Hilarys outburst what do we think?

[FaceFook]

here

I even object to the way it is being reported ' over sensitive'

I think not - i think the 'outburst' quite justified !

it was reported as 'outburst' not my interpretation

Hmph. harbor please. Being American and all that...

I heart Athene, although she's a Republican and I'm a Democrat. Still love her for her dedication to the GOP. She has real convictions, and I respect that.

And am sure she respects me the same, right?

Gosh, of course I respect people whose opinions differ from mine. Life would be very dull if everyone agreed with me.

I think her response was excellent.

To the point, and slapping down someone who tried to disrespect her.

Fab.

I don't see why women should always react calmly, with dignity, with grace, with humour, blah di blah.

That's just another way of saying she should keep her behaviour within the bounds of "laydeelike" behaviour - irritation, outrage, annoyance, incredulity, are all the preserve of men. We should all just be dignified, we undermine ourselves by showing emotions that are the preserve of men.

Bollocks to that.

(although he didn't really try to disrespect her, except insofar as he was asking her to speak Pres Obama's words through mrs clinton's mouth, which is still a bit off. the translator made an error).

I like her a lot. I also like her husband. Both very good politicians imo.

Lost in Translation

I can live with that.

Was it the translator who made the error or the questioner?

mitfordsisters - I'm just gobsmacked by your username - WHY on earth would you want to associate yourself with Britain's first lady of fascism??? Diana Mosely, nee Mitford, was an unabashed and ardent Nazi sympathiser; I don't think any amount of sisterhood would make me want to ever have anything to do with her, however virtual the connection.... weird.....

it just seems to me you're living in a world where men and women are natural enemies, and there are no other criteria for deciding who's good and who's bad. Not all men are bastards, contrary to that great 80's chant. Some of us like being defined not by our husbands but by the quality of the marriage that we are equal partners in. My DH is my biggest fan and I am his, my success is his success and vice versa - to me, marriage is about being on the same team, and I don't think this is something the Rodham-Clintons have ever really absorbed into their marriage, which I think is a shame for them personally: they seem to be, on a fundamental level, in competition with each other, and that hurts.

And for me that is why it was painful to watch her reaction to the misphrased question - it wasn't so much that she was wrong to react the way she did, it was that it gave away too much information about her personal life and feelings, which as a professional I am sure she will regret. It's the verbal equivalent of inadvertently flashing your underwear, and I think that's why she got jumped on. I'm not sure if it's inspired by misogyny or not - remember a couple of years back when Sarkozy seemed to be drunk at some summit, there was a lot of speculation about that, as I recall.

not sure, actually. i read somewhere it was the translator but it does all seem a bit unpro.

oh i simply adore the mitfords. [non u]

FGS the mitfords were about far more than fascism. Diana and the other one (who was bonkers anyway so doesn't count) were not the only Mitford sisters. Unity was a communist and the others were quite boring, especially Nancy (my dear, those dreadful books)

i really don't think getting pissed on the job and Slapping Down A Silly Question are in the same zone, tbh.

I thought Bill was the one who did the knicker flashing.

I will never cease to be astonished by how much people seem to think they know about other people's thoughts, feelings and motivations, just by reading a media narrative which may or may not bear any relationship whatsoever to the truth.

Er, Unity Mitford was even more of a Nazi than the scary Diana Mosley? Tried to top herself when WW2 broke out; Hitler gave her the choice between German nationality or a safe passage home. Jessica was the communist - wrote some really interesting stuff, actually, wasn't hers "The American Way of Death"?

Agreed that defining the sisters by the Nazi pair is a bit pointless, though.

And I admire Hillary a lot for her tart response. I find the media presentation of this incident genuinely horrifying. You don't have to like a woman politician to think this is appalling, and I'd have been fuming had it been Palin or Rice, yes.

Reminds me of the time Newsnight decided to have a discussion on feminism... because Germaine Greer attacked Suzanne Moore's "fuck-me shoes" (I want a pair, whatever they are). Such respect for the Women's Movement displayed by the BBC hierarchy, there.

fuck me shoes and birds nest hair iirc.

Oh my word. I was outraged by her response. I am really evidently the only woman on the planet and the only Democrat pissed off by her.

As sec of state for the US she should have had more cool. End of. On the scale of nutty questions, that may be the least nutty she ends up getting asked during her (probably short at this rate) tenure. Prior to this incident it was impossible for me to imagine a situation in which I could identify an situation in which 'W' behaved with split second aplomb - I am now thinking of the trainer incident in Iraq and saying to myself: Well done you.

So many ways she could have handled it - humor, deflect it, reposition, etc - instead what she did was reinforce the idea that however smart and capable women are, when they're vexed by insecurities (standing in Bill's shadow) they can be relied upon to lose it. Cheers for that one Hillary.

Would she have done that in Paris standing next to Carla Bruni and Sarko? I think she's given the impression she didn't have to be on her best behavior in a developing country, this is what really pissed me off the most.

harrietthespy, i agree 100%

Can totally understand her frustration as being perceived as a mouthpiece for Bill, but she did herself no favours by showing how angry she was to the camera/world. She betrayred too many of her own insecurities. she could have used humour/deflected it, been far more shrewd. And definitely think she was letting her guard down, being in the developing world. Her body language, tone, facial expressions, show more disgust than is warranted.

why does her irritation at being asked to be the mouthpiece for her husband betray her insecurities? why isn't it just okay to be narked cos it's a stupid question?

I guess I'm not seeing things no one else saw then.

I really don't think she reacted like a senior stateswoman. The mature thing to do would have been to pretend she hadn't heard properly, and ask for the interpreter to repeat the question. This would have given her thinking time and the student questioner the chance to rectify any mistranslation (assuming the student had a passing knowledge of English). She reacted like a woman peeved, and it was not especially grown-up. Especially as it later transpired that the student had been asking for president Obama's position on the matter.