Hillary Hunts for the Human Touch

Slate parses candidate Clinton’s likability gap
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 28, 2007 3:34 PM CDT
Hillary Hunts for the Human Touch
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks to Democrats in North Little Rock, Ark., Saturday, June 23, 2007. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)   (Associated Press)

Hillary Clinton has experience and leadership to spare, but she’s battling innate appearances just to be liked, Slate’s John Dickerson says. No one thinks Clinton's a shrinking violet—pollees call her tougher than former POW John McCain—but she struggles on the "softer" qualities, like, say, appearing human.

Gender especially dogs Clinton, Dickerson writes; the iconic hard-as-nails first lady loses allure "for not meeting some abstract notion of womanhood." The Hillary camp's efforts to humanize their candidate range from the silly Sopranos take-off to stories of wedding showers and "late-night gossip sessions." (More Hillary Clinton stories.)

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