Hillary Clinton, rarely seen, rarely heard Politico

As reporters speculate that Hillary Clinton -- with her extreme dislike of the press -- can't be thrilled that as of Labor Day, they will all board her 'Stronger Together'-wrapped 737 airplane, her staff says the candidate is on board. For the first time in 2016, they will head from New York to Ohio to Iowa.

"She does understand that there is very good reason why it's important for everyone to be together in the thick of a general election,” said her traveling spokesman Nick Merrill. “We're going wrap the plane in blue and get on it together. There's a desire to be efficient and be able to do things a little more impromptu.”

Hillary Clinton's Feminism

Hillary Clinton's feminism: a conversation with Rebecca Traister VOX

VOX's Tara Golshan asks Rebecca Traister this question: From the time Clinton entered politics to the 2016 presidential election, there has been a massive shift in feminism. How has Clinton positioned herself in this shift?

TRAISTER: "I have interviewed her; I have talked to her a bit about this. I can't say with any authority, "well, she learned this from contemporary feminism," but my impression is, like a number of women her age who lived through the women’s movement, [who] were products of the women’s movement, then came to their professional adulthood during a period of anti-feminism — where they were totally vilified — I think it has taken her some time to understand that feminism is back.

Feminism has been re-embraced, popularized, which is often problematic in wide ranging ways. There is more than one generation of women that were totally scarred about what they could actually say: Older women who were at the height of their professional careers in the '80s and '90s. As a teenager I remember it — how vicious the anti-feminism backlash was. Hillary Clinton was the subject and object of so much of it.

My guess is over the years one of her advisers must have whispered to her it’s okay, it’s okay to say it again. Look, she wrote a post for the Toast. Are you kidding? She has been very interested in young feminist writers in a way that suggests to me she understands that there is another media in play and it’s a feminist media."

Related: Women's News | Gloria Steinem Meets Amandla Stenberg AOC Front Page News

National Polls Tighten, Swing States Not Much

Trump cuts into Clinton's lead as crucial stretch begins Politico

“The wildness and unpredictability of the last sixteen months?” said Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. “It's only going to increase. It’s not going away. Hold on to your hat."

Clinton’s camp is taking nothing for granted and admit to worrying that if he maintains his current path, he could pare points off battleground states in which Hillary leads on average by about five points.

Clinton aides are concerned about a Trump factor that they cannot control: Donald Trump's past performance has been so extreme, that there is a very low performance bar for him to have a good day. He wins by calmly looking and speaking presidential in Mexico -- even though a tweet storm broke out after he left. Unless he has a total debate stage meltdown, just standing on the same stage as Hillary Clinton will give him a boost. So don't believe assertions that the Clinton folks think the presidential election win is in the bag. They don't.

Hillary Clinton Headlines September 4, 2016

How Hillary Clinton helped create what she later called the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' The Washington Post

Three Major Ways The FBI Report On Clinton Emails Strongly Establishes Her Trustworthiness Forbes

Donald Trump is doing worse with Latinos than the previous 6 Republican presidential candidates VOX

Democrats' chances of retaking the Senate keep getting better Politico

Poll: Clinton has double-digit lead over Trump in New Hampshire Politico

Trump surrogate admits false biographical claims CNN

Clinton Enters Fall With Key Advantages in White House Race ABC News

Trump surrogate admits falsifying biographical claims CNN

FBI Played Trick on Clinton During Email Probe, Newly Released Documents Show ABC News

Huma Abedin, the Good Wife, Reaches Her Limit With Anthony Weiner The Daily Beast

It seems safe to say that Anthony Weiner, he with the stiff dick and compulsive need to take enormous risk making the same selfie mistakes over and over and over, will not rise again in Democratic party circles. Huma Abedin joins a long line of political Good Wives from Eleanor Roosevelt to Jacqueline Kennedy and Mamie Eisenhower.

Or Eliza Hamilton, writes Michael Daly, whose wifely remains lie at the foot of her husband's grave in Lower Manhattan's Trinity Church cemetery. Alexander Hamilton -- memorialized today on New York's 'Broadway' stage -- is honored on his monument as a PATRIOT, SOLDIER AND STATESMAN of such INTEGRITY and VIRTUE that there was no need to mention that he was also "a PHILANDERER who shtupped a twentysomething tootsie in his marital bed while his wife was away on vacation."

When the scandal broke, the political damage to Hamilton was mitigated by word that his mistress’ husband had been blackmailing him and that the whole thing might have been a set-up.

But what really saved him was his wife’s decision to remain at his side, just as Hillary Clinton would remain at Bill Clinton’s side after he was caught playing around with an intern, and just as Huma Abedin remained at Anthony Weiner’s side the first two times he was caught sexting with other women.

I was totally infuriated yesterday to read a well-known, retired culture critic invite his FB friends -- including me -- to address the question: (to paraphrase) "What do we think -- was Huma Abedin sexy enough, pretty enough and sweet enough to hold her man? Doesn't she know that many men have an intense sex drive and need it daily? In summary, his male friends agreed, no wonder Weiner was always running to other women. The commentary left me speechless, and I said so.

The New York Times reported that Huma learned about the third sexting scandal and that the NY Post would soon break the story over the weekend, where Abedin, Weiner and their four-year-old son Jordan were in the Hamptons fundraising with Hillary and relaxing.

By Monday morning, when the Post cover showing Mr. Weiner and his son, Jordan, hit newsstands, Mr. Weiner had left the Hamptons for New York City aware that Ms. Abedin planned to announce their separation, said two people close to the couple who discussed private conversations on the condition of anonymity.

Never one to question another person's decisions around keeping a marriage together or leaving it in divorce, I wondered in July 2016: Has Huma Abedin Overplayed Her Good Wife To Anthony Weiner Role? Thinking Women Wonder Out Loud.

That article chronicled the second Weiner texting expose, as he ran for mayor in the summer of 2013. And it taps into several major pieces written about the Abedin-Weiner marriage, including their May 2013 interview with the New York Times and an essay written by expert Pepper Schwartz who speculated on the glue that kept Huma married to her bad-boy husband. Not quoted in the July 2013 AOC article were these insights that ring true within the worlds of both Abedin and Clinton.

Abedin's behaviors are squarely in the realm of women's high esteem for love, friendship and loyalty, and for tending and befriending the weak and the beleaguered, as described by UCLA psychologist and professor Shelley Taylor. This gives the impression of being a doormat, but the woman thinks of it as being stalwart and noble. Abedin may not be quite in this category -- but she seems dangerously close to it.

Finally, there is the role of family. For some women "till death do us part" means just that. They believe in staying in a marriage no matter what, especially when a small child is involved. If the man is a good father -- and there is every indication Weiner is -- a wife will go to extremes to stay married

The Wife Without a Ring

Huma Abedin On Her Job, Family, and the Campaign of a Lifetime Vogue

I didn't notice that Huma Abedin wasn't wearing her wedding band in the Vogue US interview and images from the August 2016 issue, posted online Aug. 17. Reports now say that she wan't wearing her wedding ring in Nevada on Aug. 4, and the Daily Mail UK reported in April 2016 that neither spouse was wearing a wedding ring.

The majority of this Vogue Huma Abedin interview is devoted to her work and relationship since 1996 working in and connected to Hillary Clinton world. Abedin is very complimentary to her now-separated husband Anthony Weiner, praising him for his parenting skills. Huma does express some concern -- call it mom guilt -- over her long hours at the side of Hillary Clinton.

“It wasn’t so clear in my mind, after my son was born, that I would work with this kind of intensity,” she said. “Many working moms feel this way — there is a lot of guilt. I don’t think I could do it if I didn’t have the support system I have, if Anthony wasn’t willing to be, essentially, a full-time dad.”

“I know Anthony has said this before, but Jordan was the best thing that happened to either of us,” she added. “Our primary concern was the well-being of our son, and ensuring he had everything he needed to feel loved and cared for and to thrive.”

The couple has a full-time network and a devoted family network that has allowed Huma to work at such a frantic pace for Hillary Clinton. Speculation is strong that Huma would be the chief of staff in a Clinton administration. It remains to be seen how the couple will work out all the family arrangements that accompany their separation.