Being a woman candidate

I think it's important that we not lump all elements of the "did you realize that Hillary is a woman" conversation together. If "Hillary is a woman" means that Hillary will use that fact to appeal to women voters, that's fine. It's one of the strengths of her candidacy. But if "Hillary is a woman" means that Hillary's team--or perhaps just Hillary supporters--intend to cast false aspersions about the other candidates every time they exploit her greatest political weakness then we're moving towards ugly and uncomfortable territory wherein gender becomes a trump issue, rather than one issue among many.

It would have been just as false to suggest that Barack Obama's old strategy--of ignoring Hillary's failures almost entirely--was motivated by a condescending sexism of a different sort. But, of course, the old Obama strategy redounded to Hillary's benefit in every way and, as such, nobody had any reason to make that claim.