HILLARY Clinton is getting less awkward about hugging people. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are big on hugging, but not Rudy Giuliani.
Bill can be very defensive when it comes to his wife. Mitt Romney (a Republican presidential contender) is “more head than heart” on the campaign trail.
These were the observations made by senior journalists of The New York Times (NYT) during a public forum organised by the newspaper last week on “Inside the 2008 Presidential Campaign” where they shared their insights into the race to the White House.
The pressmen remarked that Hillary, as a New York senator, viewed the NYT as her hometown paper and would relay her comments about stories on her through her aides.
“She cares a lot about what’s on page one and the blogs,” said Patrick Healy, who covers Hillary’s campaign. “She would needle me sometimes, saying if Adam (another reporter) were to write the story it would be on the front page.”
Her aides seem to know newspaper deadlines very well. Once, they called Healy at 11pm, asking if there was any way for him to insert certain words on paragraph nine in his story, which they had read online.
“I try to hear them out but you would want to keep the relationship on an even keel,” said Healy, who recently wrote that Bill sometimes could upstage his wife “simply by breathing”.
He acknowledged that his ties with the Clinton camp could be complicated at times, referring to an article he wrote last year about the state of their marriage.
In that story, he pointed out that “since leaving the White House, Bill and Hillary Clinton have built largely separate lives – partly because of the demands of their distinct career paths and partly as a result of political calculations... they appear in the public spotlight methodically and carefully: the goal is to position Mrs Clinton to run for president, not as a partner or a proxy but as her own person”.
Spouses have indeed become very important in the 2008 race.
“Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Edwards are very appealing in their own way,” said national correspondent Jodi Kantor.
How accessible are the candidates to the media?
“John Edwards is pretty accessible. But I don’t find Giuliani accessible at all,” said political correspondent Adam Nagourney.
He also felt that the Democratic Party had its strongest line-up of contenders in years and that he personally found Mike Huckabee, a Republican contender, very appealing.
Nagourney believed that Huckabee would have made a greater impact had other factors worked for him, such as more money for campaigning.
These political journalists were of the view that the 16 candidates eyeing the White House were all very driven, ambitious people.
As an example, Healy cited one occasion when Hillary was suffering from a horrible sore throat but went ahead to deliver her speech.
“It showed how much she really wanted to do it.”
On a lighter note, an exception could be Republican Fred Thompson. The general perception is that he is lazy and perhaps not even enjoying the campaign trail.
When Thompson gave a talk to locals in a restaurant in Iowa last month, the crowd was quiet when he ended his speech.
According to Nagourney’s story, Thompson had to ask: “Can I have a round of applause?”
When a member of the audience quizzed the NYT panel on why the newspaper often merely reported about the leading candidates from the two parties, thus neglecting the lesser known contenders, assistant managing editor (news) Richard Berke said: “We can’t give equal coverage to everyone. We do make choices.”
As pointed out by Nagourney, the press had reported all about the thrice-married Giuliani’s estranged relationship with his children, his stand on abortion and so forth.
“Everything is fair game when you run for president,” he said.
