Cavuto: Clinton "trying to run away from this tough, kind of bitchy image"

Summary: While discussing Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign strategy for the March 4 Democratic primary in Texas, Neil Cavuto said of Clinton: "[S]he's trying to run away from this tough, kind of bitchy image."

On the February 18 edition of Fox Business News' Cavuto, during a discussion about Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign strategy for the March 4 Democratic primary in Texas, Republican strategist Frank Guerra asserted that "tough-as-nails ladies" are elected to office in Texas and said, "I think that Hillary Clinton really needs to be tough in this race in the next two weeks, and she needs to be very definitive about her positions because she needs to draw a sharp contrast between where she is and where people are still not sure about where [Sen.] Barack Obama is." Host Neil Cavuto responded, "But Frank, if she has tried that to little avail in the campaign thus far and she's trying to run away from this tough, kind of bitchy image that her critics claim that she has, wouldn't that reinforce that image and actually help Barack Obama?"

As Media Matters for America documented, during the March 15, 2007, broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Glenn Beck said of Clinton, "[S]he's the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?" Also, defending Sen. John McCain over his failure to denounce the reference by a campaign event audience member to Clinton as a "bitch," Politico chief political correspondent Mike Allen said, "All right. But what Republican voter hasn't thought that? What voter in general hasn't thought that?" Politico chief political columnist Roger Simon began his November 16 column by asserting, "The (rhymes with rich) is back."

From the February 18 edition of Fox Business News' Cavuto:

CAVUTO: So if you're doing ads, real quickly, if you're doing ads, Frank, and she's known as these get-in-the-face ads, saying that Barack Obama is afraid to debate her and all of that. He calls them attack ads. They don't seem like very attacking ads to me. But nevertheless, does she need to do more of that or what?

GUERRA: Oh, absolutely. I think so far, some of the ads that I've seen here in Texas have been sort of soft and lovely. They're very good ads. But I think she really needs to be tough here in Texas.

Keep in mind the kind of women that we elect to office here in Texas. On the Democratic side, let me just say two words: Ann Richards. I still picture her on her Harley with her leather jacket. You look at Kay Bailey Hutchison, you know, our U.S. senator. You look at some of the state senators like Judith Zaffirini and Leticia Van de Putte. I'm telling you, those are tough-as-nails ladies.

And I think that Hillary Clinton really needs to be tough in this race in the next two weeks, and she needs to be very definitive about her positions because she needs to draw a sharp contrast between where she is and where people are still not sure about where Barack Obama is.

CAVUTO: But Frank, if she has tried that to little avail in the campaign thus far and she's trying to run away from this tough, kind of bitchy image that her critics claim that she has, wouldn't that reinforce that image and actually help Barack Obama? In other words, isn't she between kind of like a rock and a hard place?

GUERRA: I don't think so, because remember, because we've been out of the race for so long, we're ready for a fight. We really want to see something. We're almost like Missouri number two, you know, "Show Me." So I think she needs to demand that of Barack Obama in this race.

—J.H.