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Albany, NY – If you look at most numbers, seems like Hillary Clinton is likely to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008. Polls show women prefer Clinton. There's a sizable gap between Clinton and Barack Obama, who's running second. She's done well in presidential debates.
But a recent Zogby poll shows that Clinton is divisive. Half of those who responded to the poll say they would never vote for her - none of the other candidates in the election got such a negative response. Hillary Clinton is no newcomer to politics. We all know her as a Senator from New York and the former First Lady of both the nation and Arkansas. But Clinton started her political activism very young...in fact, she started out agitating for the Republican party, serving as president of Wellesley's College Republicans.
Air America radio host and political writer Laura Flanders looked at Hillary Clinton in a recent essay in a book on the presidential race called The Contenders. Flanders doesn't pretend to be a fan of Clinton's. In fact, Flanders thinks Clinton sticks too closely to the middle of the road - and that Clinton's policies don't necessarily reflect her base of women supporters.
Seems like every newspaper, every news channel is speculating about the presidential race...Political science professor and commentator Helen Desfosses wishes they'd be talking about the candidates' policies and not just their characters.
Policies matter in a presidential election, but let's face it: so does image. It's spin season in the U.S., and Hillary Clinton has assembled quite a team of masters to help her create a trustworthy image. In fact, many criticize Clinton of over-planning her public persona. As the first woman front-runner for president, she's got a bevvy of expectations to contend with - and everything seems fair game for analysis, from her demeanor to her wardrobe to her laugh. We turned to communications expert Mary Kahl to see how Clinton's image campaign is working.
Bill Clinton is certainly a factor in his wife's political career. We called on political expert Alan Chartock to give us a sense of Bill Clinton's role in this election.