Note to ABC: Clinton did not mean she can literally hear the voices of dead people. She is not schizophrenic. “Clinton Hears Voices from Beyond” is not a particularly helpful headline.
Or, as Kevin put it, “Look. I know that campaign coverage can get mighty dull and the search for something resembling actual news can get pretty desperate. But seriously, folks, this is what we professional writers call a ‘figure of speech.’ Hillary is not suggesting that she hears ‘voices from beyond.’ OK?”
If I had to guess, I’d say it’s at least possible that ABC News is trying to piggyback on this two-day story from 12 years ago.
The woman described by Bob Woodward as a spiritual adviser to first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton disputed several of Woodward’s published assertions Sunday night .
Jean Houston, interviewed at the Newark Airport by CNN, said that Mrs. Clinton did indeed have imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt at Houston’s suggestion.
“(But) that was maybe four minutes out of hours and hours of conversation,” she said.
In his new book “The Choice,” Woodward wrote that Houston, co-director of the Foundation of Mind Research, urged Mrs. Clinton to write “It Takes a Village,” and assisted extensively in rewrites. Houston said that she did help edit the book, but that Mrs. Clinton “wrote that book entirely.”
Houston said she made the suggestion to hold the imaginary conversations with Mrs. Roosevelt and others “to focus her busy mind on issues that surrounded the book.”
“That was it,” Houston said. “No spooks. No seances. Nothing. She’s the least psychic person I’ve known, and I’m a close second. … I don’t have a psychic bone in my body.”
Mrs. Clinton wrote about her imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt in her June 10 syndicated column. She said she talked to Roosevelt about the role of a first lady. “She usually responds by telling me to buck up, or at least to grow skin as thick as a rhinoceros,” Mrs. Clinton wrote.
Reporters grew to realize this was a silly little flap 12 years ago, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned, especially when it comes to the Clintons, the media has a way of coming up with new little flaps all the time.