Hillary's nonprofit experience: Overhyped

A friend in law school point out that Chelsea Clinton appears to have fooled the Wall Street Journal into misrepresenting her mother's career:

Ms. [Chelsea] Clinton said that, as president, her mother will "get the government back into the student-loan business" and do away with the federal financial-aid forms that families must fill out, drawing nods of approval from the audience.

Without a 2% government loan to go to Yale Law School, Hillary Clinton may have had to take a job at a high-paying law firm to pay back her debt rather than going into public service, Ms. Clinton said. "I might not be here today," she said.

Clinton did go into public service immediately after law school. But as McClatchy notes in a story on her claims to "35 years of change," she actually left her nonprofit job after less than a year and subsequently spent 15 years in a corporate firm:

Clinton worked at the Children's Defense Fund for less than a year, and that's the only full-time job in the nonprofit sector she's ever had. She also worked briefly as a law professor.

Clinton spent the bulk of her career — 15 of those 35 years — at one of Arkansas' most prestigious corporate law firms, where she represented big companies and served on corporate boards.

It's no wonder the Journal is confused, of course. The Clinton campaign has repeatedly suggested that she worked in nonprofits for most of her career:

She routinely tells voters that she's "been working to bring positive change to people's lives for 35 years." She told a voter in New Hampshire: "I've spent so much of my life in the nonprofit sector." Speaking in South Carolina, Bill Clinton said his wife "could have taken a job with a firm ... Instead she went to work with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children's Defense Fund."

...Her campaign Web site biography devotes six paragraphs to her pro bono legal work for the poor but sums up the bulk of her experience in one sentence: "She also continued her legal career as a partner in a law firm."

To be fair, McClatchy does point out that Hillary did extensive public service work while serving as a corporate lawyer. But that's not what she and her family are implying.

Comments

[Rob]

McClatchey doesn't mention it, but Hillary also spent several months in 1974 as a member of the House Judiciary Committee Impeachment Inquiry staff, which should probably count as public service. That said, it's obvious that Hillary is padding the public service portion of her resume.

[Samuel Brainsample]

Thanks for this, Brendan. It really is amazing how you can just repeat a phrase like "35 years of bringing about change" and have it stick.

[ikl]

That this is a campaign theme for HRC is worrisome. Somehow, I don't think that this is a good narrative for running against John McCain.