Hillary Clinton could have campaigned on big ideas, she told Vox’s Ezra Klein in an interview Tuesday morning. But “unlike either my primary opponent [or] my general election opponent,” she said, “I would have been hammered all the time.”
Hillary Clinton: “I don’t think I’m held to the same standard as anybody else”
In a Vox interview, Clinton said she couldn’t have run the same kind of campaign as Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump.
Anna North is a senior correspondent for Vox, where she covers American family life, work, and education. Previously, she was an editor and writer at the New York Times. She is also the author of four novels, including the forthcoming Bog Queen, which you can preorder here.
“I don’t think I’m held to the same standard as anybody else,” she explained.
Klein had asked her if the campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump might show that a presidential campaign should offer big ideas and inspiration, rather than technocratic details. While other politicians might get away with sweeping promises, Clinton responded, she’d be questioned at every turn during her 2016 presidential campaign: “How are you going to do that? Where’s the money going to come from?”
She wasn’t entirely clear on what she meant about different standards. <—-HRC WAS PRETTY CLEAR ABOUT WHAT SHE MEANT. WE NEED A NEW TRANSITION HERE ABOUT HOW SHE DESCRIBED IT. IE: IN THE INTERVIEW CLINTON EXPLAINED THAT AS AN OBAMA CABINET MEMBER SHE WOULD BE ASKED A DIFFERENT SET OF QUESTIONS THAN ANYONE ELSE. IF SHE WENT HARD ON A BIG NEW POLICY, SHE FIGURED SHE’D BE IN A BIND, FAIRLY. “The natural question is, ‘well, why didn’t that happen before?’ And I knew that would be my burden to bear, because I would have the responsibility, having been in the administration, to be able to answer that question.”
CLINTON ALSO SPOKE TO MEDIA COVERAGE OF HER CAMPAIGN MORE BROADLY. CLINTON BELIEVES SHE WAS DISMISSED BECAUSE THE MEDIA SAW HER AS A TYPICAL FRONTRUNNER, LIKELY TO CRUISE TO VICTORY. SO INSTEAD, THEY FOCUSSED ON DONALD TRUMP, A “GOOFY” REALITY TV STAR. CLINTON DESCRIBED THE MEDIA THINKING AS: “‘You know what, she’s going to win anyway. So let’s cover other guy ’cause he’s a lot more fun!”
CUT THIS[[[Among other roles like first lady and secretary of state, she noted that Americans also know her as a former legislator, so they wouldn’t let her get away with claiming Congress would work out the kinks in her big plans.]]]
While Clinton did not blame the double standard on her gender, she did point out that sexism was rampant in the campaign and she felt it personally. Regardless of her own description, there’s a case to be made that her feeling of a double-standard is very much connected to her gender. It is inextricably bound to how she’s perceived and how she’s treated.
Would Americans have been receptive to a broader, more transformative message from their first female major-party candidate for president? Would they have been receptive to such a message from Clinton in particular, a woman so vilified and mistrusted by some segments of the electorate that she was routinely portrayed as a witch?
IT FEELS LIKE THE PARAGRAPH ABOVE IS BEGGING FOR RESEARCH TO GIVE THE PIECE SOME HEFT. ANNA IS SETTING UP AN ARGUMENT, BUT DOESN’T REALLY SHOW HER EVIDENCE. SHE NEEDS TO MAKE THE CASE THAT THE IDEA OF A DOUBLE STANDARD IS A REAL PHENOMENON. I KNOW IT’S TRUE. THERE’S RESEARCH ABOUT WOMEN HAVING TO BE TWICE A GOOD TO GET AHEAD. PULITZER PRIZE WINNER RESUMES ARE 100 TIMES STRONGER THAN MEN’S. WOMEN MUST BE PUBLISHED MORE TO GET TENURE. THERE ARE A MILLION EXAMPLES OF THIS IDEA OF WOMEN BEING HELD TO A HIGHER, EVEN SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE STANDARD. HILLARY COULD VERY WELL NOT BE IMAGINING THINGS, EVEN IF SHE DOESN’T WANT TO SAY IT.
THIS POINT IS ODD TO ME. WHY MAKE THE CASE IF IT DOESN’T MATTER? Maybe it doesn’t matter, because making big promises and figuring out the facts later has never been Clinton’s style. Had she come out with a bigger message, she said, she would have been “hit with a thousand different legitimate questions” and she would have felt an “obligation to answer,” because “policy matters.” Say what you want about Hillary Clinton — she does her homework.
For this, though, she’s faced criticism: After the first presidential debate in September, Chuck Todd of MSNBC called her “overprepared.” Donald Trump, meanwhile, was “filled with emotion” in Todd’s analysis, as Danielle Paquette noted at the Washington Post.
Clinton’s comment about being held to different standards may read like sour grapes to some, especially those who want a full-throated apology for her campaign missteps. But it’s hard to argue that she’s wrong.
See More:
