On April 12 Hillary Clinton announced her decision to run for President. Of the United States. As a Democrat. This brought an end, at last, to the seemingly endless tension and uncertainty about her intentions that afflicted so many American voters. Well, some American voters. That is to say, a few American voters.

Word reaches me that Caiaphas Cudds of Twin Privies, Alabama was astounded to hear that the woman had decided to jump in, and it’s estimated that several dozen other voters around the country were at least equally startled. Most of them had just emerged from lengthy comas, and Caiaphas was shocked to hear of a woman running for anything. People in “the Twins” don’t generally look to Mr. Cudds for up-to-date information.

The great majority of Americans who pay attention to politicians are familiar with the routine“Timing” charades that professional political hacks put on to entertain the dimmer voters. We are used to them and are remain unsurprised, although a few among us sometimes wonder how much the hacks are paid for advising candidates to prolong the “suspense.” That depends of the prominence of the candidate, the significance of the office, and the prestige of the hack. It generally runs from $2,500 to $35,000.

Over my years of academic employment I have often steered ambitious students gifted with glibness but unencumbered with scruples and excessive IQ scores to take up careers in political hackery. The only demanding part is mastering the art of writing impressive memos, i.e., clothing ordinary ideas with impressive verbiage. We are not speaking here of the emperor with no clothes in the Hans Christian Andersen children’s fable, but of impressive clothes with no emperor. Get that part down and the rest is easy. A famous master of public relations described his job as “fashioning large pedestals for small statues.”

On April 3 Amy Chozick wrote “This Woman’s Job Is to Recast Hillary Clinton’s Image” for The New York Times. The woman of which she wrote, Kristina Schake is the former Michelle Obama aide who earned fame and glory by encouraging the First Lady to make an undercover shopping trip to a Target in Alexandria, Virginia. Disclosed undercover, you understand, so that ordinary folks like me and you (or rather, like you) could see that the FLOTUS (Secret Service acronym for First Lady of the United States) is just like you, but not me—I’ve never shopped in a Target in my life.

Amy tell us that Kristina was inspired to devise the stratagem by the bare foot Christs in paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Simple folk (e.g., me) know the painter only as Caravaggio, but when you write political advice memos you drop the complete moniker on your client. Remember, manipulate your client successfully and your career is made. Manipulating the OFVOTUS (Ordinary Fatuous Voter of the United States) is a crap shoot.

Here’s a bit of puzzle from the article. Chozick tells us that Hillary’s guide to the mental processes of the OFVOTUS lives in New York with an Albanian journalist she met in Rome and frequently walks to art exhibits while listening to podcasts about the history of the subway system. That background sounds a bit exotic for an expert charged with shaping Hillary Clinton’s” public image” into that of “an accessible everywoman.” Can we anticipate hearing about Hillary holding impromptu discussions about the history of New York’s subways in Iowa sports bars? Seems far-fetched.

Even so, Schake gets some cred from, activist, actor and director Rob Reiner. Rob and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, hired the art and Albanian lover who hangs out in Rome to help with their California ballot initiative to fund early childhood education by adding a 50-cent tax to each pack of cigarettes. Reiner testified in an interview that Ms. Schake consistently reminded him not to veer from the predetermined script. “Every step of the way,” he tells Chozick, “it was ‘the good guys are fighting the bad guys…’ Do you want to support big tobacco or do you want to support little children?”

The initiative passed. Evil Big Tobacco versus Cute Little Kiddies—this is what passes for brilliance, even genius, among the tribe of political consultants. So Schake is now in the big time, working to shape, or re-shape, Hillary’s image.

We can predict that her most important job will be to keep Hillary and her organization on message. Some will remember the famous slogan for Bill’s campaign against George H.W. Bush: “It’s the economy stupid.” I think we can count on “It’s the Middle Class Stupid” posters showing up at Clinton H.Q.

As one of history’s greatest pedestal builders explained: “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.” No, it wasn’t James Carville.

Professor John Frary of Farmington, Maine is a former US Congress candidate and retired history professor, a Board Member of Maine Taxpayers United and publisher of www.fraryhomecompanion.com and can be reached at: [email protected]