Does Hillary Shop Wal-Mart?

Does Hillary shop Wal-Mart? Well, no. It would be sort of silly to imagine Hillary Clinton has time to do a whole lot of her own shopping at all, I imagine. But this article from the New York Times attempts to shed light on a relatively little-known aspect of Clinton's career. Hillary Clinton served on Wal-Mart's board of directors from 1986-1992, years during which she practiced law at a notable Little Rock law firm and, of course, was First Lady to the state of Arkansas, Wal-Mart's home base.

So how does this play for the Clinton campaign? The article leaves me wondering. On the one hand, Wal-Mart represents to many on the left everything that is wrong with American corporate practices and policies. On the other hand, Clinton is portrayed as a passionate advocate for the advancement of women in the Wal-Mart hierarchy, and as a steward of environmental innovation at a time when it was not so hip to preach green. Then there's this:

And several months ago, Mrs. Clinton helped broker a secret meeting between a top Wal-Mart executive and former Democratic operative, Leslie Dach, and leaders of the retailer’s longtime adversary at the United Food and Commercial Workers union, according to several people briefed on the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to do so publicly.

The goal of the meeting was to tamp down the rancor between the company and the union, which has set up a group, WakeUpWalMart.com, that has harshly criticized the chain and leaked embarrassing internal documents to the news media, though an accord has not yet been reached.

Several months ago? Pretty interesting. So at the same time that her campaign would appear to distance itself from her career with Wal-Mart, Hillary Clinton appears to be working toward some measure of social justice with the corporation. Do I read this right?

All of this leaves me with questions, the most primary of which is "Whose goals are served?" It will be interesting to see what more develops on this topic as the campaign moves forward.