AP News, October 15th, 2007
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton told an audience of women political activists Monday that she relied on the wise words of former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to help her through tough times on the campaign trail.
"She said, 'You know, if you're going to be involved in politics you have to grow skin as thick as a rhinoceros,'" the presidential candidate said. "So occasionally, I'll be sitting somewhere and I'll be listening to someone perhaps not saying the kindest things about me. And I'll look down at my hand and I'll sort of pinch my skin to make sure it still has the requisite thickness I know Eleanor Roosevelt expects me to have."
The speech was one of a series of campaign events this week aimed at burnishing her standing among female voters; polls show they are among her strongest constituencies.
The New York senator began the day on ABC's "The View," a chat show with a heavily female audience. She was later honored at a luncheon for the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Fund, which raises money for Democratic women candidates for office in New York.
She planned to spend Tuesday in New Hampshire, and deliver a major policy speech on balancing work and family.
Clinton's campaign released a memo Monday from senior strategist Mark Penn outlining how she had become the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination largely on the strength of her support among female voters. He noted polling showing her leading the GOP front-runner, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, in hypothetical matchups largely due to her support among women.
"She enjoys her deepest support among working and middle class women — people who care most about issues like health care and child care, issues that Hillary has worked on throughout her life in public service," Penn wrote.
Clinton typically tells audiences that while she's proud to be running as a woman, she should be elected because she's the best candidate. Monday, she spoke more openly about the challenges of being a woman in a campaign environment long dominated by men.
"I think there still is probably a tougher standard for women, especially running for president," Clinton said on "The View." "I mean, we've all been through it in some way or another where you go and you try to break a barrier and you try to do the best you can and people are saying, 'I don't like her clothes' or 'I don't like her hair.'"
She also noted recent criticism of her laugh, suggesting such attention was sexist.
While her rivals have been careful not to make an issue of her gender, Clinton has faced tough words from the wives of her two lead Democratic opponents.
In England last weekend, Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, told an interviewer that Clinton could be too polarizing to be elected. And John Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, has said her husband would be a more effective advocate for women as president than Clinton.
Clinton sidestepped questions about such comments Monday.
"I try not to answer back anybody. I'm trying to run my campaign which is about what I want to do," she said.
Speaking to the Eleanor Roosevelt lunch, Clinton said she gets through hard times on the campaign by thinking about the challenges other women face.
"People ask me all the time if it's hard. Of course it's hard," she said to laughs. "But when it gets really hard I think about a lot of these women who went before. I think about all the women I have met — women working as hard as they can, or raising children alone."
Clinton also criticized the Bush administration's record on women's issues, noting that the Supreme Court under Bush had taken steps to limit abortion rights and reverse progress on equal pay.
"Americans are ready to stand up and say, 'Enough. We did not sign up for this dangerous experiment in extremism,'" she said.
Republican National Committee spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson dismissed Clinton's comments.
"Women, just like the rest of the electorate, will reject Hillary Clinton's plans for devastating tax hikes, massive government growth, and weakened national security," she said. "At the end of the day, voters of all walks of life will support candidates who stand for American taxpayers and hardworking families."
