Senator Clinton to drop use of maiden name in her campaign

Via the Brisbane Times:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has dropped the use of her maiden name “Rodham” in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton identifies herself as “Hillary Clinton” in her campaign press releases and on her campaign website. The lone mention of her maiden name is in a campaign biography that says “Hillary’s father, Hugh Rodham, was the son of a factory worker from Scranton.”

She continues to use “Hillary Rodham Clinton” in her New York-focused press releases and in the Senate.

Clinton appeared surprised last week when asked why her presidential campaign had dropped her maiden name. Clinton laughed, shook her head and replied: “I haven’t, I haven’t,” before dashing off.

Howard Wolfson, a top communications adviser to Clinton, downplayed any significance to the change. Asked if it was a strategic decision to drop “Rodham,” Wolfson replied: “That’s a fair question, but there’s no plan behind it.”

[…]

She continued to identify herself as “Hillary Rodham” in her private legal career at the prestigious Rose law firm in Little Rock as Bill Clinton won statewide election as attorney general in 1976 and as governor in 1978.

I was about to suggest that it might be more beneficial for her to drop the name “Clinton” instead, but the use of Hillary Rodham would carry just as much political baggage, seeing as how it’s affiliated with her time at the Rose Law Firm, as well as those very profitable 1978 futures trades which came under question while she was First Lady.

Or perhaps it would just be more beneficial to her if she just dropped out of the race – period. :D

Update I: Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein is putting the finishing touches on a bio of Hillary Clinton that will be released on June 19:

Drawing on a trove of private papers from Hillary Clinton’s best friend, the legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is to publish a hard-hitting and intimate portrait of the 2008 presidential candidate, which will reveal a number of “discrepancies” in her official story.

Bernstein, who was played by Dustin Hoffman in the film All the President’s Men, has spent eight years researching the unauthorised 640-page biography, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“Bernstein reaches conclusions that stand in opposition to what Senator Clinton has said in the past and has written in the past” said Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Knopf, which publishes the book on June 19.

With the thoroughness for which he is famous, Bernstein spoke to more than 200 of Clinton’s friends, colleagues and adversaries. He stops short of accusing the New York senator of blatantly lying about her past, but has unearthed examples of where she has played fast and loose with the facts about her “personal and political life”, according to Knopf.

The book could revive the explosive charge, made earlier this year by David Geffen, a former Clinton donor and Hollywood mogul, that “the Clintons lie with such ease, it’s troubling”.

Stay tuned …

PM Update: Bloomberg reports that the National Geographic Channel will air a documentary tomorrow night at 10 Eastern Time, titled “The Final Report: Clinton Impeachment.” In case you miss it, it will air again on Wednesday at 1 am ET and Saturday at 6 pm ET.

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