Early on in the book Tyrrell reminds us that the “vast rightwing conspiracy” was not just a cheap applause line back in the 1990’s as it is today; it was the subject of some very real paranoia in the White House. Tyrrell writes:

“According to Clinton, his presidency suffered its scandals because of a synergy between the Right and the mainstream press. The Right fabricated stories of scandal, and the mainstream press dutifully passed them on. This explanation was first tried out on the public in 1994 when Clinton’s political advisor, James Carville, described the occult process as a “Media Food Chain.” By 1997 White House staffers had composed, presumably at taxpayers’ expense, a 331-page report on the Food Chain. Titled “Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce,” it depicted the flow of these shocking fabrications, advancing from their point of origin on the Right and heading into the mainstream press. The Right’s sources were identified: London’s Sunday Telegraph, Richard Scaife’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, and The American Spectator. In an early post-presidential interview Clinton explained to Newsweek magazine, “We live in an historical period when the fanaticism of America is on the right, and it has an apparatus to support it.” For all his public smiles Clinton is an angry man; and throughout his retirement he has frequently given vent to his anger, often at odd moments.”

It seems an odd thing for Hillary Clinton to want to return to those days of White House paranoia. I can’t imagine she harbors fond memories of late nights and stomach butterflies wondering what the truth was—never knowing—and resolving to blame her husband’s “enemies” for his many foibles and pratfalls.

And yet there may be political capital in all this “vast rightwing conspiracy” talk. Democratic activists, particularly those who spend a great deal of time on the Internet, are in a paranoid and agitated state of mind these days. They pressured Democratic presidential candidates last week to boycott a planned debate because Fox News Channel was one of the sponsors, for example. Perhaps they will see Hillary Clinton as a kindred spirit.