Michael Sneed in the Chicago Sun-Times, January 10, 1995:

Over a plate of heart-healthy American cuisine, Hillary Rodham Clinton took full responsibility for the failure of the health-care program she helped design... and said she was "sorry."

• How do I know? I lunched with the first lady on Monday as one of 11 journalists/columnists from across the country invited to the Yellow Room of the White House.

• Hillary on health care: "I regret very much that the efforts on health-care reform were badly misunderstood and taken out of context... and then used politically against the administration and the Democrats. I take responsibility for that and am very sorry about that. I think it is in large measure our failure to explain to people what was at stake in simple terms." ...

• The conversation: lively and spirited.

• The surprise: Hillary is pretty. Very pretty. And her hairdo of choice Monday was very North Shore.

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