The Likability Standard

Like many pundits and bloggers, I've spent a lot of time scrutinizing the treatment Hillary Clinton has gotten in the media versus other candidates. Specifically, I've been thinking about the Likability Factor.

Hillary Clinton's fall from grace in Iowa and resurrection in New Hampshire have spotlighted this problem for me. Clinton's advisers have tried, in recent weeks, to remake the candidate into a more "likable" Hillary, including getting her to laugh more and cry more. But do these things make candidates more likable and are women held to a different standard of likability than men are?

The Likability Factor is extremely important in presidential politics regardless of sex, and I don't think Hillary's drop in the polls is simply sexism at work. Americans in the television era demand a president they feel they can sit down and have a beer with, no matter how much that analogy angers liberals.

And let's be honest: Barak Obama is the most pleasant and charming Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton. Would you really want to have a beer (or a cup of coffee) and a chat with Jimmy Carter? I wouldn't. Carter would probably spend the time lecturing me on American hegemony and the plight of the Palestinians.

What about failed Democrat candidates Michael Dukakis, Al Gore and John Kerry? I wouldn't want to spend five minutes with any of those guys. They would bore me to death and their pomposity would require that I speak my mind, always a dangerous prospect. And no sane woman would want to spend time with Bill Clinton. Unless, of course, keeping abortion available for all nine months of pregnancy is more important to you than sexual assault.

So, unlike
Gloria Steinem, who sees sexism as more invidious than racism, I think the problem with Hillary Clinton has nothing to do with her sex and everything to do with the image she has projected over the last 15 years. Who forgets her snide Tammy Wynette reference? Or sneering about baking cookies? Her impatience that the U.S. wasn't ready for Hillarycare? Or the lying--yes, lying--about her involvement in various Clinton scandals?

Any public figure who spent so much time ridiculing the lives of ordinary Americans deserves the scorn and disdain they receive in return. Americans don't buy the whining about Hillary's unpopularity being about her sex. This is a person we've known for decades. The Likability Factor has more to do with her behavior than with her pantsuits.