Hillary Clinton portrays calls to quit as chauvinism
- From: jose <josefsoplar@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:32:15 -0700 (PDT)
Hillary Clinton portrays calls to quit as chauvinism
By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 2:03am BST 31/03/2008
Faced with a growing chorus to abandon the uphill battle against
Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton is falling
back on what she sees as her trump card - her gender.
Trail Mix 2008: Elections campaign staff are people too
At other perilous junctures like the eve of the New Hampshire primary
and the eve of Super Tuesday, the former First Lady highlighted her
femininity during televised tearful moments. Now she is portraying the
calls for her to quit as male chauvinism.
Mrs Clinton believes women will turn out for her
In comments leaked to the New York Times, Mrs Clinton is said to have
told aides that she would not be "bullied out" of the White House race
and in a conversation with two allies compared her plight to "big
boys" trying to bully a woman.
During a weekend interview with the Washington Post - arranged at her
request - she was asked whether Mr Obama could beat John McCain, the
Republican nominee.
She responded: "I'm saying I have a better chance. You cannot as a
Democrat win the White House without a very big women's vote. What I
believe is that women will turn out for me."
In the past 10 days, Senators Chris Dodd and Pat Leahy and Governor
Bill Richardson of New Mexico - all key Obama allies - have urged Mrs
Clinton to abandon her presidential bid so her party can unite around
the young Illinois senator.
advertisementHoward Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman,
called for the nomination to be decided by July 1 at the latest and
counselled "super-delegates" - the 796 party officials who will have
the final say - to make their choice known before then.
Mrs Clinton flatly rejected this, vowing to take her battle all the
way to the party convention, which begins in Denver on August 25.
Once again, she highlighted her case that delegates from Florida and
Michigan - which the candidates agreed would not be seated - should be
given a vote.
"I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think
they are wrong," she told the Washington Post.
"I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and
until we see what happens in the next ten contests and until we
resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don't resolve it, we'll
resolve it at the convention."
Mrs Clinton's options, however, are narrowing and not all her staff
support her win-at-all-costs strategy. Two senior advisers and one
close ally told the New York Times that they would recommend she pull
out if she loses in Indiana on May 6.
The former First Lady is heavily favoured to win in Pennsylvania,
where she has a double-digit poll lead, on April 22 while Mr Obama has
a big advantage in North Carolina on May 6.
But Indiana, which neighbours Mr Obama's home state of Illinois, is
widely viewed as a toss-up.
Her campaign is already using the drumbeat against her continuing to
fight as a fundraising tool. Former president Bill Clinton signed off
an email to supporters on Friday with: "My family isn't big on
quitting. Hillary's in this race to win, and she's in it thanks to
you."
The argument that opposition to her battling to the bitter end is
motivated by sexism is, however, complicated by the fact that one of
the leading voices advocating an early resolution is that of
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who herself made history by becoming the
first female Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Mrs Clinton enjoys a 12-point advantage among female Democrats, who
have rallied behind her when she has been in dire straits.
Just before the New Hampshire primary, she received sympathy when two
youths began chanting the 1960s anti-feminist slogan "Iron my shirt!"
at one of her rallies.
Other supporters have noted that there is a strain of misogyny in some
of the opposition to her. On the social networking site Facebook,
among the anti-Clinton groups there are seven with names around the
theme "Life's a Bitch - Don't vote for one."
Another is entitled "Hillary Clinton Stop Running for President and
Make Me a Sandwich". As of Sunday, it had 43,432 members.
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph
Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without
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Those naughty men are beating up on Hillary again.
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