ICYMI: It’s time to admit Hillary Clinton is an extraordinarily talented politician

[riversedge]

One really has to read the entire article IMHO. I missed this article from a few weeks ago.









It’s time to admit Hillary Clinton is an extraordinarily talented politician

http://www.vox.com/2016/6/7/11879728/hillary-clinton-wins-nomination

Updated by Ezra Klein on June 7, 2016, 10:31 p.m. ET @ezraklein


.......It may not be impossible for a woman to win the presidency the way we are used to men doing it, but it is unlikely. The way a woman is likeliest to win will defy our expectations.

Perhaps that's why we don't appreciate Clinton's strengths as a candidate. She's winning a process that evolved to showcase stereotypically male traits using a stereotypically female strategy.

And it's working.
A campaign of relationships, not speeches

There is a narrative that has emerged in the Democratic primary, and it goes something like this: Hillary Clinton locked up the Democratic establishment long before the primary began in earnest. She's the wife of an ex-president. She was endorsed by virtually every elected official in the party and pretty much every major interest group. Her dominance of the inside game was unprecedented for a non-incumbent candidate. And she used this elite firewall to choke off Sanders's revolution.

When Sanders's supporters argue that the election was rigged against their candidate, this is what they are talking about. Sanders, they feel, did what you normally have to do to win an election: He generated more enthusiasm, brought in more voters, raised more money, gave better speeches, and polled higher in head-to-head matchups against the Republican candidate. It was only Clinton's pact with the Democratic establishment that stopped his rise.

In this telling, the way Clinton won the primary is the reason her victory feels hollow: It was nearly preordained, and the seriousness of the challenge Sanders posed just shows what a flawed candidate she really is.



Hillary Clinton And Bernie Sanders Spar At Democratic Debate In Brooklyn
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

But another way to look at the primary is that Clinton employed a less masculine strategy to win. She won the Democratic primary by spending years slowly, assiduously, building relationships with the entire Democratic Party. She relied on a more traditionally female approach to leadership: creating coalitions, finding common ground, and winning over allies. Today, 208 members of Congress have endorsed Clinton; only eight have endorsed Sanders.

This work is a grind — it's not big speeches, it doesn't come with wide applause, and it requires an emotional toughness most human beings can't summon.............




Until Hillary Clinton.



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laura olin @lauraolin

made some tiny emoji art to mark this moment
8:06 PM - 7 Jun 2016

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[Cha]

1. Ah, Ezra giving Hillary Props!

Hillary has had so much brilliant experience navigating the political world.. President Obama said she's the most qualified candidate EVER!

Mahalo, Rivers!

[riversedge]

2. Hi Cha.

[Ellen Forradalom]

3. It's a bit superficial in this case to call this strategy 'feminine'.

This is what politics used to be, and at heart really is. It's legwork, and both male and female candidates have had to do it to achieve their victories. For example, look at all the years Harold Washington put in before he was elected the first black mayor of Chicago.

Now it certainly does play to Hillary Clinton's strengths to build a base this way, and the kind of emotional endurance required is more often ground into women than men, but both sexes can and do the long-haul legwork required.

Another aspect is online vs. real-life politics. There is a tendency to overstate the impact of online activism, particularly amongst a more connected demographic (young white college voters, for example.) Real life politics happens away from Tumblr and can surprise people who run smack into it (see all the commentary on the size of the Hillary vote vs. her discernible online support.)