Support the show at http://patreon.com/miniondeathcult for $3.11/month and get a private feed of weekly bonus episodes, access to all previous bonus episodes, and audio versions of our youtube livestreams. This week I read the alternative history "Rodham" -- a faux autobiography from the perspective of a Hillary Rodham who never married Bill Clinton A fawning depiction of the former first lady, Rodham contains depictions of graphic sex between Hillary and Bill, and, more confusingly, a stark evaluation of Bill's allegations of sexual assault, which is what leads our heroine to cut ties with the sexy, saxophone-wielding serial philanderer in this alternative timeline. A first date crossing a picket line? Check. A look at Bill Clinton's disastrous presidential run without Hillary by his side? Check. An alternative timeline where Hillary beats Carol Moseley Braun, who would become the first female African American senator, in a primary? Check. Subscribe at http://youtube.com/miniondeathcult for updates when we go live
Bill Clinton has been the governor of Arkansas for several terms and now he is running for president in the years 1992.
Okay, so some people might notice some similarities between this timeline and ours.
However, he's been married to a different woman.
They have children.
She is not the political firebrand or the new woman that Hillary was at this time, right?
So they are literally her and I think it's her and her uh the the guy she has a crush on in her office where she's a professor in Chicago are watching the 60 minutes interview with Bill Clinton and his wife where they address
What are basically the Jennifer, uh, what's her name, Jennifer Flowers accusations that Bill Clinton and Hillary actually did address on 60 Minutes while he was running for president in 1992.
Sarah Grace, who is the name of like Bill's wife in this timeline, and Bill sat on a pale loveseat in a hotel suite in New Hampshire and the interviewer faced them from an armchair.
Over the interviewer's shoulder a fire crackled in a fireplace.
Sarah Grace wore the same style of dress she'd worn for Bill's announcement, this one light pink and puffy sleeved with a Peter Pan collar.
She looked extraordinarily nervous.
As the interviewer began asking Bill questions about the cabaret singer, who's Jennifer Flowers, if I'm not getting that name incorrect, the cabaret singer.
How do you know her?
How would you describe your relationship?
Sarah Grace was unblinking and unsmiling.
Her outfit is way too Little House on the Prairie, Greg said.
She should be wearing a suit.
Okay, so Greg, it's not the guy she has a crush on.
It's, like, her friend who's a DNC operative.
Okay?
He says her outfit is way too Little House on the Prairie.
She should be wearing a suit.
Uh, I don't know.
Yeah, like maybe a mint green pantsuit, for example.
That would be much better.
I think a better woman would wear a mint green pantsuit while she sat next to Bill Clinton denying a 10 year long affair with a server.
And they're sitting so far apart, I said.
There were probably three inches of space between them.
They need to present a united front.
Greg says he needs to let her speak for herself, she said.
She should be saying all this, not him.
Just then, the interviewer asked Sarah Grace if what Bill said was true, about, like, not being, you know, not cheating.
Sarah Grace nodded.
She said, I felt sorry for the woman.
I winced.
Unfortunate choice of words.
In a soft voice, her eyes downcast, she added, I think Bill's been a wonderful governor for the state of Arkansas.
Jesus Christ, I said.
Did they not give her media training?
She was so, there was no other word for it, weak.
Bill needed an equal who'd act like even if he'd had affairs, so what?
Because they were both sophisticated and tough.
And the only person he was answerable to was her.
And if she dealt with it, it was no one else's business.
Hell, maybe she'd had affairs too.
The American public would not, of course, like such a woman.
But that didn't matter.
He was the one running for office.
And the reality was that a wife like that would probably win him sympathy votes.
Yeah.
This is amazing to me.
Okay?
The interview ends terribly, right?
The interview ends with Sarah Grace, Bill Clinton's fake wife and this real wife in this timeline, crying on 60 Minutes.
"'I love Bill very much,' Sarah Grace said in a quavering voice, and then she began to cry.
"'Oh my God,' I said, and Greg said, "'What a train wreck.'" Okay.
So, spoiler alert, Bill Clinton drops out of the Democratic primary because his wife was too weak.
The wife in this timeline who was not Hillary Clinton was too weak to support Bill Clinton's candidacy.
And it's not presented as...
It's not presented as, like, she didn't have the fortitude to persevere even when, like, she was emotionally...
What's, like, confused or had emotional, like, ambivalence towards her husband's cheating?
Like, the argument here is that...
She should be a hip bohemian metropolitan woman who has like accepted her husband's affairs and is willing to support him and say fuck the American people if you don't support my husband's infidelity.
But she's too weak to do that.
So you're like kind of have the author is kind of having it both ways here by saying that Hillary like was her own strong woman by leaving Bill but Sarah Grace is too weak to do what Hillary will have done if she would have stayed with him.
It's very weird.
This is a very weird book.
Call a priest, Greg said.
Someone needs to read the last rites to Bill Clinton's candidacy.
