Inquiring Minds Want To Know

The Guardian newspaper asks

Why does Hillary Clinton wear such bad clothes?
With a budget that big, surely she can afford a stylist? And does it matter?

[....]

It is obvious to the point of cliche that Clinton is in a trickier position in many ways than Obama: when he is emotional, he is persuasive; when she is emotional, she is betraying her feminist roots. So just as Obama can cut a dash in his slimline, clearly style-conscious suits, Clinton has to hide herself in garishly coloured squares going under the name of "jackets" [And Mao jackets at that. ed.], or else risk being dismissed as so vain that she would be too busy putting on her lipstick to respond to an international terror threat.

But is this necessarily true? One need only look at Condoleezza Rice to see that, contrary to what some might think, American voters aren't always horrified to see a woman in power who doesn't look like Eleanor Roosevelt, and Rice has to placate a far more conservative group of people than the one Clinton is meant to be wooing. Nor did Rice's appearance several years ago in US Vogue seem to harm her credibility. Clinton, on the other hand, was so fearful of such a possibility that she backed out of a shoot with the magazine at the last minute last year, provoking a diatribe from Vogue's editor, Anna Wintour. To make matters even worse for Clinton, who should appear that same month on the cover of Men's Vogue but Obama, appearing very suave and relaxed, whereas Clinton now looked as if she was neurotically focus grouping her campaign to death.

When Clinton complained in a debate just before the March 4 primaries that she "always" got the tougher time from the press, there was another clue to her personal style. It is as if Clinton - incredibly, given what her husband went through - seems to be under the impression that the media is always fair. So last year, when there was a bit of a hoo-ha in the US press about Clinton showing some cleavage, instead of dismissing it as the load of misogynistic nonsense it was, she seems to have taken this to heart and buried herself ever since in shapeless, defeminised, frequently yellow (yellow!) suits.

Of course a woman shouldn't be denied the presidency just because she can't dress well, but that is not the point with Clinton - she has always carefully tailored her style to what she thinks the electorate desires. Just look back at photographs from when Bill was elected and Hillary was wearing pleated skirts and alice bands, looking very much like a Sloane circa 1984. In short, she is doing what she thinks she should as opposed to having a splinter of courage and being true to herself. Which kinda makes you wonder what sort of leader she would be. And that, Anonymous, is why it matters.

But the real answer is . . .