Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 11, 1992 TAG: 9202110374
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ELLEN GOODMAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
POLITICAL WIVES WHY ISN'T MS. CLINTON RUNNING?
THE YOUNG woman on the Wellesley campus had just one question for Hillary Clinton: "Why don't you run?"Hillary Clinton, class of '69, political-science major, Yale Law School graduate, has the sort of resume that you often find at the ballot box. But then so do many of the other wives of presidential candidates this year. The women could form an entire law firm: Clinton, Harkin and Tsongas - with an office left over for Marilyn Quayle.
Why aren't any women running? After all, 1992 hasn't produced an intimidating crop of men. Jerry Brown, Paul Tsongas, Tom Harkin, Bob Kerrey, Pat Buchanan. We aren't talking giants.
Yet the only woman in the entire field is Lenora Fulani, a psychologist-politician with the fringe New Alliance Party.
The pool of women is still small, says Ann Lewis, Democratic political consultant, and the time frame is still short: "The idea of a woman for the Oval Office is exactly one generation old." She dates it from 1972 when Shirley Chisholm ran for president.
But the answer doesn't lie only in the numbers. It's also in the psyche. It may be a matter of time. But it may also be a matter of mind set.
After all, Paul Tsongas wasn't in anybody's "pool" except his own. So if the former senator from Massachusetts is running, why not the former governor from Vermont, Madeleine Kunin? "It's a psychological leap women are far less likely to make," admits Lewis.
Why isn't Pat Buchanan equally daunted at his slim prospects as a challenger? Former Gov. Kunin explains wryly, "Buchanan's father taught him to box in the basement. Politics is just another form of what life's always been for him." Kunin, now a senior fellow at Radcliffe's Bunting Institute,
worries that women may become more, not less, alienated. "As politics becomes more and more of a bruising game, a lot of women who aren't inclined to that kind of hostility and competitiveness are put off even further."
"Sometimes," she muses, "there is also a level of exhaustion among women. So many women today have come so far and each step has been such a struggle. When it's time to step in the ring they say, `Hey, I've gone as far as I can go.' "
What about going all the way? Recently, Kunin asked a New Hampshire woman what made her run for the board of aldermen. She answered, "There was nobody I wanted to vote for." That doesn't make a presidential platform, but it's a common and encouraging plank.
There's a new breed of running mates in 1992. One of them may make it to the White House. But there's only one way for a woman to get to the Oval Office. She has to start running. On her own two feet. The Boston Globe