More women feeling skeptical about Clinton's authenticity - though they wish they weren't

The Dallas Morning News ^ | July 8, 2007 | Melinda Henneberger

[Eric Blair 2084]

The most appealing thing about Hillary Rodham Clinton has always been her enemies, who often seem not in their right mind, screaming that she is a murderer and calling her names like "Her Thighness." They make you want to like her.

Yet in interviews across the country with women of all ages, races, income brackets and points of view, one of the rare patches of common ground was skepticism about the first female presidential contender with a serious shot at the White House. Over 18 months, I traveled to 20 states listening to women speak at length about what they care about and what drives them crazy as they look toward the presidential election in '08. I ought to like her, many of the strongest Democrats among them said. But on no other matter did left, right and center converge as on the view best summed up as "Anybody but Hillary' – to the point that I began to dread the mention of her name, because it meant we would probably not get around to talking about anything else that day.

All of which runs contrary to the accepted narrative of this election cycle, which is that it is women who are leading the charge for Mrs. Clinton's candidacy. Polling, which at this point still mainly measures name ID, certainly shows a far more mixed picture for Mrs. Clinton where female voters are concerned; 51 percent of those who participated in a recent Washington Post-ABC News survey said they support her for the Democratic nomination.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Rush did a segment on this article today. I don't know if he saw it here or more likely the same place I did, on realclearpolitics.com.

He referenced the obvious comparisons between the Hildebeast and French Socialist candidate Royal (the only similarities that I see are that they are both Socialists and they both have breasts).

Comparison To Clinton Is Dismissed French Counterpart Lacked Substance, Senator Clinton's Camp Says

Unlike Royal, who emphasized her charm and femininity rather than her strength on foreign policy, Clinton has proven her national security bona fides, her advisers said. They argued that unlike Royal, Clinton does best among her own gender. An Ipsos exit poll on Sunday found that Royal lost the women's vote by 4 percentage points, while 2008 polling in the United States has shown a gender gap in which Clinton performs stronger among women, particularly those younger than 60.

[murron]

“Unlike Royal, who emphasized her charm and femininity rather than her strength on foreign policy, Clinton has proven her national security bona fides, her advisers said.”

There’s no way that Hillary could emphasize her charm and femininity, since she has none.