Don't hate Hillary

I’ve noticed myself cringing before I open my mouth in response to the infamous “Who’s your candidate?” question. \n“What can I say – I like Hillary,” is the answer, usually accompanied by a sheepish grin for social-mitigation purposes.\nWhen did supporting Hillary Clinton become like voting for Voldemort?\nThe cringes and grins aren’t fueled by a bad candidate. They’re defense for the nearly fail-proof reaction of moans, groans and a general aversion to the negative institution that has, somewhere, become Hillary Clinton.\nWhy is America so obsessed with hating Hillary?\nComplaint: She’s a sleazeball.\nOr rather: She’s a politician. Dodging questions and competing over who can most eloquently state the phrase “No comment” is how electability is ensured – is this really different from anyone else in the field? While Barack Obama is, admittedly, impossible to hate, he’s still playing a more charismatic form of the same game – except that his vagueness and open-ended commitments come amidst a rhetoric laden with buzzwords like “truth” and “change,” happily punctuated by an endless stream of people going nuts in the crowd below. Indeed, Obama hasn’t really said much at all on policies that would make voters uncomfortable. Rather, his attack strategy (one that seems to be working) is to play the relative card on Hillary, turning heads not to what he’s not saying, but instead to what she is.\nSo again, “sleaze?” Nah. “Sleaze” is urging supporters to “Donate $9.11 for Rudy” at a campaign fund raiser for Rudy Giuliani last September. Hillary’s just running for president.\nComplaint: She’s impersonal and boring.\nBut then again: She just went on the Tyra Banks show and was a 10-outta-10 charmer.\nImpersonal and boring? Dick Cheney is impersonal; John Kerry is boring. Hillary made me feel like I was watching a giggly sleepover. After expounding on her love of headbands and proudly reporting that she’d figured out how to text Chelsea (she’d initially checked her voicemail after seeing “1 new message” pop up on her phone), she went off on a giddy anecdote about how awkwardly Bill had asked her out on their first date after a class they had together.\nIt was cute. She’s not a machine. I swear; I saw it on YouTube.\nIn all seriousness, yes, next to Obama, she probably loses the “I’d-like-to-grab-a-beer-with-you” competition. But judging by the last eight years, a seemingly amiable personality and a relatively high score on the “seems like a cool dude” scale doesn’t necessarily ensure a successful run as commander in chief. Additionally, in the grand scheme of things, she really is a break from the norm – it just so happens that the 2008 race is a historic first in candidate diversity. Remember when John Edwards used to be the face of cool on the Kerry campaign? Now no one looks at him because he’s a white male.\nSo enough with the relativistic Hillary taboo – and with Super Tuesday just around the corner, this is her chance to further dispel that anti-Clinton bias within voters.