Trying A Bad Play
Hillary Clinton appears to have made yet another mistake in her campaign. A new poll indicates that her attempt at playing the victim card has failed – very badly – with voters. Recall that her campaign issued a rapid response video whining that all those big, nasty male candidates were piling on poor, defenseless Hillary after her debate performance. That video didn't work as intended.
Most Americans reject the charge that other presidential candidates are "piling on" Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a new Fox 5/The Washington Times/Rasmussen Reports poll.
Only 25 percent of voters said recent criticism of Mrs. Clinton constitutes piling on, the survey found, and of those, less than half said she was the target because she is a woman.
"The vast majority of Americans are treating Senator Clinton as a front-running presidential candidate, not as a women who happens to be running for president," said pollster Scott Rasmussen, adding that the poll's questions, taken together, show less than 15 percent of Democrats think she's being picked on as a woman.
"She's being accepted as a serious candidate, rather than anything else," he said.
It's not clear that's not the way her campaign would have it. She has said she is challenging "the all-boys club of presidential politics," and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, yesterday said "those boys have been getting tough on her lately."
It is actually worse than it appears at first:
Many of the 25 percent who do agree with the charge don't agree that it's because she's a woman. The poll found 45 percent say it's because she's the front-runner, while 44 percent say she's a target because she's a woman.
Poor Hillary. She's a victim of her own attempted victimhood. It would be interesting to see how many view her attempt itself as a negative. The actual Rasmussen poll is here and offers this breakdown:
Combining these answers shows that just 11% of American believe that Clinton is being picked on unfairly because of her gender. That suggests voters are viewing her primarily as a Presidential frontrunner rather than as a woman who happens to be running for President.
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RealClearPolitics - Blog Coverage — November 13, 2007 @ 12:20 pm
By mockinbird, November 13, 2007 @ 9:35 am
With all the taxes I pay, and you people pay, we deserve more than a victim President.
By martian, November 13, 2007 @ 3:16 pm
The liberals invented the culture of victimhood and Hillary was just trying to take advantage of it. Unfortunately for her, most Americans are sick and tired of the “everyone’s a victim” mantra and its “no one is really responsible for their own actions” corollary. Hillary is getting the brunt of that reaction.
By mockinbird, November 13, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
Hillary in debate:”I don’t want Wolf Blister picking on me. This upcoming debate is supposed to be a showcase event for me, not a deb…interrogation. Once I’m President, I’ll put out a policy paper, as well as give a speech, fully explaining everything I’m going to do for the people of our country. My staff, my husband, and I are serious about this. NO HARD QUESTIONS!