THE DAILY BLADE: Can Hillary Avoid Ségolène’s Fate?
As The Stiletto predicted, Socialist Ségolène Royal did not capture the women’s vote in Sunday’s presidential election. Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy won 52 percent of the votes cast by women, according to an Ipsos exit poll. The Wall Street Journal calls the women’s vote "largely a liberal feminist myth," noting that choosing Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate did not give Walter Mondale any advantage over Ronald Reagan, who got 56 percent of the women’s vote in the 1984 election.
Post-9/11, to win men’s votes - never mind women’s - Hillary needs to be less Ségolène and more Margaret (Thatcher) or Angela (Merkel). Consequently, her advisors were spinning Royal’s loss as proof that Hillary "is running the right kind of campaign, a substantive one - even if it means she is sometimes accused of lacking charisma," according to The Washington Post.
But not being charismatic can be politically perilous. According to the latest Gallup Poll, Hillary’s image has been eroding steadily since the beginning of the year:
Hillary Clinton's image has undergone a significant change, becoming steadily less positive as this year has progressed. Gallup's last trend measure showed that 45% of Americans have a favorable view of Clinton while 52% have an unfavorable view. That contrasts with a significantly more positive image - 58% favorable, 40% unfavorable - as 2007 began. …
People who dislike Clinton say a number of things when asked what they don't admire about her -- split to a degree between mentions that deal with her personal characteristics and those that deal with her positions on the issues.
The biggest contrast between the negative views given by those who dislike Clinton and the positive views given by those who like Clinton is the greater tendency of the former to mention her positions on the issues. Almost one out of four of those who don't like Clinton cite her views on the issues and her liberal positions as what they don't admire about her.
Another 11% mention their perceptions that she wavers too much on the issues and is wishy-washy, while 2% say they don't admire her views on Iraq specifically.
That's not to say her detractors don't mention Clinton's personal characteristics. While those who admire Clinton cite her strength and determination, those who don't like her cite what they perceive to be her more "shifty" nature. That includes 14% who say they simply don't trust her, 11% who say she is an opportunist, and 5% who say she has no morals or ethics.
All things being equal, people tend to vote for candidates they find likeable, so having higher negatives than positives – especially on character issues – is a more serious political liability for Hillary than being a ditz was for Ségolène.
Editorial Note: Having correctly labeled "the women’s vote" a myth, The Wall Street Journal paradoxically falls for the equally mythical premise that "French women don't get fat." According to 2006 data reported by France to the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 36.3 percent of French women are overweight or obese (defined as a Body Mass Index at or above 25).
Why People Are Sick Of The MSM
The Associated Press series on the presidential candidates’ bad habits, favorite reality TV shows and such trivialities being the ideal example, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz ticks off "the dominant issues in the Republican presidential primary," as reported in the MSM:
† Who flipped and who flopped on abortion?
† Who believes in evolution?
† Who has more marriages, and who has the youngest wife?
† Who believes that some French marriages last only seven years?
† Who really drove a red pickup truck?
† Does playing a racist character raise questions about your own character?
† Where are the gates of hell, exactly?
Forget about Iraq, terrorism, immigration, unemployment, trade and education. The above-mentioned matters are drawing much of the media attention. I'm not saying abortion isn't important, but there seems to be a rather narrow focus right now.
Even the "horse race" reporting that passes for political analysis by the MSM is more informative than this drivel.
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