HERE'S WHAT YOU COULD HAVE WON (HILLARY)

Is it possible to be neutral about Hillary Clinton?

In the shrill world of US politics, the former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady is either liked or loathed.

You either respect her intellect and considerable experience or you buy into the pantomime villain that some on the right have painted.

There's little scope for lying somewhere in-between.

Sitting on the sofa watching 'Hillary,' Hulu's four part retrospective on her career, you will bring a lot of baggage with you just as you would to a programme about the Kennedys, Ronald Reagan, the Bushes, Obamas and Trump.

So for the sake of honesty and the avoidance of any doubt, let me state where I sit.

I believe Hillary Clinton was the sane choice for the Presidency in 2016.

However, as a result of the passions she stirred, she was the Democratic Party candidate who was probably most susceptible to a shock defeat by Trump. 

And so it turned out.

Had she won, her first term as President would have probably been bumpy, with Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Fox News eager to trip her up at every opportunity.

However it would not have been nearly as dispiriting or destructive as the amateur, narcissistic clown show that the US and the world has had to endure over the past three and a half years. 

Directed by Nanette Burstein, who is best known for her 2002 documentary about the Hollywood producer Robert Evans 'The Kid Stays In The Picture,' 'Hillary' is not surprisingly weighed down by the baggage around her too.

Burstein cannot avoid taking sides.

But does her series manage to go beyond the Democratic and Republican Party trenches?

 Yes but mostly no.

'Hillary' paints a picture of Clinton as a standard bearer for the American feminist movement.

With the smalltalk before each formal interview and tge use of behind the scenes footage of the 2016 campaign, it does a good job of showing Hillary Clinton at her least guarded.

But at times, the programme veers into hagiography.

Over the course of the series, Burnett charts how the Chicago born Methodist moved away from her Republican upbringing and into Democratic student politics, how she sought to advance women and family causes and overcame sexism in her student days, as a lawyer, a First Lady and a politician (well, up to a point).

In pursuit of her goals, Hillary takes a lot of psychological blows and vindictive barbs along the way.

We witness her transformation from the respected legal and political mind involved in President Richard Nixon's impeachment inquiry to the Arkansas First Lady forced to adopt her husband's surname and a Southern brogue in a bid to help him regain the Governor's Mansion.

There's her stout defence of her husband during the 1992 New Hampshire primary after Jennifer Flowers goes public about her affair with Bill Clinton when he was Governor and then the baby boomer optimism that sweeps the Democrats into office.

Hillary comes under sustained personal attack from the Conservative media for taking on healthcare reform as First Lady in the early days of the Presidency - Burstein even unearths footage of some particularly odious comments about the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea by the right wing talk radio personality Rush Limbaugh (a man who Donald Trump chose to garland with the Presidential Medal of Freedom).

After the failure of healthcare reform, the documentary follows her subsequent retreat into a more traditional First Lady role, her memorable visit to Pakistan and India and her stirring speech on human rights to the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

The series shows the eagerness of some on the right to exploit the death of Vince Foster and taint the Clintons over the Whitewater affair, only to shift focus during the Starr inquiry to zero in on her husband's shamefully inappropriate relationship with the White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

We see the groundswell of public support and sympathy for her during the Lewinsky affair and yet their suspicion tgat she knew about it long before it emerged in public.

And then there's her initial success as a US Senator for New York, the nailbiting defeat to Barack Obama in the 2008 race for the Democratic Party's Presidential Election nomination, her dust-ups with Russia as Secretary of State and also with Trey Gowdy and the right over the Benghazi affair.

While all of this unfolds, Burstein counterpoints her life story with footage of her second, draining and ultimately unsuccessful run for the White House in 2016.

The overall impression is of a public figure who is certainly more sinned against than sinning.

And most, if not all, of those sins are perpetrated by men.

Bill's philandering not only derails the second term of his Presidency but is used as ammunition against her in the race for the White House.

Bernie Sanders undermines her 2016 bid by stoking criticism of her ties to Wall Street and insisting on a protracted battle for the Democratic nomination, driving some of his support away from her in the head to head with Trump.

Vladimir Putin and Russia are accused of targeting her second Presidential campaign by hacking Democratic Party computer systems and leaking emails to Wikileaks because they believe she is more of a match for them than Trump.

James Comey torpedoes what seems to be a campaign heading inexorably towards an historic victory by reopening during the latter stages an ultimately fruitless FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's server. 

The mainstream media repeatedly heads down the rabbit holes of innuendo and smear created by those on the right over Whitewater, Benghazi and her server.

And yet, Burstein's documentary does not really dig into Whitewater or her Wall Street connections.

While she gets a compelling, remarkably teary, remorseful and embarrassed confession from Bill Clinton about his fling with Monica Lewinsky, other, more awkward allegations about the treatment of other women are glossed over.

Occasionally, we get to see cracks in Hillary's public armour - she lets fly at Bernie Sanders.

However, the series' weakness is its director's reticence to ask some of the questions that should be explored.

And it suggests a degree of Stockholm syndrome.

Nevertheless Burstein's series is still a compelling watch for all those who revel in all the hoopla of American politics - particularly the final two episodes.

'Hillary' rightly accords Clinton her place as a battering ram for equality for American women in politics.

But will it change people's opinions of her?

Probably not.

After watching it, you cannot help feeling that four tetchy years of a Hillary Clinton presidency would have been much, much easier to digest than four years of dysfunctional, partisan, ugly preening under Trump.

('Hillary' aired on Sky Documentaries on June 11-July 2, 2020)