One thing each Democratic campaign can't do

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Saturday April 09, 2016 · 9:24 PM PDT

2016/04/09 · 21:24

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton and Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, shakes hands as they greet the audience before the audience before a Democratic presidential primary debate hosted by MSNBC at the University of New Hampshire Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016, in Durham, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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The past week has brought into focus that the two campaigns, Hillary’s and Bernie’s, each have one thing that they just can’t do.

It’s been discussed at length in many venues that Hillary can’t raise her voice: she will be called shrill, even if her voice is no louder than a man’s. She also can’t go waving her arms; she will be deemed “out of control.” This places her at a rhetorical disadvantage but that’s the breaks.

The one thing that Bernie can’t do is to question Hillary’s qualifications. Doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not (it’s not). Male candidates are assumed to be qualified. Female candidates not so much; see Janet Yellen upon being nominated to be chair of the Fed. Despite having more and better experience than her predecessors, she was questioned/examined more intensely than they are.

Hillary has built a resume that’s difficult to attack. In fact, some might charge that she’s spent her whole career building a resume for just this moment. It doesn’t matter. As former Senator from New York (and an active one), former Secretary of State, and possessing the insight into use of executive power from her vantage as First Lady, she has the best credentials of any non-incumbent since FDR. Bernie simply *can’t* suggest that she’s unqualified. Even if he feels it. It makes him come off as small and petty and is a non-winner as a line of attack.

Politics isn’t a game played by equal teams or equal individuals. Here’s an instance of where the “rules” are asymmetrical for each candidate.

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