Washington, D.C. -- Patti Solis Doyle describes Sen. Hillary Clinton as a kind, pleasant, intelligent woman with a great sense of humor and a strong maternal instinct. She ought to know. Solis Doyle is Clinton’s campaign manager -- the first Latina to run a presidential campaign in the United States -- and has been at her side for 16 years. “She is the most famous person that nobody knows,” claims Solis Doyle. If they did, she is sure the Democratic candidate would not have an image problem.
In fact, the senator is so well-known that she can be referred to on a first-name basis. It is in part her name recognition that has put her in the lead among Democratic presidential hopefuls. A year and a half before the election, Hillary also enjoys a comfortable lead among Latino voters, with 59 percent, and among women, with 52 percent. Yet there are constant questions about her electability. More than half of the voters overall say they would not vote for her.
I spoke to Hillary about those mixed signals coming from the polls during an exclusive interview in Washington. “What do you attribute that to?” I asked.
“Well, this was my experience in New York -- people who said they wouldn’t vote for me or that they had already made up their minds about me,” she said. “But I believe that’s what a campaign is for. I cannot meet everybody personally, but I can try to meet as many people as possible and have the ripple effect.”
So far, Sen. Clinton thinks it’s worked. “As I’ve campaigned over the last six months, I’ve gained support. I’ve had more and more people say to me, ‘You know, you’re not what I thought you were,’ and I’ll say, ‘Thank you so much, because I want you to judge me for who I am, not who you heard I was or what you thought about me based on second- or thirdhand information.’”
But in an era when many voters do base their political outlook on second- and thirdhand information, Hillary has a big challenge ahead. “Well, my biggest challenge is making sure people know me and know what I stand for and know what I want to do as president, because I think if they do, I will definitely get the nomination, and I will be elected president.”
The question is, Will they like what she stands for? Sen. Clinton has been keeping a tight schedule, trying to balance her duties in the Senate with her campaign appearances talking about her opposition to the war in Iraq, the lack of access to health insurance, and promising to fix the schools and deal with the thorny issue of immigration.
But the process of electing a president seems more and more to be focused on personality and character rather than on politics and substance. Hillary has been criticized by some for being disciplined, ambitious and tough -- personality traits that are celebrated in a man but looked down upon in a woman. Is there a double standard? “Oh, I think there’s a big double standard. I’ve lived with it; you’ve lived with it. Hopefully our daughters will come of age at a time when we can see the disappearance of that.”
Hillary is hoping to make political history by being elected the first woman president of the United States: “I’m running to be president, and I’m very proud to be running as a woman. But I’m running because I think I’m the best qualified and experienced person to do the job. It’s a very hard job to do if you weren’t disciplined, if you weren’t focused, if you didn’t have a sense of mission about what you wanted to do for your country, if you didn’t believe passionately that our country could do better.”
Voters still have a few months before the primaries, in which they can determine not only if they are willing to elect a woman as president, but whether Hillary Clinton is the right woman for the job.

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(Maria Elena Salinas is the author of “I AM MY FATHER’S DAUGHTER: LIVING A LIFE WITHOUT SECRETS.” Reach her at www
.mariaesalinas.com)
© 2007 by Maria Elena Salinas
Distributed by King Features Syndicate