Yahoo Lifestyle Highlights From Hillary Clinton's Twitter Q&A
Hillary Clinton headed to Twitter's San Francisco headquarters on Monday for a Q&A to promote her memoir Hard Choices. While there, she took questions via the hashtag #AskHillary, answering with the grace and intelligence we have come to expect from the former US secretary of state (and 2016 presidential hopeful). Here are our favourite moments from the Q&A.
Malala Yousafzai asked about Clinton about leadership. The 17-year-old Pakistani student and activist, who has previously written about Clinton for TIME magazine, asked: "What will the world look like when there are more women leaders and heads of state?" Clinton responded: "That's a great question from a very courageous young woman ... I believe more women leaders would make a difference in the world. They [break] the gender barrier, the highest and hardest glass ceiling ... This young woman Malala, whom I've had the great privilege of meeting ... is doing an extraordinary job standing up for the most basic rights of girls; the right to go to school, the right to be educated, the right to be her own person. And I think more women leaders would send that message and give Malala some company and some support in her efforts. I hope she hears me because I'm one of her biggest admirers."
Kerry Washington thinks Clinton is a role model for women in politics. The Scandal star asked Clinton, "What advice would you give to young women who are considering a career in politics or public service?" Clinton responded: "If you want to be in politics or public service, you should follow the advice of one of my great predecessors as first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, who said as far back as the 1920s, 'If a woman wants to be in the public arena, she needs to grow skin as thick as the hide of a rhinoceros.' And I, as you can tell, have certainly had to learn how to do that. And there are a lot of great moisturisers I can tell you about if you're interested. The second thing is to learn how to take criticism seriously but not personally ... don't get in the posture of being hunkered down and insecure because you get criticised because that comes with the territory."
And Clinton is a fan of (Washington's Scandal character) Olivia Pope. "Isn't Kerry Washington terrific?" said Clinton, adding, "I mean, really, just a fabulous actress and a really good person."
Clinton thought Amy Poehler's impersonation of her was pretty good. The former Saturday Night Live comedienne, along with her online group @SmartGirls, asked Clinton about how girls can change the world by being themselves. After Clinton responded, talking about the importance of being yourself, she added, "[Amy Poehler] did do a really wicked imitation of me. I actually was on Saturday Night Live with her during the '08 campaign and we were standing next to each other. And even I got confused [by who the real Hillary was]."
She doesn't want to talk about the 2016 presidency. Yet. When asked by American soccer player Julie Foudy who she would name as her vice presidential candidate, Clinton laughed and replied, "I am not ready to answer [that] question because I'm not even ready yet to say that I'm going to do it or that I would get it done. So I'm going to take a pass on that."
She counsels caution with the MH17 crash investigation. "We cannot fall into that trap. I am someone who believes in talking, I am a huge supporter of talking with your adversaries. But we have to be very clear-eyed and not be outsmarted or cornered by what Putin is trying to achieve," said Clinton.
She thinks governments need social media, but not the catty kind. "It is really important for not just individuals, obviously, but organisations and even nations to have a social media presence. However, if it is used primarily to score points, to engage in the kind of back and forth that is marked by insults and really propaganda, sometimes even disinformation, it's not fulfilling its highest and best use to try and connect people and overcome differences and try and resolve problems," said Clinton, when asked about the role of social media in governance.
Clinton, whose Twitter account (@HillaryClinton) has 1.62 million followers (she follows only nine accounts, including Bill and Chelsea of course), is shaping up as a favourite for the place of Democratic nominee in the 2016 presidential race.
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