Politics

Hillary's Last Gasp

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From a Pew Research Center poll this week, a peculiar ambiguous finding worth keeping in mind as Hillary takes the stage later tonight.

Americans believe women have the right stuff to be political leaders. When it comes to honesty, intelligence and other traits they value highly in leaders, the public rates women superior to men. But only 6% say women make better political leaders than men.

More from the survey:

The survey asked no questions about Sen. Hillary Clinton or the 2008 presidential campaign. However, in answer to an open-ended question, Clinton and Sen.Barack Obama were each named by 13% of respondents as the political figure in the U.S. that they admire most. President Bush was the third most frequently mentioned figure, named by 7% of respondents. Women are more than twice as likely as men to name Clinton as the figure they admire most; and Hispanics are much more likely than blacks and somewhat more likely than whites to name her as the figure they admire most.

More in reason on voter irrationality here.