访谈录 Interview 2007-08-06&08-07, 希拉里的着装风波

Hillary Clinton is no stranger to scrutiny 1, and once again her appearance is creating controversy 2. Last week on the Senate floor Clinton wore a low-cut blouse that showed a little bit of cleavage if you look closely there. Washington Post style reporter wrote about the wardrobe choice that Clinton camp fired off a letter to supporters calling the piece grossly inappropriate and asking for money to help her win. Let's go to Chris Cillizza who writes the blog The Fix for washingtonpost.com. Thanks for joining us, Chris.

Thanks for having me, Cameron.

So is this a wardrobe malfunction 3 or has, um, the Senator capitalized on a hit here?

Well, where we are I think in politics is that the celebrity 4 culture of sort of who's wearing what and, and how they are wearing it, is something that we are focusing on more than ever before. You know, the, the Hillary Clinton thing is the latest example, but if you remember back to earlier in the campaign, we had Barack Obama in a swimsuit coming out of the water on vacation in Hawaii. And the question was: well, is that appropriate, is it inappropriate? So, and never forget the ever ongoing 5 debate over John Edwards' haircut, so it's something that's out there. I think Senator Clinton faces probably a little more scrutiny because she is a woman. She is the only woman in the field; she is the first woman who is seen as having a really legitimate 6 chance at winning the presidency 7. So those things all affect her as well.

Well, Chris, Barack was, um, Senator Obama was at the beach and you've got Senator Edwards' haircut, is it creepier though when you are talking about a woman's cleavage as opposed to someone appropriately dressed at the beach?

Right I think it gets into sort of more of a gray area certainly and again, it's, it's the, it's the struggle I think we in the media have with how to cover these campaigns. So realities is that personal characteristics do tend to matter. Er, people are interested in it, but at where do you draw the line and again just because Hillary Clinton is sort of a trailblazer in this regard. She is the first woman, er, seen as a front-runner of the presidential race. Drawing that line is different for her, than it might be for some of the men in the race. Er, you know John Edwards during the last debate said he didn't like Hillary's coat. Well, would he have said that about a man? Probably not.

It's interesting. Well, you know, this said, you said, where do you draw the line, maybe the line is drawn 8 between the genders 9. Take a look at what happened yesterday on Meet The Press, quite a heated exchange when this came up.

We make decisions every morning on what we, what we put on and how what sort of image we wanna project. And unfortunately in our society, women are scrutinized 10 in a way that men aren't.

This was so marginal, this was like microscopic 11 evidence, (I'm gonna defend that column, too.) of, of an inappropriate attire 12.

I'm gonna defend that column, too.(It's..I don't think..) When you look at the calculation that goes into everything that Hillary Clinton does, for her to argue that she was not aware of what she was communicating by her dress is like Barry Bonds saying he thought he was rubbing down with flaxseed oil, okay?

It was 3:30 -- whoa, whoa, whoa. It was 4:00 o'clock...

Sometimes a blouse is just a blouse.

I think that's right, sometimes a blouse is just a blouse. (Yep.) But take a look at this comparison of blouses, Chris. Earlier this month, Jackie Smith, Britain's first female Home Secretary wore a much more revealing blouse to the House of Commons, you can see the comparison. So I’m putting you on the spot, what's your judgment 13 in the way that British press handled something like this, and here it says?

I mean, I think that it's always gonna be hard and we’ll probably not always gonna get it right, but I have to say I'm probably as cynical 14 a reporter in politics as they come, but I still think that sometimes ,you just ,a blouse is just a blouse. And I think, I don't think Senator Clinton wore this outfit 15 to send a particular message, sexual or otherwise. Now I could be proven out wrong in the long run. But I would be stunned 16 if that was the case.

Alright. Thank you very much Chris for talking with us on this topic.

Thank you.