The tricky gender card
THE GENDER card is still the wild card for Hillary Clinton.
By now, Clinton knows the downside of being a female presidential candidate. Her cleavage, laugh, wrinkles, and marriage periodically undergo deep political analysis. She has been called a bitch and depicted as a witch.
Barack Obama can quote Martin Luther King Jr. But if Clinton writes an online essay for Glamour magazine, she is criticized for pandering to women.
So, is there still enough upside in her womanhood to win her the Democratic nomination?
Clinton appears to be banking on it. On the campaign trail, she talks about making history and clearly revels in the women of all ages who come up to her and tell her they are inspired by her candidacy. Her mother and daughter are campaigning on Clinton's behalf. They are there to support her, but also to connect with female voters, who often bring daughters of their own to Clinton campaign events.
But gender remains a double-edged sword. How Clinton is playing it - or overplaying it - remains at the heart of the debate over her candidacy, inside the campaign and in the media.
Clinton's campaign encountered its first serious pushback last fall after issuing complaints that her male rivals were piling on after an Oct. 30 debate in Philadelphia. That appeal to victimhood made Clinton seem weak at the very moment she had strength as the perceived front-runner. It was a strategic misstep, which stalled her campaign more than the actual issue that drew the attack from rivals - an imprecise answer she gave to a question about whether illegal immigrants should be allowed to obtain a driver's license.
Bill Clinton's efforts on his wife's behalf also draw a mixed response. While the former president is popular with some Democrats, his presence on the campaign trail forces Hillary Clinton to define her experience from the vantage point of former first lady. It also puts the Clinton marriage front and center, detracting from Hillary Clinton the presidential candidate.
As the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary loom, Clinton is telling voters, "I'm very excited about the possibility of becoming the first woman president." The comment drew this headline in The Washington Times: "Hillary dangles prospect of first female president."
Of course she would be the first female president, and voters, including men, realize it. But on its own, that's not enough to win the nomination or the presidency, even if the latest USA Today/Gallup poll shows that Clinton is the woman Americans admire most. After all, Oprah Winfrey, who is actively campaigning for Obama, is only two points behind in the poll.
Voting for the first woman president would be "voting for an historic moment," said Bion Piepmeier,, 23, as he and a friend, Chris Devine, also 23, waited to gain entrance to a recent Clinton campaign event in Manchester, N.H.
These two self-described political junkies are graduates of Connecticut College, where they belonged to the Connecticut College Republicans. Disillusioned with the Bush administration, they were checking out presidential candidates on the weekend before Christmas. In that spirit, they, along with a few other men, showed up for what was billed primarily as a mother/daughter event for Clinton.
Both young men were looking for reasons beyond making history to consider a Clinton vote. Both found some, and in their response lies Clinton's strongest case to voters in the primaries and beyond.
"Quite frankly, I was very impressed with Sen. Clinton. I thought she gave detailed, concise answers to all the questions posed to her . . . I thought she really connected with her audience. I'm still very much on the fence about whom I will support, but after seeing her up close I feel much more comfortable with the idea of her leading this nation," said Piepmeier, via e-mail, after the Clinton event.
While leaning toward Republican John McCain, Devine said, via e-mail, "I was thoroughly impressed with Sen. Clinton. I found her to be personable and articulate . . . Quite simply, hers was a speech that George W. Bush could never dream of delivering and one that Barack Obama should be delivering instead of his customary series of abstractions and platitudes."
Those are the attributes Clinton should be stressing. The way to make history is to show voters she is the best candidate, not the only female candidate.
Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com.
