In this poll, 52% say they would not vote for Hillary Clinton for president. Reading thru the comments, I found an excellent question:
Any idea where all those negatives come from? Stupid partisan comments that throw more heat than light are NOT welcome. I can see anti-war people having a beef with her. I can see Bill Clinton haters transferring the hate to her. Some people don’t like that she tried to reform health care (can’t understand why that is a problem). I think some of it may be people who don’t like women who aren’t in their place. Otherwise what gives — her positions and agenda are little different from the other Democrats?
Good question. And given how well she performed the other night, a valid one. So why do so many people – including Democrats – say that they absolutely will not vote for Hillary?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
This is an excellent, clear analysis from Sabato that may shed some light on this issue. It’s definitely worth a read.
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/article.php?id=LJS2007062101
Bullwinkle is right. Sabato hits many, if not all, the main points there.
I will also note that many of my current coworkers are very much against a Hillary presidency. Most have a libertarian streak running through them, though at least a couple are solid blue Democrats.
In fact, I only know of one person who has really gotten on the Hillary bandwagon. Most of my friends favor Fred Thompson (I’m sure this comes as no shock to anyone), a few are getting behind Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. The rest are undecided (many of the aforementioned coworkers probably fall in this category). Hillary, however, is the most derided and least supported candidate.
Equal to the post of last year when readers at DailyKos fully approved of Harry Reid and wanted to impeach Nancy Pelosi, I suspect there is a certain degree of sexism.
I remember when my alkie hubby and I owned a business, he could be crass, tell off-color jokes, demean the employees and that was hunky-dory. But when I raised an issue about tardiness, personal calls, whatever, I was a bitch.
Never mind that I was the work horse and my ex was the slacker who put off his own work onto anyone nearby. He was a charmer and funny; and the gals just LOVED him.
Women are held to a higher standard. Men don’t like to take orders from women; and women are either jealous of them or resent the fact they can’t flirt their way out of work.
Gosh, just listen to Chris Matthews and the female guests who allow him to go on and on instead of slamming him for his blatant sexism.
Just reread the article by Sabato and it aligns with my position. Hillary is considered too calculating; too ambitious; In other words, too uppity. Who does she think she is…?
If Hillary should become the Democratic candidate, one good thing she’ll have is Bill Clinton campaigning like a dog for her; and he is GOOOOD!
Two observations.
I recently volunteered at a DC non-profit, stuffing envelopes, etc. Mostly women present. Making small talk, I asked about presidential preferences. Lots of mumbling … “I don’t know about Hillary,” accompanied with face-scrunching and frowns.
After a few minutes of this, I volunteered that while undecided, HRC is in my mix, and in fact, making a good case for herself.
It was as if I’d liberated these people or something … all of a sudden, a wave of “I kind of like Hillary, yes, perhaps Hillary.” Good grief.
After years of the Limbaugh, etc, I think there’s a peer pressure thing going on. I predict that a significant nr of women who “hate Hillary” in public will actually vote for her in private. Especially in the GE, should she be the nom.
Second observation is that her negatives went up after announcement. I’ve noticed that hard-core supporters of other candidates are really pushing the “electibility” argument hard, undoubtedly due to her lead in the polls. Right now, I would guess that a number of Dems promote Hillary Hatred with the idea that it helps their candidate.
dblhelix – HRC? We haven’t heard her use “Rodham” in quite a while, now. I’ve been curious where it went. My personal opinion is she dropped it from her public visage to further identify with her husband, trying to draw on the black vote while reducing sexism against her in other sectors of the voting public.
VJP – What’s right with Hillary? I completely agreed with Sabato when he points out how ludicrous and shameful it is that the fourth president in a row might be from one of two families. Surely America has someone more talented.
But personally, I don’t support Hillary because 1) her stances change when the latest opinion poll comes out (she’sa liar), 2) she is married to Bill Clinton (I prefer my politicians un-greased, thank you), and 3) her national health care policy stinks (yes I think everyone should have health care… I just recognize that her plan will run our country even further into the ground).
Good post.
Vivian
Listening to Hillary Clinton on the radio a few minutes ago reminded me of your question. To me, her tone of voice is off-putting, sounding even strident much of the time these days. As she has gotten older I’ve noticed it more and more.
Her sometimes grating voice hurts Clinton, even as Obama’s soothing tone of voice is probably his strong suit.
You raise a great point. I think people opposing Hillary should find more concrete reasons to oppose her, such as policy positions, previous statements, and source of campaign contributions.
I didn’t post with the intention to slam Hillary Clinton so I won’t. I’ll simply say that I am not supporting her at this time for various (concrete) reasons.
I’ll concede that many of my reasons weren’t as concrete as they should have been. So your post does lend itself to a more critical analysis of the Senator as opposed to simply a “smell test”.
Of course, there are numerous posts from people opposing Kucinich and Gravel because they are simply “wacko”. Many of the same people who say such things about them support also their political leanings. I oppose Kucinich for national security reasons (he wouldn’t have gone into Afghanistan in pursuit of OBL) and Gravel – well to be honest I haven’t put much thought into him.
To be fair to all the candidates and in the interest of our nation, I think we should raise the level of discourse and use more critical thinking. To that degree, I agree 100% with your post here. I’ll try and apply this standard to myself. I am not sure what my view will be of HRC after that exercise. Maybe it will improve – who knows.
Ever since Hillary claimed to not have had any involvement with her family finances, during the White Water investigation, and the subsequent revelations that she was the money manager in the family (remember she was the one who made out their tax returns and claimed a $7.00 deduction for Bill’s used undershorts), I have felt she is simply a liar.
I was afraid that Bullwinkle’s link to the Larry Sabato article might kill any real discussion that we might have here but that fear was misplaced. You guys raise some interesting points and observations.
Watching MTP this morning, Tavis Smiley talked about the focus group he convened after the forum at Howard earlier this week. The group, all of which were predisposed to support Obama, said that Hillary won the “debate.” Who knows if they will actually vote for her down the road.
I do think that the issue of Hillary’s “electability” has been used as a sword by her opponents’ supporters. And that the subtext of it is sexism. At this point, I’m not sure how that plays out down the road.
As an aside, I take those online presidential polls about who I should vote for. Interestingly enough, both in 2004 and again now, the candidate whose views most align with my own is Dennis Kucinich. Yet I’d never vote for the guy, partly because he is unelectable. I guess that is hypocritical of me to say that while trying to figure out just what it means in the context of Hillary.
The problem with Hillary Clinton is that she is as fake as a three dollar bill, and most people around this country know this and will not vote for her. She is an ultra left liberal who is trying to convince people that she is something else. The fact that she changes her dialect depending upon who she is addressing further insults the intelligence of the american voter. The dislike for Hillary has nothing to do with her being a woman or driven.
She is just way too calculating to ever come across as ever being sincere in anything she does or says with most of the voting public.
I can sum up why I would never vote for Clinton in two words — Vince Foster.
What about all the other people they’ve had killed in Arkansas, Mousey?
Jesus.
I’m impressed that it took that long to bring out the loons, though.
I hope I can keep this comment sufficiently not stupid or partisan:
I think most voters feel passionately about Hillary (whether they love or hate her) because of her husband. A lot of Democrats love her because Bill’s Presidency is the high point of Democratic Party power in the last thirty years, and most Democrats consider his administration successful. Republicans (myself included) have never trusted Bill or anyone closely associated with him, Hillary especially.
I won’t vote for Hillary because I don’t agree with her on most issues, I don’t have confidence in her leadership ability, and (what probably drives most of the 52% who “would not vote for” her) I just don’t like her. In some respects, I did not vote for John Kerry in ’04 for similar reasons. However, my emotional dislike of Hillary is probably stonger. That only makes sense, though, because I and most voters have had some strong impression of Hillary Clinton for a long time now.
The reason so many people would never vote for Hillary is the same reason she is leading amongst Democrats – most voters feel like we’ve known her for fifteen years and are not likely to change our opinions about her.