The general unfair impression that filtered to the popular culture was that Mrs. Clinton was somehow trying to converse with the spirits of these people. Although the entire episode suggests a silliness and lack of seriousness that one would not like to see in anyone with policy making responsibilities, Mrs. Clinton was not trying to contact spirits. In the future Mrs. Clinton would do better to choose her confidantes with more discretion. Mrs. Clinton' s ongoing problems are, nonetheless, of her own making. The First Family, with the exception of the President who is formally elected, is the closest thing Americans have to royalty.
Royalty gain their power, influence and celebrity largely as a consequence of birth or marriage.
Americans are charmed by royalty, but have a 200-year old aversion to political power wielded by royalty. Mrs. Clinton is intelligent and engaging, but prior to Bill Clinton's election she was primarily a successful small-town lawyer. No one, no Democrat would have ever chosen her to head an effort to transform one-seventh of the US economy by nationalizing medical care. Her power was purely derivative, a direct clear consequence of her marriage to the President. She had no earned credentials that would qualify her for the role.