June 25, 2007
· Filed under Bill Clinton, corruption, democratic nomination, democrats, republicans
For those of you who ready Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball (political analysis/election predictions), you will have noticed that he recently wrote an article entitled “The Hillary Dilemma.” He concludes that although Hillary’s credentials outweigh the other candidates’, making her seem like the strongest candidate in the field, she would actually be the weakest nominee for the Democratic party.
Like Clintonfan42, I think that many of Sabato’s points are weak in his analyis. First, he states that any Democratic nominee this election can count on inflated, if grudging, electoral support because the republican party has managed to dig itself deeper and deeper into an Iraq and scandal-lined hole over the past eight years. However, he then says that “The final several percent of swing voters needed to get Hillary Clinton over the top in the general election will vote for her only with the greatest reluctance, more as a way to stop a Republican than as an endorsement of her.” Is this really a problem for the Democratic party? Clearly, the best candidate would be, as Sabato says, a ‘unifier’ able to bridge the growing partisan divide, one that would sweep swing voters off their feet during the election, and encourage productive cooperation across the aisle once in office. I just think that’s wishful thinking. The Democrats can’t produce a candidate like that right now, and counting the inability to generate a wave of good feeling for the party as a particular weakness of Hillary’s is a misplacement of criticism. Read the rest of this entry »
June 18, 2007
· Filed under Bill Clinton, female politicians worldwide, female vs. male politicians, reporting, sexism
It’s come up a lot: why do we (and I must say that I include myself in this ‘we’) constantly refer to Hillary Clinton as ‘Hillary’ in the same breath that we refer to the other, male candidates by their last names?
If this were the case with any other female politician, I wouldn’t think too hard about labelling it as sexism in reporting. However, with Hillary, there is the sticky issue of Bill. The fact is, we can’t just call her ‘Clinton’. It would just be too confusing. And the reason that we abbreviate the names of well-known people in the first place (politicians, writers, intellectuals, and celebrities alike) is both to make speaking about them more convenient in colloquial terms, and to bring them down a little bit closer to our level. Referring to someone by part of his or her name is an expression of familiarity.
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June 10, 2007
· Filed under Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, biohraphies, motherhood, poltical husband
So how does Hillary combat the two new biographies which portray her as a single-minded, intensely driven careerwoman?
Like any candidate wishing to become more of a ‘real person’ in the public eye, she goes back to her roots.
For a politician, this means emphasizing her childhood, family life, and ’salt of the earth’ experience. While Hillary has not completely brought out the big guns yet, she has started mentioning her childhood, her daughter, and her mother a bit more in speeches as of late (see this Washington Post article). Read the rest of this entry »
June 4, 2007
· Filed under Bill Clinton, insider, iraq, limelight
Hillary has recently found two new thorns in her side: two books written about her that both happened to come out at roughly the same time. One is “Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta J, and the other is “Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” by Carl Bernstein. Both books are critical of Hillary, and although her campaign managers are writing them off as ‘old news’, such an assesment isn’t entirely true.
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May 16, 2007
· Filed under Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Mother Theresa, campaign strategy, democrats, limelight, poltical husband
More and more, Bill Clinton’s name is being mentioned in connection with his wife’s candidacy for president. Hillary faces a major dilemma when deciding whether or not she should allow her husband to enter the spotlight with her. She must consider the following: will Bill’s legendarily charismatic presence overshadow hers, thereby preventing potential supporters from really getting to know her? On the other hand, Hillary and other democrats remember all too well what happened to Al Gore, who tried to distance himself from President Clinton during his campaign.
Clearly Team Hillary is not too afraid of using Bill, since he recently released a 5-minute video endorsing her candidacy and telling the story of her career in public service. This same video has already received strong criticism from Christian groups, because Hillary includes footage of herself with Mother Theresa in it. (see rest of post for video)
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May 10, 2007
· Filed under Angela Merkel, Bill Clinton, Denis Thatcher, Hillary Clinton, Joachin Schauer, Margaret Thatcher, democrats, female politicians worldwide, female vs. male politicians, limelight, poltical husband, world opinion
Bill has started thinking about what his role will be when he returns to the White House– not as the ou
r political leader in charge, but as her devoted husband. As this NYT article points out, the main change will be that he will not continue working; instead, he will pay his expenses out of the Clinton savings account and focus on representing the United States of America by Hillary’s side. He seems to be handling his journey from democratic frontman to the weaker half of a political dyad quite well; who knows, maybe having the charismatic lady-killer focus on PR while his less scandal-prone wife runs the country would turn out to be a stupendous idea?
This unique Clinton dilemma– a former President’s return to the White House as an unelected sidekick– made me wonder how ‘first husbands’ in other parts of the globe choose to adopt to and treat their newfound roles.
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