Former GOP staffer’s new novel drew inspiration from Hillary Clinton

Nicolle Wallace has worked for top GOP names like George W. Bush, John McCain and Sarah Palin, yet she drew inspiration from Democrat Hillary Clinton for her new novel, Eighteen Acres.

Wallace’s main character, Charlotte Kramer, is the United States’ first female president, a protagonist Wallace created after seeing up close what Clinton and Palin went through during the 2008 presidential election.

“It still impresses me that Hillary Clinton is the secretary of State for her former opponent, who said to her, ‘Hillary, you’re likable enough,' " Wallace said in an interview. “I think women have a great talent for suffering an indignity and then find[ing] strength to, in her case, become part of a team that she was once opposed to.”

Wallace, whose novel came out Tuesday, said she decided not to write a tell-all after exiting politics because “some of what’s so healthy about leaving is getting your head out of the things it was in on.” She now lives in New York with her husband, former U.N. Ambassador Mark Wallace, and is already working on a sequel.

Asked whether she plans to return to politics — “I don’t plan to,” she said. “I think when you’ve kind of got it out of your system, you know.”

Read a full interview with Wallace here.