Nicholas
Kristof asks if any female candidate would survive if she had the
same history as Donald Trump.
He
poses a series of hypotheticals:
“Imagine
if it were Hillary Clinton who had had five children by three husbands, who had
said it was fine to refer to her daughter as a “piece of ass,” who participated
in a radio conversation about oral sex in a hot tub, who rated men based on
their body parts, who showed up in Playboy soft porn videos.
“Imagine
if 15 men had accused Clinton of assaulting or violating them, with more
stepping forward each day.
“Imagine
if Clinton had held a Mr. Teen USA pageant and then marched unannounced into
the changing area to ogle the young bodies as some were naked and, after doing
the same thing at a Mr. USA pageant, marveled on a radio show at what she was
allowed to get away with.
“Imagine if in a primary election debate Clinton had boasted that there’s “no problem” with the size of her vagina.
“Imagine
if Clinton had less experience in government or the military than any person who
has ever become president?
“Imagine
if she had said about a man running against her in the primaries, “Look at that
face! Would anyone vote for that?”
“Imagine
if it were Clinton who had boasted, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth
Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
“Imagine
if it were Clinton who had been caught on a hot mike referring in a degrading
way to men’s genitals and boasting that her prominence gave her license to grab
men’s crotches.
“Imagine
if she had bragged about her attempts to commit adultery — and later reportedly
sought to have fired from his job the married man who resisted her seduction
efforts.
“Imagine
that it were Hillary Clinton who had been accused of assault by her first
spouse (later recanted) and later of assault in a lawsuit by a business
partner.
“Imagine
if Clinton had defended herself from an accusation of molesting a young man by
explaining, “He would not be my first choice, that I can tell you.”
“Imagine
if Clinton had body shamed Donald Trump, saying that she had observed his rear
end and concluded, “I’m not impressed, believe me.”
“Imagine
if Hillary Clinton had first drawn national attention not with an idealistic
speech at the Wellesley commencement, but by being sued for racial
discrimination by President Richard Nixon’s administration.
“Imagine
if she had later been quoted by a member of her staff as saying “laziness is a
trait in blacks” and had retweeted white supremacists, including one honoring
the American Nazi Party.
Imagine if it were Clinton who had gone through six bankruptcies and compiled a long record of stiffing contractors, from plumbers to painters to lawyers. …
“Imagine
that, instead of releasing 39 years of tax returns, showing most recently that
she had paid 31 percent of her income in federal income taxes, she had refused
to release any returns — and leaked pages from 1995 returns indicated that she
had paid no federal income taxes at all for years….”
What
do you think? Would she still be a candidate for president?