Clinton: Gender's gotten less attention
Posted: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 3:34 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Hillary Clinton told a newspaper association today that the issue of gender had gotten less attention than the issue of race in this election. The comments came in response to a question about the role race was playing in the 2008 election.
"It's inescapable that race and gender -- which has gotten, I must say, much less attention -- are part of who we are," she said at a luncheon at the Newspaper Association of America Annual Convention. "But we both wished to be judged on the sum of our parts, and that is our life experience, our record in public service and so much else."
Clinton repeated her assertion that the Florida vote should be counted and appeared to advance one of her campaign's recent arguments that whether or not the state's delegates are counted at the convention, the popular vote totals there should be counted.
"They [Florida voters] have expressed their views," she said "They have had their votes certified by the Florida Secretary of State; it's part of the popular vote that has been in this campaign and the only remaining question is how will the Democratic Party fairly take into account what the voters of Florida said in trying to determine who the delegates are to go to in the convention, and I think they should do that, and I think they should do it expeditiously."
The speech focused on Clinton's readiness to lead and her plans for her candidacy.
"We have seen the power of the presidency placed in hands unready or unwilling to address the tasks that lie ahead," she said.
Her campaign has consistently argued that Obama has not passed the so-called “Commander-In-Chief test” and say Clinton is the best prepared to lead the country.
She also criticized the Bush administration's approach to the presidency and said she believed in the power of an activist president to solve the people's problems. She went on to lay out, in the most concise and direct manner yet, a series of promises for what she would do as president, including ending the war in Iraq and what she terms President Bush's "War on Science," providing healthcare for everyone and renegotiating NAFTA.
The New York senator also promised to end the use of signing statements "to rewrite the laws Congress has passed," close Guantanamo, disavow torture and restore the right of habeas corpus.
