What Hillary Has and Obama Needs: An Image of Toughness

post from TalkLeft on 09 May 2008 05:31:00 PM. © TalkLeft

What do Mike Dukakis and John Kerry have in common? They were from Massachusetts and they had images as being soft. It is ironic that the one leading Democratic Presidential candidate who has overcome the "mommy" party problem is woman -- Hillary Clinton. Susan Faludi explains:

[W]hite men are warming to Hillary Clinton — at least enough to vote for her. It’s no small shift. These men have historically been her fiercest antagonists. Their conversion may point less to a new kind of male voter than to a new kind of female vote-getter.

. . . For years, the prevailing theory has been that white men are often uneasy with female politicians because they can’t abide strong women. But if that’s so, why haven’t they deserted Senator Clinton? More particularly, why haven’t they deserted her as she has become ever more pugnacious in her campaign?

. . . It’s the unforeseen precedent of an unprecedented candidacy: our first major female presidential candidate isn’t doing what men always accuse women of doing. She’s not summoning the rules committee over every infraction. . . . If anyone has been guarding the rules this election, it’s been the press, which has been primly thumbing the pages of Queensberry and scolding her for being “ruthless” and “nasty,” a “brawler” who fights “dirty.” But while the commentators have been tut-tutting, Senator Clinton has been converting white males, assuring them that she’s come into their tavern not to smash the bottles, but to join the brawl.

Faludi uses an intellectual construct. I put it this way - Hillary Clinton proved she was tough. Dems are seen as soft. Obama is seen as soft. He needs to change that. As do all Dems.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only