Huh? Hillary Clinton and Female Caucus Goers Edition
TPM shows a video clip of Clinton being interviewed by Meredith Viera and claiming that the caucus system, which involves pubicly stating who one is supporting, isn’t optimized for high female turn out. She said that “They would rather just keep their vote to themselves.” This claim is total crap. The demographics of Iowa voters are all highly in Clinton’s favor. Chris Bowers analyzed the Iowa data and concluded that the age make-up of the voters advantages Clinton. And on the simple issue of female participation of caucus goers, in 2004, 54% of Iowa voters were female.
Clinton surely knows all of this demographic data and seems to be trying to manage expectations. This type of expectation managing/covering for bad news by pointing to gender/sexism has become something of a pattern in the Clinton campaign. We all remember the Oct 30th debate when Clinton supporters claimed that her mediocre performance was due to the mean moderator and male candidates “piling on” with questions and criticism. While managing expectations is part and parcel of what all campaigns do, Clinton’s way of doing it — using her subordinates to accuse the system/other candidates/the press of being a bunch of rabid sexists — is especially grating.
