IT WAS a blunt question for US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton at the end of a long campaign day. A young man said he knew a lot of people who just did not like her, and he wanted to know what she could do about it.
She agreed there are people who will never vote for her. “It breaks my heart, but that is true,” she said, suggesting it is just part of the game when you stick to your principles. But with less than two weeks to go to the Iowa caucuses, her campaign is making a bigger effort to confront the nagging matter of her likeability and electability.
Clinton has begun showing off a softer side – inviting friends, New York constituents and family members to Iowa to speak for her and attest to her warmth, compassion and hearty laugh.
It is a noticeable change for the New York senator, who has spent most of the campaign emphasising her toughness – from her muscular views on national security to her stated willingness to “deck” political opponents.
The campaign has launched a new website,
thehillaryiknow.com, featuring video tributes from people who have known her over the course of her life – ranging from her mother to General Wesley Clark.
Clinton has also revamped her stump speech to be more personally revealing, and appears to have modulated her voice a bit to make it sound smoother and softer.
The Iowa caucus is the first in a series of state votes to determine which candidates will represent their parties in the presidential race, and can make or break candidates.
The effort to soften Clinton’s image began when her mother, Dorothy Rodham, and daughter, Chelsea, campaigned for the former First Lady in Iowa and appeared in new commercials being broadcast in the state.
The issue of personality has bedevilled Clinton throughout her career in public life and carries particular resonance now that she is locked in a three-way battle in Iowa and trying to close the sale with undecided caucus-goers.
“It goes straight to the perception that she is cold, calculating and devoid of human warmth,” said Dennis Goldford, professor of political science at Drake University in Des Moines. “Many Democrats either believe those things are true or they know people who believe them to be true, and that speaks to concerns about her electability.”
For her part, Clinton said last week that she had agreed somewhat reluctantly to the new emphasis on her personal side.
“I know people say, ‘We’ve got to know more about her, know more about her personally. It’s not easy for me to talk about myself,” she said.
Her husband says he supports the effort to stress her relationships with family and friends. “I think it’s good to hear from people who really know her as opposed to what others have said about her for more than a dozen years,” he said. “What you’re trying to do here is accelerate a process for Iowa caucus-goers that has already happened in New York, in Arkansas, in every place she’s ever lived and worked.”
Her strategists also noted that the personal testimonials carry an important additional message: they emphasise the changes people say she’s brought their lives, in an election year in which voters say they are seeking a candidate who can bring change to Washington.
Even so, Clinton still has her work cut out for her.
Graduate David Dickey, 25, the man who asked her the likeability-electability question, said it was still a concern – and one reason he might caucus for Obama.
“I like her and I think she’d be a good president. But as a caucus-goer, I think we need to get the most electable person,” he said. “I base my decisions on the people I know. A lot of them are independents, and I think it’s important to get them on a Democrat’s side.”
Mark Penn, Clinton’s lead strategist and pollster, said her team had always planned to emphasise her personal qualities during the campaign’s closing days. They accelerated the plan after rivals began criticising her more forcefully, Penn said.
“It’s the result of the attacks that Barack Obama and John Edwards have made on her. So it’s very important for people to understand the full extent of what Hillary’s done and the people she’s helped,” Penn said.
Other advisers said the decision to play up Clinton’s personal side came at the urging of her Iowa team, who felt strongly that caucus-goers were familiar with her public record but needed to feel more comfortable with her.
In an AP-Yahoo News national poll released last month, just 41% of voters said Clinton was likeable, compared with 54% for Obama and 49% for Edwards, two Democrats who also are running strong in Iowa.
More recently, a CBS News-New York Times poll this month found only 3% of Clinton supporters said they back her because she is likeable, compared with 26% who said it was because she is married to former President Bill Clinton and 23% who said she has the right experience.
Eight per cent of Obama’s supporters said they chose him because they like him, while 27% selected him because of his newness.
Clinton has faced comments during a presidential debate about her choice of jacket and newspaper coverage about how much cleavage she showed one day on Capitol Hill. As First Lady from 1993 to 2001, she was the topic of endless attention over her hair styles and skirt lengths.
Looks have always mattered in politics, particularly since television has provided a stream of close-ups of candidates, starting with the TV presidential debate in which Richard Nixon debated against a younger, more handsome John Kennedy in 1960.
Clinton is not the only woman to face such a harsh glare. German Chancellor Angela Merkel received plenty of unwelcome attention last year after an unflattering photograph appeared of her changing into a bathing suit while on holiday.
Such attention on women is one of the last vestiges of men’s resistance to sharing power, said Eleanor Smeal, head of the Feminist Majority Foundation.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with wrinkles. I think there’s a hesitancy among men to share power,” said Smeal. “What the Clinton race shows is that women now are a force to be reckoned with as candidates.”
The double standard for men and women is more about ageing than looks, said Kristi Andersen, political science professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
“The grey-haired nice-looking man is a symbol of authority, and we haven’t gotten there for women,” she said.
Family tiesHillary’s mother Dorothy has been on the campaign trail to vouch for her daughter’s leadership credentials.
“What I would like people to know about Hillary is what a good person she is… She was like a lot of other little girls except that Hillary was kind of a leader… I think that she ought to be elected because she’s the best qualified. I would vote for Hillary even if she weren’t my daughter.”
But having daughter Chelsea tag along has highlighted the senator’s combative manner. Chelsea, below, complained to her mother after Hillary told the US Chamber of Commerce that young people today “think work is a four-letter word.”
“I said, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to convey the impression that you don’t work hard,’” Clinton said later. “I just want to set the bar high because we are in a competition for the future.”
