Photo Summary: Clinton in Pakistan

Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic interpreted Hillary's sustained approval ratings from January to October (as Obama's has declined 22%) to the "invisability" factor, viz. "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been fairly invisible to the public eye for the same period of time." In a beautiful example of (sexist) journalistic projection, he adds, "And if there's one HillaryLand lesson that still applies, it's that when Clinton keeps her head down, focuses on the work and evinces no political ambition, people like her. A lot."

A blogger identified as SecyClintonBlog responded as follows (if Preeti will indulge):

"When you says that Secretary Clinton is "fairly invisible to the public eye for the same period of time" don't you mean that she's been busy doing the day in-day-out work of diplomacy but that the MSM only really likes to cover what she's doing if there is a "red-meat" element to it? For example, when there is speculation about her being tossed aside like so much garbage, by the Obama administration (Thank Tina Brown for that, too bad it's basically false), or when Bill Clinton is also in the news (so the media can claim there is some sort of competition between the two) or when she makes a gaffe or evidences a human quality, like frustration as was the case in Kenya when she "snapped" on that student. That incident got more coverage than any other part of her Africa trip despite the fact that she was the first Secretary of State to visit the IDP camps at Goma. It's true that for the first several months she was not on the Sunday talk shows and I never really understood that.

Also, I am not sure why the media don't seem to understand that there is a difference between being a presidential candidate and being a cabinet member. The media (and some Hillary supporters) seem to think that if Hillary Clinton is not out there grabbing a microphone and making herself the center of attention at all times, that she must be powerless or not really doing anything. During and after her surgery, sure, she wasn't in the public eye so much- totally understandable.

In other words, if she was perceived as "invisible" (and I don't really think she was), it was largely due to you guys in the media not providing coverage of what she was doing because you deemed it uninteresting. You see, the media not only covers the news, it determines what is worthy of news - ie. it creates the news."