Clinton: Playing Field for Her as Candidate Not Even Because of Her Gender

[Herman Munster]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/clinton-playing.html

In an interview with ABC News' Cynthia McFadden to air on this evening's "Nightline," Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., says it's tougher for her to run as a woman than it is for her male opponent.

Asked why she thinks so many women may be feeling sorry for her, Clinton said, "I think a lot of women project their own feelings and their lives onto me, and they see how hard this is. It's hard. It's hard being a woman out there. It is obviously challenging with some of the things that are said that are not even personal to me so much as they are about women.

"And I think women just sort of shake their head," Clinton continued. "My friends do. They say, 'Oh, my gosh, this is so hard.' Well, it's supposed to be hard. I'm running for the hardest job in the world. No one has ever done this. No woman has ever won a presidential primary before I won New Hampshire. This is hard. And I don't expect any sympathy, I don't expect any kind of, you know, allowances or special privileges, because I knew what I was getting myself into.

"Every so often I just wish that it were a little more of an even playing field," she said, "but, you know, I play on whatever field is out there."

[loveangelc]

1. w/e hillary. i cant wait until this is over.

[DJ13]

2. ...afterall, its so much tougher being a woman than being a black man

:eyes:

[Lerkfish]

10. LOL! just what I was thinking.

[skipos]

3. And it is a cakewalk for Obama because of his skin color.

I mean just LOOK at all the black governors and senators we have across America!

[AtomicKitten]

4. Just ask the victims of Katrina how America treats black people.

[Lerkfish]

12. I would say "snap" but I don't think of the abandoned in NOLA

in any flippant way. But you certainly make a salient point.

[AtomicKitten]

13. Of all the "isms," racism has deep roots in America and it's time to plow that field.

An Obama presidency will transform America in the eyes of the entire planet. I so look forward to a new direction!

[Lerkfish]

17. I"m daring to hope!

:)

[BeyondGeography]

5. Hillary Diane Clinton doesn't have it all that bad

[emilyg]

31. Neither does Obama

[jgraz]

6. Plus they ALWAYS ASK HER THE FIRST QUESTION!!!!!!11111oneone11

How can she possibly be expected to campaign under these conditions??

[scheming daemons]

7. Yawn... more whining...... NOT Presidential, Hillary.....

...

But that's ok.. you won't be President.

[NJSecularist]

8. Oh give me a break. More excuses.

Do you think Barack complains about being a black man?

Hillary, in case you have forgotten, women represent 56-57% of the electorate in the Democratic primaries. You have a built-in advantage simply due to that, since most women tend to vote for you.


Cry me a river, Hillary. :nopity: :nopity:

[gabeana]

9. It is tough for a woman

but she is not the normal woman saddled with inherent discrimination, she has the advantage and its a big one, her husband is a former President of the United States.I mean she had higher name recognition than John Edwards when this all began and he was the for Dem Nominee for V.P., this is just pandering

[grantcart]

11. especially when you have to run as a woman and nobody is the least

bit familiar with you and have never heard of you.

[GoreVidalIsGod]

14. 17 women Senators. 1 Black.

Almost a dozen women Govs. 1 Black.

And guess what? The one black Sen and one black Gov are friends. Ahhh, Hill, I'm sure it's so much harder.

[Esya]

24. So are you an advocate for proportional representation? I'll go for that.....

In which case women would have a majority in all legislatures, both the House and the Senate, etc. In which case "blacks" if you want to call the race card, would have less than one in five...... Not to mention he's mixed, so that gives him even less.

One thing though, there's no mixed gender category for this whole discussion yet, is there?

I thought Obama was the post-race candidate.

[ContinentalOp]

37. So proportionally,

There should be 50 women in the senate and 12 African Americans right? So in the Senate women are represented at only 34% of their actual population numbers and African Americans at 8%. Is my math correct?

In terms of governors, the 8 women governors are only 32% of where they should be and the single black governor is only 16% of what the correct proportion should be. Indians are WAY over represented proportionally by Governor Jindal. :P

In the House there are 74 women (17%) and 41 black representatives (9%). Which means that the two groups are represented by only 34% and 75%, respectively of their proportions in the general population.

Assuming that my math is correct I find it interesting that women hover so consistently at that 32-34% mark. I wasn't surprised to see that African Americans are represented much more fairly in the house than in the senate or governorships.

[Lerkfish]

15. back to this again.

Hillary had more advantages than almost any other woman who could have run. Besides name recognition, she had access to a political appartus that remained in place for decades at her disposal. This nomination was hers to lose, and apparently she decided to lose.

this laying blame everywhere except her own poorly run campaign is way beyond tired and pathetic.

I'll be so glad when we can stop with the excuse machine.

[barack the house]

16. I think there wouldn't be sexismcontorversy if she wans't encouraging gender divide. Sexism is being

Sexism is being labelled so freely that it has made those that are not even in anyway objectionable to women lash out.If the blame was be said of specific men it might be a different story. The sexism label has managed to distance voters from HRC and at the same time encouraged more sexism. It's diplomacy which this world needs right now and in my worthless opinion Barack has that.

[democrattotheend]

18. If Barack were white, she'd have a fair point

There certainly are gender obstacles, but I think the challenge of being African American and running for president at least cancels out the challenge of being a woman running for president. I think one of the reasons Obama has been having trouble with seniors is because of lingering racism, unfortunately.

I think there are at least as many people who won't vote for an African American as those who won't vote for a woman. The racial effect is probably even worse than the gender effect, since there are a lot of Democrats who are not racist but are afraid the country is too racist to elect a black man, and thus perceive Obama as unelectable.

Running as a woman is tough, but I don't think it's as tough as running as a black man with a Muslim-sounding name. If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd be winning right now.

[barack the house]

21. Spot on, dirty politics is dirty politcs male or female.

[hedgehog]

19. She does have one major hurdle due to her gender , IMO.

She reminds me of various Queen Bees I've had the misfortune to encounter. Sisterhood is a fine and noble sentiment, but when you get a knife in the back at work, it doesn't much matter whether the hand that ut it there is male or female!


On edit: male politicians suffer from gender stereotyping as well. Once you hear about young George's past time of blowing up frogs, could you ever think of him as anything but a bully?

[blonndee]

20. It's "hard work."

Yes, it is. And we don't want to hear about it. Either be presidential material or don't. You can do the job or you can't. Whiners almost certainly cannot.

[Esya]

22. Gee, should I start mocking the experience of mixed race men in the U.S.?

The posters on this thread are just proving her point.

[workinclasszero]

23. Hillary's got the poor me's...real presidential, eh?

:eyes:

[Danger Mouse]

25. Fucking bullshit. How many black senators are there, Hillary?

Oh right. Just one. Barack Obama.
How many black governors are there? Oh right. Just one. Deval Patrick.

[MadBadger]

26. This is actually pathetic

[Diane R]

27. I'm tired of this woman, I'm tired of her husband. Please, I just want them to go away.

[scheming daemons]

30. AMERICA has Bush/Clinton-fatigue.... and Hillary doesn't get it...

...

[eridani]

28. So why was she the presumptive nominee for so long? n/t

[madrchsod]

29. oh for christ sake hillary,grow up and quit complaining.

[milkyway]

32. How many times is she going to go for the female sympathy vote by playing the victim?

Geez, she thinks voters are just puppets on a string.

[anonymous171]

33. Too tough for the fighter?

Maybe she wants a pillow too?

[Liquorice]

34. I loved her interview. It's one of the few

I've seen that was actually balanced and the interviewer wasn't out to get her. Good job, Cynthia McFadden! And I agree with Hillary. It is tougher for a woman to run for president. Hillary is blazing a trail for all women with this historic run.

[MadBadger]

35. Tougher than who?

[Liquorice]

36. ...tougher than for a man.

[MadBadger]

38. Even a Black man?

[Liquorice]

39. Probably.

[loveangelc]

40. this may backfire