Humanising Hillary a work in progress

Hillary Clinton’s adviser was blunt as the new candidate prepared to launch her election campaign. ‘‘Don’t be defensive,’’ the aide wrote in a memo. Avoid being ‘‘uncomfortable or testy’’ and – above all – ‘‘be real’’.

It could have been advice dispensed yesterday as the former American secretary of state decides whether, as most Democrats expect, to run for president in 2016. In fact, the advice was dispensed in July 1999 as she was about to run to be senator for New York.

The memo, from her adviser Mandy Grunwald, was among 4000 pages of Clinton documents released by the US National Archives on Saturday. Another 21,000 pages are due to be made public this month.

They show efforts to remake Clinton’s image go back at least 20 years and that to a large extent the flaws and potential pitfalls identified by her staff in the 1990s are the same ones that could be highlighted now.

‘‘It’s important that people see more sides of you,’’ Grunwald, who was a Clinton adviser during her 2008 presidential campaign, wrote in 1999. ‘‘ They often only see you in very stern situations.’’

Clinton’s tone should be ‘‘chatty, intimate, informal’’, she said. ‘‘Find moments for humour. Don’t be defensive and don’t raise your voice. For years, you’ve been saying, ‘My husband did X’, but this moment is about you, so talk about what you’ve done.’’

In August 1995 Lisa Caputo, then Clinton’s press secretary, offered 16 ideas about how to get her more favourable coverage. She should ‘‘own the women’s media’’ and do more regional interviews to ‘‘help us get around her aversion to the national Washington media and serve to counter the tone of the national media’’.

Caputo suggested that the Clintons’ 20th-wedding anniversary Real deal: Newly released documents show efforts to remake Hillary Clinton’s image date back at least 20 years. Photo: REUTERS – three years before the Monica Lewinsky scandal – was a good opportunity to yield upbeat stories. The then First Lady could throw a big party and release photos of it to People magazine, as well as pictures from the Clintons’ honeymoon.

‘‘This might be a nice time peg to have the president and Hillary do a special joint interview with Barbara Walters [the television presenter],’’ Caputo wrote. ‘‘If we did an interview around the anniversary time peg, it would not appear to be political.’’

Caputo also suggested that ‘‘Hillary could speak to young women through [the] internet’’ and consider appearing in Home Improvement, a television sitcom. ‘‘Although I have some concerns that it diminishes the role of First Lady by going on a TV sitcom, it is probably worth weighing it against what we believe we might be able to gain by such an appearance politically and imagewise.’’