By all accounts, for example, she is extraordinarily bright, and so would bring a high-octane intellect to the intractable problems that find their way to the president’s desk. Longtime friend Susan Thomases, a New York political activist, said of her mental capacities: “How many people do you know who speak in paragraphs? … [You’re] just blown away by it.” Mickey Kantor, who chaired her husband’s 1992 campaign and served as commerce secretary, offered an almost identical description: “Full sentences, full paragraphs, organized, never needs a note. Unbelievable talent.”

And she is notably resolute: Throughout her husband’s administration, she was recognized as a key source of discipline in a White House that often tended toward chaos. Former Office of Management and Budget Director Alice Rivlin reported: “I think for a good part of his career, [Bill Clinton] was probably rescued by Hillary—by her being a more decisive person who kept things moving. … I remember at least one instance [during the White House transition process] in Little Rock, where Hillary simply said, ‘We have to decide something here and get this moved on.’ And the president would look sort of, ‘Well, all right.’ But she … had more discipline than he in getting to a decision.”

At the root of the efficiencies in her operating style is a native confidence in reaching conclusions for herself, including a greater comfort in working with imperfect information than her husband—for better or worse. “As much as he needs people, needs to draw from people, needs to bounce ideas, needs to validate them, … [she’s] just the opposite,” Kantor said. “She needs to think for herself. … She said it just muddles your mind when you start listening to other people tell you what you ought to be doing.” She easily recognized a reality of the modern presidency: On some issues, it matters less what the president decides than that a decision is actually made.

As for partisan politics, Hillary Clinton’s willingness to go after Donald Trump, face-to-face, in their first debate would have come as no surprise to those who worked with her earlier. Former White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum observed that “she’s very tough … [or] very tough-minded, which is a better word.” Bill Clinton, Nussbaum added, “could take a punch and keep going, but what he couldn’t do, [which Hillary Clinton could], was throw a punch and fight back.”

That penchant for directness carried over into her policy advocacy. Her former congressional-relations specialist, Chris Jennings, recalls this approach from one of their joint visits on Capitol Hill.

We went into [Michigan Democrat] John Dingell’s office. He has around him all of his trophies of all the deer and moose he’s shot. He’s a lifelong [National Rifle Association] member. Hillary Clinton has just been quoted as saying, “Frankly I think we should have some sort of tax on ammunition, because there are all these people in hospitals who are being shot up and it’s costing us huge amounts of money,” et cetera. She was briefed, I told her [this was a non-starter], and she still had the gumption to say, “John, I think this is something worth considering. We should think about doing this.” And he said, “Actually, Mrs. Clinton, I really think that’s not a very good idea.” What was interesting about the exchange and the subsequent conversation I had with John Dingell about it was that he respected that she would bring up any issue directly to him, whether it was controversial or not, whether it would please him or not. He liked her spunk and her smarts.

The first lady evidently took a similarly direct approach with staff. McLarty’s successor as chief of staff, Leon Panetta, stated in his oral history “that people were a little intimidated by her. There were several meetings where she basically walked in and let everybody have it, very different from what the president would do. If she thought something was going wrong, she’d say it. … But if she ultimately believed that you had the capacity to do a job, she backed off.”