Tory Newmyer, Fortune – September 29, 2015
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who chaired Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, would like to see the former Secretary of State loosen up a bit on the campaign trail as she makes her second bid. “I do think it’s actually important,” McAuliffe told Fortune editor Alan Murray on Tuesday at the Brainstorm Tech conference in Austin. “People want to see people having fun at what they’re doing.”
Frank Bruni, New York Times – September 29, 2015
The interview itself covers Clinton’s biography and some serious terrain, including feminism and the relationship between African-Americans and the police. But it’s in large part a Dunham-Clinton love-in, a pajama party minus the pajamas, ostensibly in keeping with the Clinton campaign’s recent pledge to roll out a warmer, funnier version of the candidate. I’ve lost count of which version we’re on.
Marc Ambinder, FiveThirtyEight.com – September 29, 2015
But authenticity is overrated. There may be no other word more misused by the media and by political pundits. And it’s doubly useless: First, “authenticity” means different things to different people; we use it as a proxy variable for traits that we do like, forgetting that authenticity can just as easily stand in for variables that we don’t. And second, even these varying definitions of authenticity don’t necessarily lead to electoral success.
Ben Terris, The Washington Post – September 28, 2015
Missing a cue for some friendly banter is hardly a disqualifier for the most powerful office in the world, but it illustrates the strange and difficult balance that candidates running for president attempt to strike. Voters, we’ve been told, don’t just want a president who can name the leader of the Quds force in Iran, they want someone who can feel their pain. Someone to whom they’d happily hand their baby for a kiss, with whom they’d be glad to grab a beer.
Allyson Hobbs, The New Yorker – September 23, 2015
If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination and the national election, can we expect the same gathering of crowds and the same emotional outpouring? Would the historic election of the first woman President evoke a similar thrill and sense of wonderment at the leaps that this country is capable of making?
Dylan Byers, CNN Money – September 22, 2015
Despite two-and-a-half decades in the public eye, Clinton is still trying to convince American voters that she is real, authentic and, yes, likable. Nothing is standing in the way of that goal so much as the candidate herself, Democratic strategists and political journalists say, which could pose a real problem if Clinton is forced to face a spirited Republican candidate like Marco Rubio or Carly Fiorina, or a dynamic Democratic challenger like Joe Biden.
Rebecca Kaplan, Face the Nation – September 20, 2015
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was stumped Sunday when “Face the Nation” moderator John Dickerson asked her to name three words that describe “the real Hillary Clinton.” “Just three? I can’t possibly do that!” Clinton said, throwing hear head back with laughter. “I mean, look, I am a real person with all the pluses and minuses that go along with being that. And I’ve been in the public eye for so long that I think, you know, it’s like the feature that you see in some magazines sometimes, ‘Real people actually go shopping,’ you know?”
Amita Kelly, NPR – September 17, 2015
Voters have apparently felt it, as polls have showed she has big hurdles when it comes to people liking and trusting her. She has tried — largely unsuccessfully — to appear relatable, talking about how she’s a new grandmother. But, for the first time in this campaign, she may have finally found her stride Wednesday night as a likable grandmother on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
Paul Waldman, The Washington Post – September 8, 2015
The truth is that all campaigning is a performance, by its very nature. When you stand up in front of a group of people, whether five or five thousand strong (not to mention the cameras that will carry the event to untold numbers more), you’re presenting a version of yourself crafted for an audience. That’s true of a politician, it’s true of a teacher in front of a class, and it’s true of you or me when we tell a joke at a party.
Nina Burleigh, Newsweek – September 5, 2015
It is a common female problem: Women in the public eye are much more likely to be asked to protect and project authenticity than men in comparable positions.