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BY: Alana Goodman February 9, 2014 9:58 pm

On May 12, 1992, Stan Greenberg and Celinda Lake, top pollsters for Bill Clintons presidential campaign, issued a confidential memo. The memos subject was Research on Hillary Clinton.

Voters admired the strength of the Arkansas first couple, the pollsters wrote. However, they also fear that only someone too politically ambitious, too strong, and too ruthless could survive such controversy so well.

Their conclusion: What voters find slick in Bill Clinton, they find ruthless in Hillary.

The full memo is one of many previously unpublished documents contained in the archive of one of Hillary Clintons best friends and advisers, documents that portray the former first lady, secretary of State, and potential 2016 presidential candidate as a strong, ambitious, and ruthless Democratic operative.

The papers of Diane Blair, a political science professor Hillary Clinton described as her closest friend before Blairs death in 2000, record years of candid conversations with the Clintons on issues ranging from single-payer health care to Monica Lewinsky.

The archive includes correspondence, diaries, interviews, strategy memos, and contemporaneous accounts of conversations with the Clintons ranging from the mid-1970s to the turn of the millennium.

Diane Blairs husband, Jim Blair, a former chief counsel at Tyson Foods Inc. who was at the center of Cattlegate, a 1994 controversy involving the unusually large returns Hillary Clinton made while trading cattle futures contracts in the 1970s, donated his wifes papers to the University of Arkansas Special Collections library in Fayetteville after her death.

The full contents of the archive, which before 2010 was closed to the public, have not previously been reported on and shed new light on Clintons three decades in public life. The records paint a complex portrait of Hillary Clinton, revealing her to be a loyal friend, devoted mother, and a cutthroat strategist who relished revenge against her adversaries and complained in private that nobody in the White House was tough and mean enough.

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The Hillary Papers | Washington Free Beacon

She made remark to best friend Diane Blair who kept file on all dealings They record years of conversations with Clintons on issues Lewinsky She said Bill and Lewinsky never had sex 'within any real meaning' Includes Bill's love letter to Hillary telling of falling asleep to erotic poem New book out tomorrow outlines Hillary's 'enemies list' 'I'm used to winning,' Clinton told Blair, 'and I intend to win on my own terms'

By Matt Blake and David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor

PUBLISHED: 05:03 EST, 10 February 2014 | UPDATED: 12:53 EST, 10 February 2014

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Hillary Clinton claimed that husband Bill didn't have sex of 'any real meaning' with Monica Lewinsky and the former White House intern was a 'narcissistic loony toon', explosive secret documents have revealed.

The former First Lady made the frank remarks to her best friend in 1998 as the American public reeled from Lewinsky's claims of nine sexual encounters with the president in the Oval Office.

Days after the news of the affair broke, Hillary stood stone-faced beside her husband as he vehemently denied any such liaisons took place at a press conference, uttering the now infamous statement: 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman.'

Heartbroken: Hillary Clinton (left) wrote in her autobiography that she felt 'dumbfounded, heartbroken and outraged' at finding out husband Bill had lied to her and the public about his affair with 22-year-old Monica Lewinsky (right) - an act that ultimately led to his impeachment in 1998

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Hillary Clinton thought Monica Lewinsky was 'narcisisstic ...

The trove of personal papers in which Hillary Clintons late best friend documented their conversations on everything from Monica Lewinsky to the media lit up cable news and Twitter. It provided an unusually stark and intimate look at the former first lady through admiring eyes but also served as a reminder that the currently popular Clinton was once one of the most polarizing figures in the nation, someone who could galvanize Republican donors and grassroots almost instantly.

But that was then. And in an era when political controversies tend to flame out in the blink of a news cycle, its unclear whether the provocative papers about Hillary Clintons musings and doings from decades ago will matter to voters if she runs in 2016.

Political reporters love to pore over these sorts of things but they have little to no impact on candidates that are already well defined, said Ben LaBolt, a former Barack Obama White House and campaign spokesman. Its much harder to redefine a candidate that is already well known. That comes with advantages and disadvantages its also harder to win new supporters over.

(PHOTOS: Whos talking about Hillary Clinton 2016?)

Clintons advisers declined to respond to emails for this story, and they have yet to comment publicly about the archived papers of Diane Blair, who died in 2000 and has been called the sister Clinton wished shed had. The conservative-leaning Washington Free Beacon reported on the documents in a buzzy story published Sunday night, describing them as correspondence, diaries, interviews, strategy memos, and contemporaneous accounts of conversations with the Clintons ranging from the mid-1970s to the turn of the millennium.

Blairs husband donated the documents to the University of Arkansas, and some were unsealed in 2010.

David Axelrod, a longtime Obama adviser, agreed that such blasts from the past will have little effect.

This strikes me as warmed over seconds from Drudges table that already were baked in the cake, he said. I dont think it will have any bearing.

The documents landed at a time when Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), whos made no secret of his interest in a 2016 presidential run of his own, has invoked Bill Clintons sexual past in recent weeks, describing the former president as a sexual predator. Paul clearly relished his role as the instigator of a conversation aimed at reminding voters of the Clinton White House-era dramas.

(PHOTOS: Stars line up for Hillary Clinton 2016)

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Hillary Clinton's blast from the past

It was a lapse, but she says to his credit he tried to break it off, tried to pull away, tried to manage someone who was clearly a 'narcissistic loony toon; but it was beyond control, wrote Mrs Blair in a September 1998 note published yesterday by the conservative Washington Free Beacon webstie.

HRC insists, no matter what people say, it was gross inappropriate behavior but it was consensual (was not a power relationship) and was not sex within any real meaning (standup, liedown, oral, etc.) of the term.

The note, which recorded a phone conversation with Mrs Clinton, was in a trove of documents given to the University of Arkansas after Mrs Blairs death in 2000, but were only scrutinised and published by the conservative website this week.

The note appears to show Mrs Clinton accepting Mr Clintons own famously narrow definition of what constituted meaningful sexual contact in his now-infamous denial - I did not have sexual relations with that woman - that was given at a highly charged White House press conference.

Although now nearly 20 years ago, Republicans have made clear that the Lewinsky affair - and the Clintons controversial record in office - is far from forgotten and will resurface if she hits the campaign trail in 2016.

Last month Rand Paul, a libertarian Republican senator who is expected to run in 2016, referred directly to the Lewinsky incident to attack both the Clinton brand and challenge the notion that Democrats had a monopoly on the affections of women voters.

Mr Paul accused Mr Clinton of predatory behaviour for, as he termed it, taking advantage of a young girl in his office - a characterisation of the affair that Mrs Clinton seems to have rejected in her own mind both then and now.

The documents depict Mrs Clinton as a loyal friend, devoted mother, and a cutthroat strategist according to the Washington Free Beacon website, a portrait echoed in HRC, a new biography of the former secretary of state that is published today. The book says that Mrs Clintons senior aides are already conducting informal interviews to assemble a campaign staff for a 2016 bid, while Mrs Clinton continues to insist publicly that she has not yet decided whether to run for president again.

This is a campaign that is in full swing, said Jonathan Allen, one of the books authors. Its more a question of whether she stops running than whether she starts running.

Mrs Clintons staff are also strategising about how best to deploy her husband on the campaign trail. While he was a major asset to Mr Obamas re-election effort in 2012, he repeatedly courted controversy during her 2008 bid.

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Hillary Clinton accepted husband's definition of sex in Lewinsky affair, new papers suggest

Polls show Mrs Clinton in a position of unprecedented strength compared to her potential rivals, with two years still to go before the beginning of the Democratic primary election.

A Washington Post/ABC poll found she had the support 73 per cent of Democrats 61 points ahead of Joe Biden, the vice president and a possible 2016 contender.

Her front-runner status prompted Time magazine to ask in a cover article: "Can Anyone Stop Hillary?"

HRC details how Bill and Hillary Clinton kept a detailed "hit-list" of the Democrats they felt betrayed them by supporting Barack Obama over her in 2008.

While Mrs Clinton went on to serve loyally in Mr Obama's administration, her husband ruthlessly pursued the perceived traitors among Democratic members of Congress.

During the 2012 election he opposed one congressman who failed to support his wife four years earlier. The congressman lost his primary to a fellow Democrat, ultimately allowing the Republicans to take his seat.

"The message from the Clintons to the rest of the Democratic political world was clear: It's better to be with us than against us," according to the book.

Mrs Clinton's staff are also planning a strategy about how best to deploy her husband on the campaign trail. While he was a major asset to Mr Obama's re-election effort in 2012, he repeatedly courted controversy during her 2008 bid.

The former president took it on himself to rewrite a large section of Mrs Clinton's 2008 speech, prompting frantic last-minute revisions as she reversed his changes.

The book reports a surprisingly affectionate relationship between Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama despite their 2008 rivalry.

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Hillary Clinton's team begin to assemble campaign staff