Clinton not an easy sell to all women

Mary C. Kelley, 63, chairs the University of Michigan's history department and is somewhat wistfully supporting former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. "I strongly believe that it's feminism that made Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidency plausible. Therefore, I would like a candidate who is not simply running like another man, and that's what I see in her self-presentation again and again and again."

To solidify and increase her support among women, Clinton has assiduously courted them. Last month, she appeared on the female gabfest, ABC's morning program "The View." She told a union audience in Chicago that if they wanted a winner, "I'm your girl." And she joked that at her age -- 60 -- she was happy to be receiving so much attention "from all these men."

Her attempts to curry favor began to pay off. Support for Clinton among college-educated women jumped from 29% in June to 50% in October, according to the most recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll.

Then came what is widely regarded to be her worst debate performance so far, in Philadelphia on Oct. 30, when she gave conflicting answers to questions about driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, tax reform and the release of her White House papers. Her opponents took her to task. And she seemed to play the gender card, a risky move.

Her campaign complained about "piling on" by her male rivals. Bill Clinton implied the critiques amounted to a "Swift boating" of his wife. Kate Michelman, a prominent feminist who advises Edwards, accused Clinton of "disingenuously playing the victim card."

Her standing in national polls dipped a bit, but she maintained her position as the national front-runner. And in a subsequent debate on Nov. 15, she made a point of saying that she did not feel her opponents attacked her because she is a woman, but because she is in the lead. (In fact, in Iowa, site of the country's first nominating contest, she is in a dead heat with Obama, and Edwards is a close third.)

Wendy Kaminer, 57, a lawyer and author, divides Hillary-resistant feminists into contemporaries of Clinton's, women who entered the post-college world believing they were fully equal to men, and women who are 10 or 20 years older.

Clinton's peers, said Kaminer, may take issue with her choices, while older women may take issue with her political style.

"By putting her political ambitions on hold, or making a decision that the best way to satisfy them is to do it with her husband, well, I don't hold it against her, but it makes me less starry-eyed about her," Kaminer said.