Fighter image carries costs for Clinton: Tough persona obscures likable side, some say

Boston Globe: Fighter image carries costs for Clinton
Tough persona obscures likable side, some say
By Susan Milligan
Globe Staff / April 14, 2008

....Collegial and quietly diligent, Clinton could be counted on to exhaustively work a bill through and cultivate support from both parties, according to numerous senators and aides interviewed by the Globe. This was, some say, the new Clinton that her presidential campaign wanted to reintroduce to voters - the Clinton who once described herself as "the most famous person nobody knows." Fifteen months later, however, even some Clinton supporters concede that goal has been more difficult to achieve in the one-on-one campaign against Barack Obama, in which Clinton chose after her loss in the Iowa caucuses to define herself as a relentless fighter.

That harder-edged persona - intended to present her as tougher than Obama - has won her greater support among some elements of the electorate, especially blue-collar voters, pollsters say. But it has also come at a cost, as Clinton continues to be hamstrung by public impressions of her as divisive and untrustworthy.

Clinton's supporters say she is the victim of old, unfair images that are reinforced in the media. But some political specialists and lawmakers say the tone of Clinton's uphill campaign against Obama has underscored the side of the Clintons that some voters do not like. Instead of tapping the nostalgia many Democrats have for the peace and prosperity of the Clinton White House years, many lawmakers in both parties said, the Clinton campaign has reinforced their opponents' characterization of a couple relentless in their quest for power....

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The hardball tactics seem to have turned off some voters. (Peter) Hart, the unaffiliated Democratic pollster, recently conducted a survey showing that Clinton's negative rating among voters - currently 48 percent - is the highest it has been since March 2001. "The key points I find in my surveys are, 'Can I like her?' And 'Can I trust her?' Both of those are clearly obstacles she faces at this stage," Hart said.

A Gallup poll last month showed just 44 percent of Americans believed Clinton is "honest and trustworthy," compared with 63 percent who described Obama as such, and 67 percent who called presumed GOP nominee John McCain honest. A recent Pew Research Center survey showed that 44 percent of voters had a somewhat or very negative view of Clinton. The same poll found that 45 percent of voters believed her "hard to like," and 46 percent called her "phony."...

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