Hot and cold, sweet and sour, Obama and Hillary
Thursday January 10 2008
'Iron my shirt, iron my shirt," some men chanted at Hillary Clinton as she campaigned in New Hampshire this week. It was a boorish attempt to bully her -- to bully all ambitious women -- back into the kitchen.
Hillary laughed. Presumably she's heard worse. But there wasn't much of an outcry about the incident. If they'd catcalled "polish my shoes, boy" to Barack Obama, the hecklers would have faced jail.
Questioned about it afterwards, Hillary said: "As has been abundantly demonstrated, I am also running to break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling."
Higher and harder than the race ceiling, sky high and rock hard though it undoubtedly is? I suspect so. Let me put it this way. Imagine a female senator of 46, glamorous and a natural orator but an inexperienced politician, putting herself forward as a presidential candidate. She'd be laughed out of town. (Feminist icon Gloria Steinem raised this scenario in Tuesday's 'New York Times' by the way.)
Camelot
I'm not saying Obama shouldn't be a challenger. On the contrary, he may have the potential to be an iconic president. The world, not just the US, has hungered for a restoration of the Camelot years, and he holds out some promise of that reprise. But no woman with Obama's qualifications and life experience would have a chance of contesting, let alone securing, the Democratic nomination.
This is by way of a reminder that Hillary has climbed a mountain already. I suspect there are days when the view is far from pleasant.
We've all been watching so many 'West Wing/24'-style shows it's a shock to realise there is neither a woman nor a black man in the Oval Office in reality.
Life could imitate art in a year's time if the Democrats win the US election. But the sixty-four thousand dollar question is which of the party's two frontrunners will make history: will gender or race make the first breakthrough?
Obama or Hillary. The youthful orator with rock star electricity versus the steely woman who has steered her life's work towards this point in time. To adapt Hillary's own words, voters can choose between poetry and prose.
The White House needs a woman or a black man in office soon -- a sweeping sense of inevitability dictates it. No Bob Dylan soundtrack is necessary to tell us the times they are a-changing, we can smell it in the air. But what the White House needs soonest of all is a Democrat. Someone who can thaw out the ice in America's relationship with, hmm, let's see, pretty much the rest of the globe.
Yet gender and race are impossible to ignore in these primaries. On many levels, it's a shame to see the contest shrink to a clash between stereotypes. But voters are neither colour blind nor gender indifferent.
However, this face-off between Hillary and Obama is also about something else. Likeability. That was the true victor at Iowa although it wasn't repeated in New Hampshire. Likeability might still win the day -- we'll have a clearer picture of its significance after Super Tuesday.
And it comes down to this: a wide smile versus a strained looking one. Someone who hums with optimism versus someone innately cautious. Someone unknown, with all the possibilities it embraces, versus someone about whom we know a little too much. A hint of Paradise Regained versus the Clinton era's threads of Paradise Lost. Still, who'd have thought the world's key job would hinge on likeability?
People have been studying Hillary and not always liking what they see.
She is neither glamorous, charismatic nor a gifted orator. But she has a solid track record, is committed and able. And she has Bill in her camp. Of course, that's like having Elvis or Hugh Hefner campaign for you. A plus or a minus, depending on your viewpoint.
By contrast, voters have been checking out Obama and liking what they see. An African-American man in a suit who's not too dark-skinned or radical; intelligent and wholesome in the Will Smith or Sidney Poitier pattern.
It's fascinating to see how a black man running for the nomination is presented as a unifying factor, while a woman campaigning for it can be regarded as divisive. And how ironic for Hillary to find herself competing against a version of her husband.
Obama has style and warmth, qualities Hillary lacks.
I remember following her about in Belfast and Omagh, and she never could get the hang of working a crowd like her husband. She was always finished those meet-the-people sessions ages ahead of him, whereas he has to be prised out of the crowd by his bodyguards.
But she was disciplined, reliable and she got things done.
As a president, she would hit the ground running after eight years' experience as First Lady.
With Obama there is a risk of style over substance.Here's my plan.
Hillary gets the Democrats' nomination and takes on Obama as her running mate. Once elected,
Bill is despatched to the Middle East to pour oil on troubled waters.
Chelsea is let off being First Daughter (she needs a life of her own) and photo opportunities are provided by those cute daughters of Obama's.
Meanwhile the Illinois senator runs in 2016 when he'll have amassed some experience.
Finally, after Hillary is elected to her second term, she does a Sarkozy and takes up with a younger, high-powered replacement for Bill.
Life can't be all work-related goals and mould-breaking
