JUNEAU — Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and all woman leaders are held to a higher standard than men, the chairwoman of the Alaska Democratic party said Thursday.
Casey Steinau, who is attending the party’s national convention in Philadelphia, said in a phone interview that the perception is that Clinton has to come across as “warm,” but no one is saying Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump isn’t warm enough.
“That screams double standard to me,” Steinau said.
She believes that Clinton has the qualifications to be at a higher standard, though, calling her the most qualified person to run for president who hasn’t already been a president.
“She is so far above Donald Trump, they’re not even on the same plane,” Steinau said.
Clinton has been demonstrating, and convention goers have been hearing all week, why Clinton would make a good president, she said, adding that the convention has done a good job of showing the different sides of Clinton.
She said Republicans, at their convention last week, did not do a good job of showing Trump as anything but “the same old TV reality show star that we’ve all seen before.”
Both she and state Rep. Andy Josephson, a Clinton delegate to the convention, said they thought it would be good for Clinton to give a nod to her former Democratic rival Bernie Sanders and his supporters when she addresses the convention Thursday evening.
Passion isn’t a strong enough word to describe the fire of Sanders’ supporters, Josephson said. Clinton would be wise to acknowledge the parts of the party platform Sanders was instrumental in passing, how he made her a stronger candidate and how she learned from him, he said.
She also should come out swinging against Trump, he said.
“That old mantra, ‘This is the most important election ever,’ I think that may actually finally be true,” he said.
