BY CITIZEN MOM Monday night on ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson, Sen. Hillary Clinton gave the anchor a live interview, offering some early clues as to how she’s going to answer “those” questions — you 
know, the woman-specific questions that, fairly or unfairly, Obama and Biden and the rest of the Seven Dwarves just won’t get. Every interviewer from here to primary day will find a way to get one in, and Gibson didn’t shy away, though he did throw in the pussyfoot flattery and the “I mean no disrespect, BUT” — can we just lose that shit already?
GIBSON: You are a strong, credible female candidate for president of the United States, and I mean no disrespect in this, but would you be in this position were it not for your husband?
CLINTON: [Utterly forgettable 198-word response that was obviously very much NOT what she wanted to be saying but was effective at eating up time so he couldn’t keep pushing her on it. But she was sporting some new chunky red highlights.]
You’d think she’d be used to this question, since it came up during her first Senate bid as well, but apparently not. She’ll have to find a few different versions of an answer she’s comfortable with — and and stick with them. It’s a fair (though still irksome) question, but if she comes off looking like an angry feminist spoiling for a slap-fight, it’ll be her ruin. A few suggestions:
* THE MORNING-SHOW RESPONSE: “Well, [insert name of interviewer], marriage is a long-term commitment, and my marriage to Bill Clinton has been a 35-year experience of love, learning and public service. Everything I’ve done in my life, including the eight years I spent as First Lady of the United States and the last six in the Senate, have brought us — myself and Bill and Chelsea — to where we are now.”
* THE POLITICIAN RESPONSE: “Well, [insert name of interviewer here], that’s a fair question and I’ll give you an honest answer: Being a practicing attorney, a wife and mother, First Lady and now a United States Senator makes a pretty impressive resume no matter who I’m married to, and I think voters understand that. My career in public service includes my time in the White House, but is not limited only to it.”
* THE CITIZEN MOM RESPONSE: “Hey fucknut, are you going to be asking Barack Obama if he woulda been able to use the “skinny kid with the funny name” line if his dad wasn’t from Africa? You think those years Bill was out schtupping anything with a perm were a tiptoe through the tulips? I earned my place at this table the old-fashioned way: Through hard work and years of cleaning up a man’s messes. Now bite me.”
Also, PS to Charles Gibson: Will you be calling Barack Obama “Mr. Obama,” the way you called Hillary “Mrs. Clinton”?