Hillary Clinton talks women in politics, reflects on 2008 race
Hillary Clinton said she's a better candidate than she was in 2008 and that circumstances have improved for female candidates, but that there are still significant challenges for women who choose to run for higher office.
Asked during a recently published Vogue interview whether the country is ready for its first female president and why reaching the White House is still a "hurdle," Clinton replied: "You know, I really don't know."
"I think it's gotten better. But I think there is still a very deep set of concerns that people have, which very often they're not even aware of or they couldn't articulate," she said in the interview, which published Wednesday. "There's nothing overt about it in most instances. People are very convinced they want to vote for the right person. And then ... you know, you get little hints that maybe they're not as comfortable with a woman being in an executive position. Especially in a big, rough-and-tumble setting like New York City or the United States of America."
Still, she said, "I think it's changing. I've noticed a big improvement between now and the last time I ran."
The former secretary of state also added that she thinks she's improved as a campaigner since her last bid eight years ago, when she lost the primary to then-Sen. Barack Obama.
"I do think I'm a better candidate," she told Vogue. "Maybe that has to do with being very comfortable with what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. And convinced that I'd be a good president, having now watched it up close: my husband's administration, being in the Senate--especially after 9/11--being Secretary of State, spending a lot of time with the national security team and President Obama."
Clinton also insisted that, despite her multiple campaigns in recent years, she really never considered running for office until voters in New York began imploring her to run for Senate there in 2000. She added that she was so against the idea at the time that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would routinely tell people "She would never run for office."
"I never did. Until, literally, I started getting calls from New Yorkers asking me to run," she said. "I said, 'No, that's ... I'm not going to do that. It makes no sense.' I gave them every excuse in the book. And then I did have that moment where I thought, 'Wait a minute.' I've gone around telling women to at least consider challenges and opportunities, to try to figure out whether they're for you."