Hillary Clinton’s totally understandable response to being asked at a press conference in her capacity as Secretary of State has provoked reporting about her ‘extraordinary outburst’ (e.g. The Times). What’s extraordinary about it other than the fact that most government figures would not expect to be asked for their spouses views on an important matter rather than their own? It would never happen to Bill, or to any other male politician. I don’t think her response was anything other than a clear expression of how unacceptable the question posed actually was – if I was Hillary it would drive me mad and – unlike Hillary – I would probably lose my rag and respond with the kind of hysterical response that she is being credited with. Extraordinary is that her response is a bigger deal to the press than the idiocy of the question.
I agree. I thought her response was pretty restrained, all things considered!
I do feel slightly sorry for the original questioner however (I understand that the question was wrongly translated and that the original questioner was actually asking about the President’s views, which would have been a more reasonable question!)
Right, asking about Obama’s views clearly makes sense, but I don’t understand the reports that it was mistranslated – the questioner is clearly heard to say ‘Mrs Clinton’ …. ‘Mr Clinton’. He surely did not think that the chinese translation for ‘Mr Obama’ was ‘Mr Clinton’???