Donna Brazile says that this time, Hillary will run as a woman:
After spending much of her 2008 campaign seemingly running away from the fact that she is a woman, Hillary Clinton is showing signs that 2016 is going to be a different story.
It seems that Hillary has found her outer woman, which is to say, she's found the person that she wants to present on the campaign trail, and that person is resolutely female. This time she seems to have decided to fully embrace her womanhood as an asset in her quest for the White House and to trust that the voters will do the same....
Brazile notes Hillary recently spoke at a Silicon Valley conference for women in the tech field and that she talked about the lack of women in that industry and among Fortune 500 CEOs. She talked about being pregnant and giving birth while engaged in a demanding career environment.
She segued into the discussion of the plight of working middle-class families that will be so central to the 2016 race, and the centrality of women's economic issues to those struggles of the middle-class. From there it was a natural progression to talking about 21st century families and the importance of things such as paid leave....
The Silicon Valley address could serve as a template for how Clinton intends to approach her career goals from the vantage point of being a woman seeking her own place in the workforce. In the coming weeks, which serendipitously happen to be part of Women's History Month, Hillary's speaking schedule is heavy with events and gatherings that center around women....
All of which stands in stark contrast to Hillary's last presidential campaign. In 2008, she seemed to think that she had to reassure voters that a woman could be president, primarily by not accentuating the fact that she was a woman. This time around, there seems to be a shared assumption that, of course, a woman would make an excellent president, in part simply by virtue of being a woman.
And she'll connect her "family-friendly feminism" with economic populism. (Well, some tepid version of it -- after all, this
is Hillary Clinton we're talking about here.):
We live in a society where women are necessary breadwinners whose income is counted upon for families to make it. Gender pay equality and supportive work environments benefit spouses, children, extended families and entire communities. Today, feminism, family and economic issues intertwine like never before.
That would be quite a change from the tack she took in 2008.
If Hillary seems more comfortable running as a woman, it's partly because society at large seems more comfortable with a populist-tinged feminism than it was in 2008.
Is it really true that "society at large" has changed so much since 2008 to allow a woman candidate the freedom to run on issues important to over half the population in a way she couldn't a mere eight years ago?
Did Obama breaking down the thought barriers on race that made people think they would never see a person of color be president in their lifetime also break similar barriers on gender?
Does Hillary feel she has this election in the bag and therefore is freer to run on the issues that are closest to her heart?
Are Democrats no longer afraid of being the "Mommy Party" to the Republicans' "Daddy Party" (as the right would have it) and ready to embrace supportive policies for women and their families without fear?
It's an interesting trial balloon Brazile is throwing out (if that's what it is).
I'm not sure what to make of it, though it seems generally a positive development to me, despite the defensiveness of terming it "family-friendly feminism" and despite the careful avoidance of mentioning other "traditional" women's issues like abortion rights and reproductive rights against the right's onslaught against these.
Your thoughts?