Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Will Clinton's gender help or hurt her?
McClatchy Washington Bureau ^ | November 10, 2007 | Steven Thomma

Posted on 11/10/2007 6:39:46 PM PST by Graybeard58

WASHINGTON — Even from a distance, you can tell it’s a Hillary Clinton campaign rally. It’s clear well before you see the bumper stickers on the cars or hear the speeches inside.

You can tell by the women, young and old, lined up early. Often outnumbering men by margins of 2 to 1, they come to see the first woman with a real chance of being a major party's nominee for president — and a real chance of being elected.

They talk about health care and the war. But they’re also drawn by an emotional, woman-to-woman bond summed up by one fan at an early Clinton rally in Iowa: “I feel it in the heart.”

Eight weeks before the voting starts, Clinton is the favorite to win the Democratic nomination. And the prospect of her taking it and the Oval Office from what she calls the “boys’ club” of presidential politics raises the question: Will Clinton’s gender help her, hurt her or make no difference?

One possibility: a new gender gap — with a surge of women, some of them Republican, voting for her on one side, and a bloc of men lying to pollsters about their readiness to vote for a female candidate, then voting against her in the privacy of the voting booth.

Even with some history as a guide — there was an increase of women voting for female Senate and House of Representatives candidates in 1992’s “year of the woman,” for example — the stakes are higher and the votes much more difficult to predict when the presidency is at stake.

“We have no benchmark. We have no way to know,” said Kathleen Dolan, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who’s written extensively on female candidates and voters.

So far, polls suggest that women are supporting Clinton more than her rivals.

In Iowa, the first state to vote next January, the New York senator now gets the support of 33 percent of women and 22.5 percent of men, according to a recent survey of likely Democratic caucus attendees by the University of Iowa.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois gets 26.5 percent of women and 26.7 percent of men. And former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina gets 16.8 percent of women and 25 percent of men.

Clinton aides think her support from women could grow in a general election against a male Republican candidate.

Women represent as much as 54 percent of the vote. Clinton pollster Mark Penn said recently that 94 percent of young women are more likely to vote if a woman is on the ballot. As many as 20 million unmarried women sat out the 2004 election.

“Even a 10 percent increase in turnout among women on top of the current polls would give Hillary a significant edge in a general election, opening up a wide number of states,” Penn said.

He also told reporters at a recent breakfast that the “emotional element” of a female president could draw as many as one out of four Republican women to vote for Clinton, a crossover that would give her a better shot at winning such swing states as Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Virginia.

Independent analysts also see some potential crossover appeal.

“There is a possibility that Clinton could attract moderate Republican and independent women,” said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University. “I’m not sure the numbers will be as high as Clinton thinks, but there could be some crossover.”

Some Republican women conceded that voting for a female presidential candidate is appealing, but said they thought Clinton had much less appeal than Penn predicted.

“The idea of a woman president in general is emotionally appealing,” said Karen Hanretty, an aide to former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, another presidential candidate. “But what do Republican women have in common with Hillary Clinton? I don’t think there would be a significant number of people who would vote for Hillary Clinton because she’s a woman.”

There’s also the possibility of a backlash among female voters against male candidates who attack Clinton, even though attacks are normal in politics.

That happened in the 2000 New York Senate race, when Republican Rick Lazio walked across a debate stage to confront Clinton face to face. And it might have happened this fall, when her male rivals and two male moderators challenged her in a recent debate.

Clinton aides and supporters called it unfair, noting the lineup of men against a woman. That, however, could undermine the image Clinton has cultivated as a tough-as-nails, Margaret Thatcher-like leader for a nation at war.

Kate Michelman, a feminist leader who supports Edwards, accused Clinton of "trying to have it both ways."

"At one minute, the strong woman ready to lead; the next, she's the woman under attack, disingenuously playing the victim card," Michelman said. "It is not presidential."

Yet it did strike some women as an attack on a woman, not just on a presidential candidate.

“It’s not a free shot,” said Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin. “It’s not true that all of these women will take it as a neutral act, these kinds of attacks."

Yet for any gender advantage Clinton might have, there remains the question of how many Americans will vote for a woman.

Large majorities tell pollsters that they'd have no problem voting for a woman. But minority politicians have faced the same landscape, only to find that their support dropped on Election Day, with some people having voted differently than what they’d said.

“There is some piece of the population that will work exactly like that, people who will say I’m supporting her or will support a woman, and then will vote the other way,” said Dolan at the University of Wisconsin.

“That’s just one of the pieces that make this really hard. Until people get into the polling place, there’s no way to know how it’s going to play out.”


TOPICS: Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: hillary
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-93 next last

1 posted on 11/10/2007 6:39:46 PM PST by Graybeard58
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58
Will Clinton's gender help or hurt her?

I dunno. What sex is Clinton?

2 posted on 11/10/2007 6:42:18 PM PST by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll. "What happens if neutrinos have mass?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: theDentist
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
3 posted on 11/10/2007 6:42:49 PM PST by Graybeard58 ( Remember and pray for SSgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58

It isn’t her GENDER that hurts her.

It is her SOCIALISM, her MARXISM, and her SHRILLNESS that hurts her.

If there was ever a mouth designed to have a dirty athletic sock stuffed into it, it is hers.


4 posted on 11/10/2007 6:43:08 PM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!


5 posted on 11/10/2007 6:44:07 PM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: theDentist

lol, what is up le dentiste?


6 posted on 11/10/2007 6:44:35 PM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel

That’s cool. Is there anyone here who doesn’t do that?


7 posted on 11/10/2007 6:46:23 PM PST by Graybeard58 ( Remember and pray for SSgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel

For Hillary Clinton to say that she represents women, and will break that glass ceiling.........Hillary is too liberal and socialist. How many blacks would be so excited about Snoop Doggy Dogg being the first black president? That’s about how excited most women are about somebody like Hillary being the first woman president.


8 posted on 11/10/2007 6:46:26 PM PST by Dilbert San Diego
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Dilbert San Diego
Like every other conservative member of this forum and right thinking people all over America, I look forward to the day when Hillary gets the big smack down. I do believe I will laugh even louder at her than I still do that loser Al Gore.
9 posted on 11/10/2007 6:48:57 PM PST by Graybeard58 ( Remember and pray for SSgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58
"...with a surge of women, some of them Republican, voting for her on one side, and a bloc of men lying to pollsters about their readiness to vote for a female candidate, then voting against her in the privacy of the voting booth...."

BS. There is NO woman who has a brain in her head, who actually has chosen on the basis of her ideas to be called a "Republican" who would vote for Hillary Clinton. Those who do, are NOT and have NEVER been Republicans. They may be sexist, they are certainly idiots, but they are NOT and have NEVER been Republicans.

10 posted on 11/10/2007 6:50:14 PM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58

heh...NOPE!


11 posted on 11/10/2007 6:50:51 PM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58
woman-to-woman bond

Nothing sexist about this.

If this is the reason women vote, then they should have the vote taken away from them.

Nothing like voting the issues - and this is nothing like voting the issues.

12 posted on 11/10/2007 6:53:30 PM PST by HeartlandOfAmerica (The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58

I will never ... and I repeat, never ... cast my precious vote for Hillary Clinton. Not even if she was the only woman left on earth who was running for class president, much less President of the United States. It matters not that she is a woman and I am a woman. Period. I have absolutely no sense of loyalty or obligation to her because she and I are the same gender.


13 posted on 11/10/2007 6:54:38 PM PST by JustaDumbBlonde
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58
and a bloc of men lying to pollsters about their readiness to vote for a female candidate, then voting against her in the privacy of the voting booth.

I stopped reading the article at that point ... obviously the writer has an agenda with a bone to pick.

14 posted on 11/10/2007 6:55:12 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58

That headline is wrong. It should be :

Will Clinton’s Marxism Help her or Hurt her?


15 posted on 11/10/2007 6:55:41 PM PST by Mobile Vulgus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58
who cares?

she doesn't care, as long as she's the topic of 80% of the square footage of all newsprint, just like she has been.

16 posted on 11/10/2007 6:55:58 PM PST by the invisib1e hand (keep the heat on the hillary.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58

I’m just wary that those libs bashing Hilary may have Obama in mind. It would be REALLY terrible to have him Prez.


17 posted on 11/10/2007 6:56:21 PM PST by bboop (Stealth Tutor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58
Will Clinton's gender help or hurt her?

In her first term, she'll have 48 shots at "that time of the month". I can't wait...

18 posted on 11/10/2007 6:57:37 PM PST by Libloather (Hillary donors find their way to the cover of Time. And the very next day they're doing it...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58
Will Clinton's gender help or hurt her?

Why has "gender" become the politically correct substitute for the term "sex"? Gender is a term from linguistics that refers to the classification of nouns, pronouns, and their modifiers according to sex, primarily in Romance, Germanic, Slavic, and other languages. Until recently, the term was rarely heard outside of linguistics and foreign language studies.

19 posted on 11/10/2007 6:58:02 PM PST by Fiji Hill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: theDentist
What sex is Clinton?

I'm not sure, but I think she's bi-sexual.

20 posted on 11/10/2007 6:58:16 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Elections have consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-93 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson