Hillary Clinton’s qualifications for president
Gloria Steinem thinks that if Barack Obama were a woman with the same resume, he’d have no chance at being president. I disagree. If Ms. Barack Obama had Mr. Obama’s ideals and experience, and was as good at communicating her ideals, she’d do well. To take the other side of Gloria Steinem’s example, if Hillary Clinton were a man she’d be running in the pack along with Bill Richardson, and nowhere near Barack Obama. Instead, she still has a chance at winning.
If you want to be a successful candidate for president, it helps to have charisma, experience, and guiding principles. Failing that, two out of three isn’t bad. Bill Clinton had charisma and experience. (“Wanting to be president” is not a guiding principle.) Barack Obama has charisma and guiding principles. I don’t necessarily agree with those principles, but he has them, and that is a good thing; it’s why I’d like to see an Obama/Thompson race.
Hillary Clinton has none of those three requirements. That’s her problem, not her gender. I can easily see a woman in the United States with even less elected experience than Clinton being taken seriously as a candidate. In four or eight years, for example, Condoleezza Rice, if she were convinced to run, would be a serious candidate. If democracy in Iraq continues to progress well, she’d also have a good chance of winning.
- Liberal Racism
- “‘If the lawyer described above had been just as charismatic but named, say, Achola Obama instead of Barack Obama, her goose would have been cooked long ago.’ Ah, and there is the clue: He’s charismatic. Hillary ain’t. And to lead, you must get people to follow you.”
- Steinem: Vote For Hillary Or You’re Sexist
- “How desperate have Hillary Clinton's backers become? One of the more prominent supporters, Gloria Steinem, takes to the pages of the New York Times to complain about the ascendancy of Barack Obama because black men have had an easier time than women. In doing so, she inadvertently makes the Republican case against the entire slate of choices on the Democratic side.”
- If Barack Obama were a woman
- “‘An unprecedented eight years of on-the-job training in the White House?’ Ahem… Gloria? Can you say anything about the feminist issues entailed in a woman running for the presidency on her husband’s accomplishments? If not, you’re speaking as a Clinton partisan and not as someone who wants to seriously engage with feminism.”
- President Condoleezza Rice?
- Condoleezza Rice in 2008?
More presidential elections
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- Vote on performance, not promises
- If you’re disappointed that President Obama is the same wheeler-dealer he was when he was a Senator, take it as a lesson for future elections: vote performance and record, not promises.
- A proven reformer
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- Obama campaign skirts campaign finance law
- I expected the New York Times to be silent on the illegal donations that the Obama 2008 campaign encourages. I should have known better: they’re trying to cover for the campaign. But the bigger issue is that laws that don’t get enforced are counterproductive; they encourage dishonesty and lawlessness.
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