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It's becoming more and more apparent that David Paul Kuhn's M.O. has less to do with analyzing Democratic electoral strategy than with a deep aversion toward women's leadership. Kuhn is the Politico writer currently promoting a book, The Neglected Voter, on why white men are the future of the Democratic Party. As devoted readers will remember, I disagree. Strongly. But I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. After all, I've read his book, and it seems Kuhn and I both think it would be nice if more people, generally, voted for Democrats. But then I came across Kuhn's latest offering. Ostensibly a story about "Voters' choice in 2008: Mom versus Dad," Kuhn spends the great majority of the article trashing Hillary Clinton for being too feminine, playing too much into the myth of Democrats as the' "Mommy Party." His evidence? Last week, Hillary spent a paltry five days discussing women's issues. Five days. What Kuhn doesn't address at all is that voters -- the people who actually matter -- think Clinton is the "toughest" politician in the race. As the Christian Science Monitor reported last month:
While historically, Americans have usually preferred the more likable candidate for president, this time around, the coin of the realm appears to be toughness. In a recent Pew Research Center poll, Democrats overwhelmingly associated Clinton with the word "tough;" she beat Obama on that quality 67 percent to 14 percent.Let's get real. A race between Clinton and Rudy Giuliani won't be about nurturing Mommy versus tough Daddy. It will be a bare-knuckled fight between two warriors of their parties.Indeed, Clinton is so focused on "toughness," on not overplaying women's issues, that when Guardian America editor Mike Tomasky asked her to name one issue on which she had led in the Senate, she bypassed the most obvious answer: procuring Plan B over-the-counter access, which she did alongside Sen. Patty Murray by placing a "hold" on President Bush's FDA nominee. This was back when the Democrats were in the minority. Instead, Clinton talked about trying to end the war in Iraq, an issue on which she, um, hasn't been a leader at all.Enough fretting about Clinton's femininity! You may have other problems with her. If so, let's discuss those instead. Because what we have here is an amazing, historical situation. The female candidate is the candidate viewed both as the most experienced and the toughest, traditionally the hardest attributes for female politicians to crack. The more we hand-wring over Hillary being a chick, the more we encourage voters to do the same. So far, thankfully, they appear to be tuning much of this chatter out.--Dana Goldstein
