{"id":12064,"date":"2016-09-21T11:36:32","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T11:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=12064"},"modified":"2016-09-21T11:41:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T11:41:26","slug":"trump-campaign-uses-gender-to-try-to-undercut-clintons-candidacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/politics\/trump-campaign-uses-gender-to-try-to-undercut-clintons-candidacy.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump campaign uses gender to try to undercut Clinton’s candidacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Broad shoulders’ and ‘a presidential look’: The Trump campaign uses gender to try to undercut Clinton’s candidacy<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Broad shoulders’ and ‘a presidential look’:<\/strong> The Trump campaign uses gender to try to undercut Clinton’s candidacy : hat do voters hear when Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, in interview after interview, praises his running mate Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cbroad shoulders\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

What do they hear when Trump repeatedly criticizes Hillary Clinton for not looking presidential \u2014 \u201cand you need a presidential look\u201d? Or when he time and again calls into question her strength and stamina?<\/span><\/p>\n

Many people, to use one of Trump\u2019s favorite phrasings, hear an effort to raise questions about whether a woman can serve as president.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCould it be more obvious?\u201d asked pollster Christine Matthews, who has studied women voters for years amid work on Republican political campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gender now is being wielded in a somewhat more subtle fashion than in the primary season, when Trump blistered Clinton for playing \u201cthe woman\u2019s card\u201d and said if it weren\u2019t for her being a woman, \u201cI don\u2019t think she\u2019d get 5% of the vote.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump also engaged in a lengthy dispute with Fox broadcaster Megyn Kelly over his history of caustic remarks toward women, and he sniped about the face and voice of opponent Carly Fiorina.<\/span><\/p>\n

Defenders insist Trump is an equal opportunity offender, as likely to label Republican Jeb Bush as \u201clow energy\u201d as he is to critique Clinton as \u201cweak.\u201d And Trump supporters say they do not consider the candidate\u2019s remarks insulting to women, by any stretch.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he said she was weak because she\u2019s a woman,\u201d said Beth Siracuse, who lives in Upper Arlington, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Whatever his remarks, she said as she drew a contrast with Clinton: \u201cIt isn\u2019t as bad as lying to the American people or calling us names.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Others, including Clinton partisans, said they were offended.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s racist, misogynist,\u201d said Cheryl Shilling, another Upper Arlington resident. His remarks, she said, are \u201cterrible \u2014 especially toward women.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Testosterone has infused Trump\u2019s candidacy from its inception. He has cast himself as a strong and tough leader, and his opponents \u2014 including some men \u2014 as wimpy alternatives. In one primary debate, taking offense at criticism of his hand size, he made a blunt reference to his sexual prowess.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the carnival atmosphere that often surrounds Trump rallies, the message is far from subtle. Buttons and T-shirts critique the size of Clinton\u2019s thighs and breasts, make a play on words about her engaging in a sex act and cast her as a \u201cbitch\u201d and Trump as \u201csomeone with balls.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That sensibility is part of what has led women, on average, to be far more skeptical than men of both Trump and the impact he would have on their lives as president. And that in turn has threatened Trump\u2019s efforts to defeat Clinton\u2019s historic campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked in a new CBS\/New York Times poll whether Trump respects women, 53% of women voters said \u201cnot much\u201d or \u201cnot at all.\u201d Only 20% said he had \u201ca lot\u201d of respect for women. The sentiment split on partisan lines, but a majority of independent women voters also held a negative view of Trump\u2019s respect for women.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among women voters, 45% felt that a Clinton presidency would be good for women; only 12% said the same about a Trump presidency.<\/span><\/p>\n

As with many elements of the Republican campaign, it\u2019s not clear if Trump\u2019s use of gender to question Clinton\u2019s qualifications represents a carefully crafted strategy, the candidate\u2019s own views or an effort to boost the enthusiasm of his most loyal supporters \u2014 white men.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also not clear whether Trump will persuade any voters he doesn\u2019t already have. Views of Trump \u2014 and of Clinton \u2014 are very firmly held at this point, according to Matthews, whose partner ran an anti-Trump super PAC earlier this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think significant numbers of women will change their minds,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Clinton\u2019s candidacy is a first, so some conclusions are unknown.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look beyond the presidential level, voters are amenable to women candidates,\u201d said Jennifer Lawless, director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University in Washington, D.C. \u201cAt the presidential level it\u2019s trickier \u2014 we only have one case.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to know whether attitudes toward Clinton have to do with her being Clinton, or that she\u2019s a woman.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Women accounted for 10 million more voters than men in the 2012 presidential election, which accentuates the need to get maximum support from them, said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gender gaps \u2014 the distance between two candidates\u2019 support among men and women \u2014 have marked every presidential contest since 1980, she said. A double-digit gap between genders secured victory for President Obama in 2012 and Bill Clinton in 1996; in recent polls, Hillary Clinton has narrowly exceeded the gaps that benefited those Democrats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bystrom said that Clinton\u2019s edge derives not only from her own gender pitch \u2014 she has detailed her life as a mother and grandmother and cited her long experience in pushing women\u2019s rights \u2014 but from limitations in Trump\u2019s approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his 2004 reelection campaign, George W. Bush delivered two different security messages, Bystrom said. To men, his campaign emphasized law and order; to women, a promise to keep them and their children safe. The latter worked better with some women, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump \u201cis talking about it in heavily male terms\u201d that are less appealing to women, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Republican nominee has nodded lately to his difficulties among women. Last week, he unveiled a child-care policy \u2014 although its rollout was marred by his false claim that Clinton had no such plan herself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not long after, he described a woman pastor as a \u201cnervous mess\u201d and questioned her motives after she calmly asked him to skip anti-Clinton remarks in her Michigan church. He took to Twitter over the weekend to castigate New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd as \u201ccrazy,\u201d \u201cwacky\u201d and \u201ca neurotic dope\u201d \u2014 the latter adjective one he regularly uses against women.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Trump, the difficulty in making up much ground among women was demonstrated in recent surveys in this must-win state by Suffolk University. Polls taken in July and September showed that even as Trump overtook Clinton, she retained the same hold on Ohio\u2019s women voters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Ohio campaign leaders insist the candidate\u2019s comments have had no impact on his standing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are the things that the press will focus on at times and then there the things that the voters focus on, and I think we\u2019re doing much better with what voters are focusing on right now,\u201d said campaign director Robert Paduchik.<\/span><\/p>\n

His campaign recently launched a push to attract women voters with Trump\u2019s messages on national security, the economy and social issues. Kamilah Prince, who organized a statewide women\u2019s tour for Trump, said voters are concerned with those issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, he\u2019s new to this,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s not your retail politician where people are taught \u2018don\u2019t ever say this thing.\u2019 And that what makes him organic and real\u2026. Right or wrong, people appreciate that honesty and that\u2019s he\u2019s just organic, and he is what he is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Clinton operatives contend Trump has given the Democratic campaign an opening among Republican and independent women unavailable to previous party nominees. To boost those odds, Clinton has been airing ads showing Trump\u2019s insults to women and others and emphasizing her proposals.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a \u201cTonight Show\u201d appearance aired Monday, Clinton told host Jimmy Fallon that navigating a presidential campaign in a way that left a candidate appearing both serious and relatable is \u201cespecially tricky for women. It just is.”<\/span><\/p>\n

But she has generally avoided complaining about gender-based remarks from Trump or his allies, some of whom recently said she had not smiled enough during a recent interview about national security.<\/span><\/p>\n

She received high-level backup on Sunday from Obama, speaking at a New York fundraiser.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI will also say that there’s a reason why we haven’t had a woman president; that we as a society still grapple with what it means to see powerful women,\u201d Obama said. \u201cAnd it still troubles us in a lot of ways, unfairly, and that expresses itself in all sorts of ways.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Clinton campaign officials are confident Trump will not be able to convince substantial numbers of voters to question a woman as president. Nor, according to Clinton\u2019s Ohio director, Chris Wyant, will any softer approach Trump adopts erase memories of his earlier remarks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe has such a long history of making those comments,\u201d Wyant said. \u201cWe still see a real opportunity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/strong> : http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/la-na-pol-trump-clinton-gender-20160921-snap-story.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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