Hillary Clinton as Political Candidate

This chapter features the extensive television news coverage of Hillary Clinton as a candidate for the U.S. Senate. In many ways, the news broadcasts reflected the memory frames that circulated throughout her time as first lady, from her image as a political lightning rod who suffered from personality problems to that of a victimized wife. Questions surrounding her political authenticity were central to the news frames from the early murmurs of a possible Clinton Senate run. Clinton was correspondingly depicted as an inauthentic political candidate because of her questionable motives for office, her lack of geographical ties to the state of New York, her lack of political experience, and her shifting views on contentious political topics. These inauthenticity judgments suggested to the press and Clinton's Republican opponents that she lacked an overall fitness and preparedness for elective office.