'That compulsive micromanagement, ultimately emanating from Hillary herself, has come back to haunt her in her dismaying inability to field complex unscripted questions in a public forum. The presidential sweepstakes are too harsh an arena for tenderfoot novices. Hillary's much-vaunted "experience" has evidently not extended to the dynamic give-and-take of authentic debate. The mild challenges she has faced would be pitiful indeed by British standards, which favor a caustic style of witty put-downs that draw applause and gales of laughter in the House of Commons. Women had better toughen up if they aspire to be commander in chief. '
http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2007/11/14/hillary/?source=whitelist
Camille might have brought up the performance of George Galloway at the Senate hearings to which he was invited a couple of years back. Completely demolished the plump, intellectually moribund senators who tried to corner him. Although I hate everything George Galloway stands for, he has been tested in the fires of Westminster cut and thrust and his steel is obviously still honed to a sharpness greatly superior to the slug-like senators. The US system in general is far more tolerant of both incoherent thought and language, and there is no cast-iron requirement for logical speech. Indeed, mangled syntax and meandering sentances make American politicians sound like 'one of the guys' and therefore are even sometimes mimicked by people who can speak as forensically as a lawyer. Sad but true.
So in regard to Hillary, I'm not sure that its a problem if Hillary is tough and rapier-like in her public performances. Much more problematical is whether people think she is sincere and down-home enough. To me, there is a robotic, cold waspishness about Hillary that makes me really not like her as person. I'm not sure if I'd vote for her because sometimes those in the highest office need the leavening of some milk of human kindness. Of the latter, I reckon Hillary has virtually none. Will Americans want that too?
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