Hillary’s Moment
Since I was on the West Coast and wanted to liveblog the debate, I had to listen to it off the WMUR audio-only feed. So when I heard the “defining moment” of the debate when Clinton got “angry”, I absorbed it differently than everyone else. What I heard was Clinton defending her record against Edwards’ attacks in a very forthright but slightly exasperated way. I thought her listing off of programs and accomplishments, while intrinsically not as effective as Obama’s inspiring oratory and vision, played to her strengths — extreme knowledge of policy detail and good preparation. And it all sounded good.
But apparently those watching the clip saw something else, they saw her mini-speech feeding “into the worst stereotype about her” which is the fact that she’s a woman who can be assertive sometimes. The CW was that this moment was bad, and perhaps campaign-ending bad. But I have to agree with Mickey Kaus and Dana Goldstein: the reason this moment played so badly for Clinton, that she could be described as flashing a “Medusa look” as Mike Crowley said, was probably because she’s a woman, and people don’t respond well when women get confrontational. What makes this doubly offensive is that in debates, the media tends to reward male candidates for being confrontational, especially those who are considered “tough” like Giuliani or McCain. But when Clinton forcefully and specifically defends her record, she’s “alone, angry, and lecturing.”
While it would easy to chalk up all of this negative reaction to sexist double standards, part of it is definitely that Clinton isn’t playing from a position of strength, so everything she does looks weak and ineffective, especially compared to Obama, whose debating style seems perfectly suited for a front runner. Add on the fact that much of the media really does not like Clinton, and it’s just about impossible for her to do anything in the debate without getting more criticism. For example, had she not forcefully defended her record and gone after Obama and Edwards, the same peanut gallery would have criticized her for not being aggressive enough in response to Edwards’ criticisms. “Why didn’t she defend her record and talk about her experience…”
