http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388372/

Clinton White House asked Wellesley College to close off access

WELLESLEY, Mass. - The senior thesis of Hillary D. Rodham, Wellesley
College class of 1969, has been speculated about, spun, analyzed,
debated, criticized and defended. But rarely has it been read, because
for the eight years of Bill Clinton's presidency it was locked away.

As forbidden fruit, the writings of a 21-year-old college senior,
examining the tactics of radical community organizer Saul D. Alinsky,
have gained mythic status among her critics - a "Rosetta Stone," in
the words of one, that would allow readers to decode the thinking of
the former first lady and 2008 presidential candidate.

Despite the fervent interest in the thesis, few realize that it is no
longer kept under lock and key. As MSNBC.com found, it is available to
anyone who visits the archive room of the prestigious women's college
outside Boston. With Clinton's opponents in the 2008 presidential race
looking for the next "Swift Boat" attack ad, and the senator herself
trying to cast off her liberal image, Clinton's 92-page thesis is
certain to be read and reread by opposition researchers and reporters
visiting the campus.

But can an academic paper from nearly 40 years ago really unlock the
politics and character of any former student, much less the early
Democratic front-runner for the White House?

This is your chance to decide before the political spin machines get
their hands on it.

Before reading Hillary Rodham's assessment of the old radical from
Chicago - Alinsky's "compelling personality," "his exceptional charm,"
and the limitations of his "anachronistic" tactics - it's important to
understand how the document was sealed and how it has been portrayed.

Just as conservative authors have speculated, it was the Clintons who
asked Wellesley in 1993 to hide Hillary Rodham's senior thesis from
the first generation of Clinton biographers, according to her thesis
adviser and friend, professor Alan H. Schechter, who describes taking
the call from the White House.

Wellesley's president, Nannerl Overholser Keohane, approved a broad
rule with a specific application: The senior thesis of every Wellesley
alumna is available in the college archives for anyone to read --
except for those written by either a "president or first lady of the
United States." So far, that action has sealed precisely one document:
Hillary Rodham's senior honors thesis in political science, entitled "
'There Is Only the Fight...': An Analysis of the Alinsky Model."

'Alinsky's daughter'
Many authors on the long shelf of unsympathetic Clinton biographies
have envisioned the thesis as evidence of Marxist or socialist views
held by young Hillary - or conversely as proof of her political
agnosticism, a lack of any ideology besides a brutal willingness to
attack opponents and accumulate power in the Alinsky style.

David Brock, in his 1996 biography, "The Seduction of Hillary Rodham,"
called her "Alinsky's daughter."

Barbara Olson, the conservative lawyer and commentator, used an
Alinsky quote to open every chapter of her 1999 book, "Hell to Pay:
The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton." Olson, who died in the
Sept. 11 terror attacks, had charged in her book that the thesis was
locked away because Clinton "does not want the American people to know
the extent to which she internalized and assimilated the beliefs and
methods of Saul Alinsky."

Under Wellesley's rule, Clinton's thesis became available to
researchers again when the Clintons left the White House in 2001 -
available only to those who visit the Wellesley archives. But few have
made the trip, and the document's allure continued to grow.

A purloined copy was offered for sale on eBay in 2001, then withdrawn
when Clinton's staff cited copyright law.

Bill O'Reilly waved a few pages on Fox TV in 2003, chiding Wellesley
for hiding Clinton's analysis of a "far left" activist.

Peggy Noonan, the former Reagan speechwriter writing in The Wall
Street Journal in 2005, decried the continued suppression of "the
Rosetta Stone of Hillary studies."

Just last month, an anonymous commentator lamented on the conservative
Web site Free Republic, "She's a Marxist. Saul Alinsky's student. I
sure wish we could unearth that sealed thesis of hers that she wrote
at Wellesley."

No appointment is necessary for such spade work. A visitor to the
Wellesley campus is buzzed in to the wood-paneled archives, but only
after storing coat and briefcase in a locker outside. Pencils are
allowed for note taking - no pens, which might mar the document.
Readers can copy only a few pages.

The Wellesley archivist, Wilma R. Slaight, respectfully presents a
photocopy of the typewritten manuscript in a black binder, cushioning
it on green foam pads so as not to stress the leather.

"Democracy is still a radical idea"
The confident young student took her thesis title - "There Is Only the
Fight..." - from T.S. Eliot:

"There is only the fight to recover what has been lost and found and
lost again and again."

She began with a feminist jab at the clich=E9s of male authors:
"Although I have no 'loving wife' to thank for keeping the children
away while I wrote, I do have many friends and teachers who have
contributed to the process of thesis-writing." She thanks particularly
"Mr. Alinsky for providing a topic, sharing his time and offering me a
job."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388372/

Clinton White House asked Wellesley College to close off access

WELLESLEY, Mass. - The senior thesis of Hillary D. Rodham, Wellesley
College class of 1969, has been speculated about, spun, analyzed,
debated, criticized and defended. But rarely has it been read, because
for the eight years of Bill Clinton's presidency it was locked away.

As forbidden fruit, the writings of a 21-year-old college senior,