Why’s Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign apparently going down in flames?

Fellow KELOLANDer Dr. Ken “NSU Hardy Boy” Blanchard has an excellent article on how the HRC campaign has blown up internally.

Former KELOLANDer Anna at Dakota Women seems to think people are just mean when it comes to Hillary.

I think the problem is much simpler: Hillary Clinton is just not very likeable.

Now, women please don’t start throwing things at me for being a sexist pig, let me explain. 

First, I think I can like or dislike a woman just as I can like or dislike a man. 

Second, we are all individuals.

Third, I think we all have a sense about whether people are “likeable” or not.

For example, take President George W. Bush.  Please.  I don’t particularly care for the man or his policies.  But at some level he has some likeability.  He loves his Scottish terriers.  He likes baseball.  He seems like a guy who doesn’t have a good command of English yet it’s kind of endearing.  He seems like a good dad.  He has a goofy grin.

President Ronald Reagan had this likeablity factor in spades.  He was charming, funny, and also liked baseball.  His policies were an abomination but you kind of liked the guy.  Hillary’s husband Bill also has this quality.  He can be very charming and witty, almost to a fault.  I.e., see Monica Lewinsky.

Now, take Sen. John Kerry.  What was one of his problems in 2004? He just didn’t seem very likeable.  He was smart, kind of handsome, served his country bravely in Vietnam, good on most of the issues, but he just came across as a stiff.

Hillary Clinton has many admirable traits.  From all accounts, she is brilliant.  She seems like a good mom.  She’s tough.  She has a big heart to stand by a horndog like Bill.

But she also comes across as crabby old librarian who’s always sushing you.  She’s the know-it-all in class who always has her hand up with the answer.  And when she laughs, it is not a hearty laugh but a forced laugh that seems to come through clinched teeth. 

And Hillary being “non-likeable” is not a new phenomena.  I have a colleague who went to law school at the University of Arkansas when HRC was teaching there.  He had her for a professor.  The exclusive women’s college and Ivy League graduate told the assembled masses that they “Are not legally educable.”  In other words, she told a bunch of freshmen law students they were too stupid to be lawyers.

Now, that seems to me to be a way to NOT win friends and influence people.  I had plenty of tough professors in my law school experiences at Washburn and Houston, but none of them told me or my classmates we were too stupid to ever hope to be decent lawyers.

This arrogance, this “I’m better than you” attitude is always beneath the surface, at least publicly with Sen. Clinton.  Is she warm and loving to her friends and family?  Probably.  But is that how she treats her staff, reporters, other politicians, and the rest of us?  Don’t you think it is fascinating that so many U.S. Senators who have served with her—including our own Sen. Tom Daschle—have endorsed Sen. Barack Obama?

Obama has the likeability factor.  He has charisma.  He has “it.”  Guys like me get man crushes over him.  Young people flock to him.  And now, even women who you’d think would be gladiators for Hillary are ga-ga over Barack.

Like it or not, likeability is important in politics.  It is the rare politician who is unliked who can get elected, let alone advance as a candidate and public servant.  Maybe many of them fake their likeability.  But for better or worse, if you’re running for high office—or almost any office—you might want people to like you at least a little bit.

Other women in high office have pulled it off.  Anyone think Benazir Bhutto wasn’t tough?  But did you see the throngs she drew and how passionate they were?  Anyone think Maggie Thatcher wasn’t tough?  But she could trade funny quips like Winston Churchill.  Closer to home, what about Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin?  Even people who completely disagree with her think she is both smart and nice.

These women were tough and likeable. 

For all her smarts, Hillary hasn’t figured that out yet.  And it might now be too late.

Photo: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton visits “Late Show with David Letterman” on February 4, 2008, at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City. (wireimage.com photo)

Technorati Tags: Hillary Clinton, likeability, Arkansas, law school, University of Arkansas, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Benazir Bhutto, Margaret Thatcher, 2008 election, Presidential election, Presidential Primaries

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