SALON

Friday, Jul 20, 2007 9:25 PM UTC

Hillary Clinton’s balancing act

She's most popular with women -- but many remain wary.

By

Topics: 2008 Elections, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Broadsheet, White House, Polling, Love and Sex,

Today, the New York Times ran a story headlined “For Clinton, Wooing Women Requires a Careful Balance.” Nothing illustrates that more clearly than the Times/CBS News poll also released today. It reveals that Clinton is most popular with female voters (46 percent view her favorably), but she hardly has all of us lady folk won over (33 percent view her negatively).

As a group, married women are more cleary divided over Clinton: Thirty-nine percent view her favorably and 39 percent view her unfavorably. On the other hand, 53 percent of single women view her positively. Age is also a big factor: “The older the woman, the more negatively she views Mrs. Clinton: 27 percent of those under age 45 view her negatively; 33 percent of those 45 to 64 view her negatively; and 40 percent of those 64 and older view her negatively.”

Women may be a tough-to-tackle voting group, but as a whole, men view Clinton less favorably. In fact, men’s view of Clinton is nearly the exact opposite of women’s: Thirty-four percent view Clinton positively; 47 percent view her negatively.

If you believe the polls, Clinton isn’t winning over many voters by virtue of being the first serious female candidate; only 5 percent of women and 9 percent of men who view her positively say it’s simply because she’s a woman running for president. As the Times’ Patrick Healy points out, Clinton’s campaign has strategized accordingly: “As Mrs. Clinton highlights her sex … she tries not to lay it on too thick; she rarely brings up, for instance, the possibilities of adding a woman’s touch to national security.”

The Times/CBS poll throws yet more stats on the pile that Clinton’s campaign strategists are already sorting through. But the respondents were utterly clear on one thing: The majority believe Clinton will win the Democratic nomination and will, once again, call 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. home. One question, though: Will Clinton’s newly discovered cleavage hurt or help her campaign? It certainly isn’t hurting her online presence — “hillary clinton cleavage” is (I’m not kidding) currently the third most Googled phrase of the day.

Tracy Clark-Flory

Tracy Clark-Flory is a staff writer at Salon. Follow @tracyclarkflory on Twitter and Facebook. More Tracy Clark-Flory.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 18 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
187 points188 points | 7 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
159 points160 points | 25 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
69 points70 points | 15 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
109 points110 points | 41 comments
vote
Doug Henwood: Capitalism Thrives on Class Exploitation
44 points45 points | 4 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations