Is This the Real Reason Hillary Clinton Isn't a "Natural Politician"? [View all]

[yallerdawg]

Maybe the problem isn't that Clinton lacks the abilities of a natural politician, but that we associate being a "natural politician" more readily in men.

Source: Cosmopolitan by Jill Filipovic

Name American history's greatest, most natural, gifted politicians: LBJ. JFK. RFK. Bill Clinton. Barack Obama. Ronald Reagan.

What do they have in common (other than the three-initial thing)? They're all men.

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Qualities we associate with leadership – assertiveness, confidence, competitiveness – are also qualities for which we reward men and punish women. Bill Clinton, it's often said after any event at which he appeared, "owned the room": He's warm and personable, but also assertive, charismatic, and the center of attention. As one of the most brilliant and skilled presidents in American history, Bill Clinton has earned that confidence. But compare him to George W. Bush, another American president not exactly known for his intellectual prowess or political skill, but still "a guy I'd like to have a beer with" according to a significant number of American voters. Bush, too, exuded confidence. And many studies have shown that confidence, especially among men, is often mistaken for competence. Over-confidence, which often presents as I-know-it-when-I-see-it descriptors like "charisma" or "charm," is more present in men than women. It's why "Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man" is combination funny/sad: Many women see just how far our middling male peers get on the fumes of self-assurance alone.

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People who believe they and they alone are the best suited of the 318.9 million people who live in the United States to be the nation's president share a few characteristics: Self-assuredness bordering on pathology; a desire for power and status; a hunger for admiration and approval. They are not lacking in confidence, but they are surely not your average human creatures. They are, in short, politicians, where everything, including perceived authenticity, is carefully calculated and cultivated. We need to care less about who does the best job at convincing us they're genuine and whose political skills seem the most natural, and instead ask whether they're competent, experienced, skilled, promoting policies with which we agree, and able to accomplish their proposed agenda. If that were the standard for male and female politicians alike, we might just see more women in elected office, leading us in all their stilted, robotic, witchy, bitchy, unnatural, unapologetically ambitious glory.

Read it all at: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/news/a55104/hillary-clinton-natural-politician/