Hillary Clinton, the 'Snapchat' Candidate

If Barack Obama was the candidate of Facebook, and has governed as the President of Selfie, then Hillary Clinton is the “Snapchat” candidate–i.e. one who is eager to erase the past from collective memory.

Tony Lee reminded me today that I made that comparison in conversation with Gov. Sarah Palin about my forthcoming new book, Wacko Birds. And the analogy has gained new relevance with revelations about Clinton’s youthful correspondence and meetings with Saul Alinksy, whom Obama only studied secondhand.

“Hillary Clinton Wants to be the Snapchat candidate because she wants to make her past disappear,” Pollak told Palin. 

Palin observed that the Clintons have the “luxury of reinventing themselves as much as they want” because they have a compliant media that is more than willing and able to help them. That is a luxury, as Palin discovered, conservatives–and outsiders of all stripes in general–do not have.

After observing that today’s kids probably think Facebook and Instagram are passé, Palin, whose personal emails were once infamously hacked (the hacker eventually received a one-year jail sentence.), asked Pollak, “And do [Snapchat users] think it really disappears forever.” Palin’s right–the “snaps” don’t really completely disappear.