Hillary Clinton - yes, Hillary Clinton - answers MNers' questions: come and watch!

[KateMumsnet]

We put Mumsnetters' questions to Former Secretary of State (and, if rumours are to be believed, potentially the first female President of the USA) Hillary Clinton. See what she has to say on abortion rights, learning to brush off misogynist criticism, becoming a grandmother - and how she squares her position as a feminist icon with 'standing by her man'.

Have a look, and tell us what you think on the thread. And don't forget to have a look at Hillary's special message for Mumsnetters, . RebeccaMumsnet is, understandably, thrilled .

No way will she be elected. Waaaaay too liberal, way too normal. :(

I'm happy with th political:personal balance of questions. I'm sure that most political questions are asked over and over, and the answers can be found published somewhere. But asking personal questions gives viewers some feel for the person themselves. None of the personal questions were IMO intrusive. They gave HC the opportunity to present herself as an individual, not just a politician.

She is awesome, totally agree with my 3 previous posters

Dead chuffed my question about maternity leave got voted for .

My cousin teaches in Boston and her baby DD required a small operation when she was a couple of months old, ie; when she was due back at work. Her FB feed had friends saying how lucky she was being allowed to stay off work for a couple of extra weeks while her DD was in hospital. So different from over here .

What Hillary did not say (probably not enough time and it was about her not Bill) is that the situation used to be much worse for parents and other caregivers in the US until President Clinton (and I am sure Hillary was behind the scenes working on it too) championed and eventually signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. It does not go far enough and only entitles an employee to unpaid leave for 12 weeks, but before its enactment, parents were often faced with being fired if they needed to take time off beyond their employer's annual leave policy to care for a seriously ill child, for example.

I have not watched the MN video yet, but for those who didn't hear it, BBC R4 Woman's Hour interviewed her on Thursday morning and here's the link

Seemed from that she has reservations about running anyway, perhaps brought about by questions back in the States, or perhaps just the thinking of a grandmother to be...

Would really like to know why you didnt ask my question on health? (no 6 on your list)

Was it vetoed by MN or did they just refuse to answer it?

She was superb! The americans would be so lucky to have her as president

Awesome to hear from her. I was particularly pleased that she did actually answer the rape question. She didn't skirt it or try to pass the book, she owned it which is nice.

Bit miffed that we wasted 2 questions whilst interviewing one of the most influential women of our time by asking bullshit about being a grandmother and her husbands affair. They are childish and irrelevant questions. There where far more (and higher voted for) questions that should have been asked.

Im embarrassed she was asked about her husbands affair.

I think the more personal questions were fair enough as part of the mix. I'm interested in her as a person and not only in her policies on a range of issues.
I think her wisdom that she wouldn't judge another woman for her choices in any situation as long as it was a responsible choice is excellent and very helpful advice for whatever life throws your way, as well as encouraging tolerance of other people's life journeys.

Hello everyone, and very sorry it's taken so long to get back to you.

Just to clarify, we did in fact ask MostWicked's questions on healthcare reform, and Elastamum's one on life sentences for children. But the finished video felt rather overlong and unwieldy, unfortunately - so after some umm-ing and ahh-ing we made an editorial decision to drop Hillary's answers to those questions. We will, though, be putting individual videos of those sections of the interview up on the thread later today - along with another on 'Veep' which was also dropped for time - so you'll be able to see her responses on those issues.

But sincere apologies to all - we should have been clearer at the beginning that we wouldn't necessarily be able to include all Hillary's responses in the main cut.

I agree that it was very inappropriate to ask her about her husbands affair. Cant understand why this was considered acceptable

My question was on healthcare reform not on life sentences.

Yikes so sorry Elastamum - I transposed the questions.

Thank you, I will look forward to watching it :)

Questions about her marriage are relevant, in my humble opinion... some may say she turned a blind eye, as she had her eye on the prize... that she rode her unfaithful, dishonest and untrustworthy husband's coat-tails into her own political career, and some might question her motives or judgement...?

Are we honestly saying that 'standing by' a man who publicly humiliated you, is not at odds with a strong, feminist persona?

KateMN I don't see why any responses should have been cut. Fair enough, a 15min YouTube clip might be too long, but a set of, say, 3 x 5min clips showing all the responses would have been good.

I just love that she called 'maternity leave', 'family leave'

Stampy - maybe, just maybe she made the decision to stay with him because -gasp!- she wanted to and also because she felt it was in the best interest of their child. That's good enough for this feminist

I suspect she has known for years what her husband is like. I used to work with someone who was an intern (male) for Clinton, and he was well known for being a serial shagger of interns.

BUT she has proven herself as secretary of state, surely that is more relevant to her fitness - or not - to stand for president

Hi everyone, just picking up from KateMumsnet and SarahMumsnet, here are the other questions that were put to Hillary on Friday.

Starting with Hillary on healthcare...

Next, Hillary on life sentences for children...

And lastly, on Veep...

Yeah I'm not sure why it should affect her feminist image. Not all feminists refuse to shave and burn their bras, that doesn't make their views any less valid. I think the work that she has done wrt feminism should not be affected by her decision to stay with her man. For all you know she knows about his indiscretions and doesn't give a shit.