Is Hillary woman enough to become president?
New York. Is Hillary Clinton (photo Drudge Report) woman enough to become president? The question was asked Monday night by Jordan Williams, a student at Kansas University. On the set of the first CNN/YouTube debate, democratic candidates running for president next year smiled. Hillary’s femininity has been much discussed in the last few weeks since Elizabeth Edwards raised the question in an interview with Salon.com. The wife of John Edwards claimed her husband may be a better women’s advocate than Hillary Clinton. On Monday night in Charleston (South Carolina), Hillary, the only female in the running, had a minute to make her case. “Well, I couldn’t run as anything other than a woman, she answered laughing. I am proud to be running as a woman. And I’m excited that I may be able, finally, to break that hardest of all glass ceilings”. Standing next to the former First Lady, John Edwards tried to justify his wife’s comments: “Senator Clinton has a long history of speaking out on behalf of women, he said. She deserves to be commended for that. But I believe that on the issues that directly affect women’s lives, I have the strongest, boldest ideas and can bring about the change that needs to be brought”. “The way Americans view genders in this race recently shifted, said Kathy Dolan, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and expert on gender issues. Hillary Clinton tends to appear more masculine whereas there have been stories about Barack Obama’s and John Edwards’ feminine side”. Women will have a key role in next year’s presidential election. In 2004, women made up 54% of voters. According to Kathy Nolan, the Democratic electorate, who will vote in the primaries will be 60-65% female. Hillary Clinton has sought for a long time to energize and rally women behind her candidacy. Right now, she clearly enjoys the support of female voters. According to a recent ABC News-Washington Post poll of female voters, the senator from New York drew support from 51 percent of the women surveyed. 24 percent said they supported Barack Obama. Edwards was far behind his two main opponents with 11 percent of the females saying they backed him. A New York Times–CBS poll confirmed those results but also showed that Hillary Clinton remained vulnerable as some women clearly are skeptical of her. “Everything she does is questioned, Kathy Dolan said. Some women are very enthusiastic about her and admire her career. Some cannot stand her and fault her for not leaving Bill Clinton after his affair. Now she is trying to be tough and in control to show she could be president of the United States. Yet at the same time, she is sometimes accused of being too tough”. Clinton’s campaign staff set up a whole infrastructure to achieve one big goal: convince women to support Hillary and vote for her. “Her staff is aware of the perceptions that Hillary is too masculine, Kathy Dolan added. They are trying to get her more involved with the people because they know that voters who have met the candidate in person usually rave about her”. Clinton has hired six full-time staffers for women’s outreach while John Edwards only has one. She also has special groups for nurses, businesswomen, minority women and young women. For Kathy Dolan, such initiatives are very important: “It think it is easier for Americans to choose between a Black and a White candidate rather between a masculine and a feminine one”. Jean-Cosme Delaloye CommentsYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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