In Addition

I am a woman approximately like Hillary Clinton. About the same age (she's 68 and I am 66), about the same educational background (she went to Wellesley and I went to Bryn Mawr), about the same political journey (we both moved from Young Republicans to Democrats). There are still numerous differences between us. She has no foreign living experience (I lived in Germany when I was young), she speaks no foreign languages (how she managed that at Wellesley puzzles me but Bryn Mawr insists on speaking ability in two languages prior to graduation or extra math classes), she is not and has never been athletic (I swam age group, college, and adult competition). There are numerous other differences as well but my point is that in many ways I understand Clinton on a different level since our experiences are so similar. Hell, my brother went out with her roommate at Wellesley when they were both freshmen.

So I know that Clinton is reasonably intelligent. That leads to my next diatribe. Why are her commercials playing to Trump's game plan?  Commercials are different depending on the area of the country, but where I live her commercials are attack ads not thoughtful policy statements. Since one of her drawbacks for many voters is that she is an older woman, attack ads are stupid. Frankly they are stupid anyway, but no one wants to see an older woman shake her finger at them and criticize.

If she would play on whatever strengths she has as a diplomat, she would lay out policies, share a vision, show intelligence. All she shows in her ads in my state is what most people find off putting. That doesn't mean that women can't be strong but for hell's sake, if you want to be President, show me why you are good, not why your opponent is not. I don't think simply being female is a qualification for being the leader of the United States; I certainly don't think acting like my mother is a qualification either. At Bryn Mawr we didn't think vaginas were destiny.