The truth about Hillary - Guardian

[rndmprsn]

one guardian writers take on hillary's (alleged) run for prez in 08.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1539320,00.html

Clinton is popular but America is not ready for a woman president

Although the next presidential race is three years away, Americans are constantly being asked whom they want to see in the White House next time. A few weeks ago came a startling new development: for the first time a majority of those polled said they were likely to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton...

...These are not just new crowd-pleasing ventures - such views have been part of her public persona for a long time. At the same time Clinton knows she will also have to challenge the Republicans on defence and security; she famously voted for the Iraq war and is spending, as one commentator put it, "hours mastering military arcana", as she must if she is ever to persuade Americans to take her seriously as commander in chief.

Such behaviour may alienate her most liberal supporters. But then Hillary was never the politician that radical feminists dreamed of. Just as the first modern woman leader in Britain had to be tougher than the boys to silence her critics, so the first woman US president will be harder than the men around her. It was all very well for Bill Clinton to show off his human side - everyone knew he was surging with testosterone. If Hillary were to do the same it would be seen as weakness.

Yet this necessity puts her in a bind. US culture may constantly throw up images of powerful females, but they are always seen as lacking something vital - not brains, nor guts, but heart. From Lara Croft to Catwoman, from Condi to Hillary, the power of the superwoman always seems to come at the expense of her perceived humanity. When commentators say that Hillary Clinton is too cold to win over voters, what they are really saying is that she is too powerful to be a real woman. Behaviour that would be forgiven in a man - wariness of confiding in others, self-belief - is seen as evidence of a hyper-ambition that makes her less than fully human...

...Whatever Hillary Clinton does to position herself politically, this dirt will keep coming. If she's lucky she will be able to rise above her detractors and speak directly to voters with a voice that seems both reassuring - because she's been around for so long - and new - because she is, after all, a woman. But if she's unlucky she will seem both old hat, tainted with the scandals of the Clinton era, and, as a powerful woman, way too revolutionary for current American society. Perhaps all Republicans will have to do to stop her succeeding is to remind voters that 13 years ago she said didn't want to spend her life baking cookies.

[papau]

1. The US Media will determine if she is electable.

In his vicious new book, The Truth About Hillary, Edward Klein jumps from her alleged promiscuity "Hillary and Vince's love affair was an open secret"; to her supposed frigidity - "Did the Big Girl have any interest in sex with a man?"; to her rumored lesbianism - "To Arkansas, she walked like a lesbian, talked like a lesbian, and looked like a lesbian."

The GOP will throw out crap like the above - and Fox will complain that the biased media is not treating folks like Edward Klein seriously - and if we get the 2000 and 2002 and 2004 media response of "report without analysis", Hill will have a hard time.

[wli]

16. why worry?

Nothing wrong with being a Lesbian. Nothing wrong with not being interested in sex. Affairs with Vince Foster are for her and Bill to deal with. After all, no one really cared that Monica blew bill besides Ken Starr (ISTR polls saying the rethugs should have butted out of the Clintons' sex lives). The smears didn't work against Bill and aren't going to work against her.

I'm not wild about her platform, but I'll vote for her any day over a neofascist rethug.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. "alienate her most liberal supporters" You can say that again.

"..she famously voted for the Iraq war" That's enough for me to vote Green if the Dems are stupid and timid enough to nominate another pro-war candidate.

This aritcle is far too kind on DLC Hillary.

[nankerphelge]

5. I apologize for coopting a Limbaughism but...

dittoes Tierra_y_Libertad.

[Clark2008]

3. Although I agree she won't win

I don't really agree with their reason why.

In fact, I think it's the opposite. I think voters won't vote for a woman during a war. Her "humanity" won't be an issue.

[pretzel4gore]

13. war? what war?

where are the qrmies, navqies, airforqces involved in this 'war'?
if there aren't any, it aint war (unless you consider geeb a president, then ok it's ww3)

[LondonAmerican]

4. So far

she's got my vote. Seems head and shoulders above any other potential rivals.

[Missy M]

6. I think the important part of the article is that America is not ready..

for a woman president and I would like to know why that is. Men have been running this country since it began and what a botched up mess it has become. There have been some presidents that couldn't make it past middle management in the business world yet they became president, bush being the top example. It is time to get women into power and see if we can have some changes.

[Zenlitened]

15. They'll be saying "America is not ready for a woman president"...

... right up to the the moment a woman takes the oath of office as president. And probably well beyond that, into the first years of her administration. :grr:

Edited to add:

And then her success or failure will be used as the measure of whether women -- all women, any woman -- is "fit" to be president.

:crazy:

[CWebster]

7. Just what we need--the Margaret Thatcher model.

This argument doesn't wash with great female leaders from Eleanor Roosevelt to Shirly Chilsolm to Barbara Boxer.

Liberation of women is NOT adopting the stupidity of men.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Quite right.

[Boomer]

12. I would vote for a woman...

I can think of at least a dozen women who would get my vote for president.

Hillary Clinton, however, is NOT one of them.

It's not enough to be smart and female; I also expect some principles that I agree with. Her vote for Iraq and her unwillingness to take a bold stand like Boxer and Conyers renders her just part of the politico crowd in my book.

[mbee]

9. If she really wants to be President she'll go for VP first. I don't

see a woman as President until a woman is VP first.

[MichiganVote]

10. Time for the US to break the male mold. I'd like a female prez

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[KG]

14. the US isn't ready to elect a female president, hillary or anyone else

the mindset of this countsy is still way too adolescent. it is so pervasive that i guarantee ya there are men on this board that would not vote for any woman.