The Once and Future Hillary

(2 of 3)

In their postmortems on the elections, many pollsters and analysts tagged the First Lady's health-care plan as a major factor in turning voters against the President and his party. Stanley Greenberg, the White House pollster, found that health care, more than anything else, drove independent voters away. Just last Thursday a federal judge ruled that the health-care-reform task force, a sprawling, arcane and often secretive group led by the First Lady, was guilty of "misconduct" for withholding documents from the public. Last week Hillary conceded that "the perception" of the Clinton health plan "was one of Big Government."

But Hillary Clinton and the White House are drawing another lesson from the health-care debacle: it is not wise to link the First Lady's prestige so directly to controversial policy issues. It shouldn't happen again. As a senior White House official explains it, the First Lady "will stay engaged and remain an influence, but ((her role)) will be more informal. She won't be a point person on a given policy." The difference in her role, stresses the official, is one of "approach" and not intensity. "She's not going to start talking through a veil," says Planned Parenthood's Ann Lewis, a friend of Mrs. Clinton's.

Far from being an imposition, the change suits the First Lady. It will free her from being tied to one project, a fact that has led to "a lot of thought and discussion," says one of her aides, about how the new role will take shape. She is certain to spend more time on children's issues. One likely task: promotion of a children's health bill. Unlike broader health reform, advocating a children's bill "is a no-loser," says a White House official. "It would be pretty hard to attack her for that." Similarly, Mrs. Clinton has said privately that she wants to get involved in juvenile-crime issues.

She will now be the cheerleader -- not leader -- of the main health-care initiative. In October, Leon Panetta, the White House chief of staff, ordered that control of the reforms be turned over to Robert Rubin and Carol Rasco, the President's top in-house economic and domestic-policy advisers. White House officials, however, insist that the downgrading and reshuffling of the agenda does not reflect badly on Mrs. Clinton. As a senior official explained last week, Panetta's decision "was less about Hillary than Ira," as in Ira Magaziner, the aide who masterminded the Clinton plan and whose manner alienated potential allies on Capitol Hill. Today the First Lady acknowledges that any reform that might emerge from the new Congress must take an "incremental approach" -- the kind of change proposed by Republicans as a counter to the Clinton overhaul.

"She's far too pragmatic to be in denial" about the message voters sent Democrats, a supportive White House aide says of the First Lady. "She can be self-righteous, yes, but she is not a person to deny reality." Even Panetta, says a senior official, believes Mrs. Clinton "gets it. She knows what the basic problems were." The chief of staff makes a point of inviting her to strategy sessions because, as this official puts it, her presence "does help."