Quindlen: The Brand New and Same Old (about Clinton)

[question everything]

Newsweek.com
Quindlen: The Brand New and Same Old
The fantasy was that the first woman president would be someone who would turn the whole lousy system inside out and upside down.
By Anna Quindlen
Newsweek

(snip)

The truth is that Senator Clinton has a woman problem, but it's not the one we all might have envisioned decades ago. Certainly there may be Americans who covertly balk at the notion of a female president, despite what they may tell pollsters. And every time Clinton is described as calculating or ambitious, you realize that such words are never used for male politicians because for them both traits are assumed—and accepted. Old habits die hard. In the first Republican presidential debate, moderator Chris Matthews asked the contenders how they would feel about having Bill Clinton back in the White House. In a single sentence he turned the Democratic front runner into the Little Woman, a mere adjunct to her husband.

And of course there is that immovable group who have long hated Hillary Clinton for reasons too psychologically complex to be deconstructed, the people who wouldn't vote for her if she were running against Osama bin Laden. But in some weird fashion, the woman thing, as we like to call it, is playing a larger role among her natural supporters than her opponents. When we imagined a woman president we imagined a new day, a new strategy, a new vision and new tactics. Even when we said it was unfair to hold women to a higher standard than their male counterparts, in our hearts we did, whether they were running companies (more family-friendly policies and humane workplace conditions), editing newspapers (human-interest and service stories) or practicing medicine (patient contact and engagement).

But with Senator Clinton's candidacy, the brand new is the same old, revolution and throwback simultaneously. She has been part of the political scene for so long that an entire generation of girls have grown up never knowing a world without Hillary, front and center. Although opponents like to paint her as a liberal and a feminist, she is above all a pragmatist; she knows how a campaign is run, the well-oiled machine that must support the standard-bearer. In her case the machine is so well oiled and she is so polished, so practiced, that authenticity seems to have fallen by the wayside. The fantasy was that the first woman president would be someone who would turn the whole lousy system inside out and upside down. Instead the first significant woman contender is someone who seems to have the system down to a fine art.

(snip)

Voters may have a hard time imagining bellying up to the bar with Senator Clinton. Her human traits are too seldom on display. At political events, women speak of what it was like when they met her—at a small fund-raiser, in a school auditorium. How personable she was, how she really listened, how she knew everything about the issues that concerned them, from services for the aging to autism. The great conundrum of Hillary Clinton has always been this disconnect between the woman with the bright eyes and the deep belly laugh and the polished debater with the Sermon on the Mount posture and the tight mouth. The human versus the superhuman. Truth be told, that's another fantasy we had about a woman leader, too, that she would be authoritative and down to earth in equal measure.

Senator Clinton has been described so often as a transitional figure that she must be sick to death of the term. But perhaps that is what she will inevitably be in this race. Since the first Democratic debate her poll numbers have slowly risen. It may be that voters are more convinced of her opposition to the war in Iraq. It may be that Barack Obama seems slightly less magical than his early showing suggested. Or it may be that all those women who dreamed of Ms. President are realizing that there was always going to be a way station between guy politics as usual and a new female style of leadership. The public Hillary Clinton may always seem more presidential than approachable. But perhaps this time around, no matter who runs and who wins, Americans will figure out that they are electing a president, not a drinking buddy.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18754284/site/newsweek/

[question everything]

1. self kick. What is sad is how many DUers

bash Clinton as much as the freeps do.

[politicasista]

2. What's even sadder is people bash other Dems just to promote her or others n/t