Clinton, here pictured being sworn in as Secretary of State, is a fan of The Good Wife and House of Cards, says Traister.
Clinton, here pictured being sworn in as Secretary of State, is a fan of The Good Wife and House of Cards, says Traister. United States Department of State via Wikimedia Commons

Over at New York Magazine, Rebecca Traister, author of All the Single Ladies, has written an excellent, thorough profile on Hillary Clinton. Whatever you think of Clinton (and obviously my stance isn't a mystery), it's worth a read, and delivers plenty of insight into her policy positions and her background, as well as details that are just kind of delightful in their specificity—like the fact that her favorite TV shows are all kind of based on her? Here are some highlights. Bolds are mine.

On what Star Wars character Clinton would be:

These days, I think of her as General Leia: No longer a rebel princess, she has made a wry peace with her rakish mate and her controversial hair and is hard at work, mounting a campaign against the fascistic First Order.

On Clinton's reputation for being cagey:

But how do you convince a woman whose entire career taught her to be defensive and secretive that the key to her political success might just be to lay all her cards on the table and trust that she’ll be treated fairly? Especially when she might not be.

On Clinton's TV-watching routine with Bill:

“We get back to the house and stay in the kitchen and talk and maybe eat something bad, maybe drink something bad.” Clinton’s bad drinks include mostly beer and wine, and she considers them bad not for moral but for health reasons. “We watch TV, like the hundreds of shows we record and finally get to.” They like House of Cards, Madam Secretary, The Good Wife (i.e., television shows about them), plus Downton Abbey and NCIS; the football season recently screwed up the couple’s DVR recordings, cutting off the end of Madam Secretary and causing great upset in the Clinton household. “Then [we] go to bed and read for a while before we fall asleep.”

On why people are afraid of female ambition:

She also edged toward something uglier, harder to talk about. “I think it’s the competition,” she said. “Like, if you do this, there won’t be room for some of us, and that’s not fair.” I pushed her: Did she mean men’s fears that ambitious women would take up space that used to belong exclusively to them? “One hundred percent,” she said, nodding forcefully.

On potentially facing Trump in the general election:

For all the hand-wringing about how she will hold up against a bully who has already made it clear he will attack her in the most shameless ways imaginable, Clinton seems extremely pleased about the prospect of running against him. “I’m actually looking forward to it,” she told me. “See, I don’t think it’s as fraught with complexity as some people are suggesting. I think the trap is not to get drawn in on his terms. We saw what happened to those Republicans who tried.”

Clinton says she knows what he’ll say about her—her marriage, her husband. She says she doesn’t care; she can ignore it. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t stand up for everybody else he’s insulting,” she said. “That doesn’t mean you don’t talk about where his policies would take this country, to draw the contrast.”

“If she’s looking forward to Trump, it’s because she’s dealt with some really unsavory characters and behind-the-scenes diplomatic maneuvering,” said Muscatine. “And I think she’s really effing good at it. Benghazi is like the zenith, where the whole point was just to eviscerate her and by the end she’s kind of flicking dust off her collar. I think she knows this about herself; not that she’s at all arrogant about it, just that she knows how to do it. She kind of relishes the gamesmanship.”

Go read all of it!