Hillary Rodham Clinton needs a sport. Her favourite fitness activity, according to her MySpace page, is speed walking. Her hobbies include crossword puzzles, scrabble and gardening. Organising her closets is stress relief. Sleeping in until 7 am is her idea of being naughty.Her chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama, meanwhile, has already shown a touch for channeling the varsity glamour of John F Kennedy, who radiated vigor and charisma by playing touch football and skippering boats. Obama loves to play pickup basketball, a game that is the definition of cool for a lot of men.The problem, as one of her donors put it: “How does 59-year-old Mama run against sexy Obama?” (The donor asked not to be named speaking critically of his candidate.) How does she show personality through leisure, particularly of the sporting kind? Voters expect their presidents to throw out the first pitch; they are accustomed to George W Bush clearing brush, Bill Clinton playing golf, the elder George Bush racing speedboats and Ronald Reagan riding horseback. But there is no playbook for a woman running for president. If Condoleezza Rice ran for president, some adviser would surely play up her love of the National Football League. But Hillary Clinton? “I certainly don’t foresee her playing basketball,” said Alan Patricof, a Clinton fundraiser.The Clinton camp believes that if the presidential nomination comes down to experience, competence and gutsiness (rather than personality), Clinton will win.“What you see is who she is,” said her spokesman, Howard Wolfson. “Hillary is intelligent, strong and experienced. She is also funny, warm, and compassionate. Ellen Goodman captured this well when she referred to her as a caring commander in chief.”But Clinton also knows that she needs to win points for likeability. So she often pokes fun at herself. At a forum on faith last week, she said, “Sometimes I say, Oh Lord, why can’t you help me lose weight?” Her website also features a video of her mocking goofy guys as they serenade her as part of her campaign.Her inner jock, however, can feel forced. Last week, she teamed up with the tennis legend Billie Jean King and shared some sports stories. “I played softball, I played pickup basketball, I played tennis,” Clinton said at a Women for Hillary event, recalling that she once won a trophy in an Arkansas mixed-doubles tournament. The problem for her, unlike Obama, is that if she played any sport today, she could invite ridicule. There is a delicate balance between a candidate’s true self and, if voters don’t buy it, a phony image.
