Conservative pundits are attacking Hillary Clinton as “anathema to feminists” because she “married up,” never achieved anything aside from being “the president's wife,” and “has only ever gotten anywhere in politics because of who she's married to.”

During the 2008 campaign, Clinton was frequently the target of sexist remarks by pundits.

Erika Falk, an executive director at Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy, wrote in Women for President: Media Bias in Nine Campaigns that during the 2008 campaign, media “conveyed disrespect for Clinton ... by implying that she has no personal accomplishments and all her success was due to her husband.” University of Maryland professor Shawn J. Parry-Giles similarly noted in Hillary Clinton in the News: Gender and Authenticity in American Politics that pundits “complained that Clinton's accomplishments derived from her opportunistic marriage rather than her own credentials, further eroding her feminist commitments and her political authenticity.”

The refrain that Clinton “has only ever gotten anywhere in politics because of who she's married to” has resurfaced again regarding her 2016 presidential campaign.

Rush Limbaugh: “If She Hadn't Married The Guy, You Wouldn't Know Who She Is Today.” During his April 13 program, Limbaugh said, “if she hadn't married the guy, you wouldn't know who she is today ... The odds are you wouldn't know who she is. If her name had been Hillary Rodham, she'd have been some feminist activist, probably working as a lawyer for Planned Parenthood or something, you wouldn't know who she is.”

Limbaugh: Clinton Is “Anathema To Feminists ... Because She Married Up.” During his April 13 program, Limbaugh claimed Clinton was anti-feminist because, while “it's tough to say 'not accomplished' when you're talking about a senator and a secretary of state,” she would not be as well-known as she is if she hadn't “married up”:   

LIMBAUGH: Do you realize how that is anathema to feminists? Hillary Rodham today is, “Who is that?” Hillary Rodham Clinton, that's why everybody knows who she is, because she married up. And the feminists, that's not part of the script. You don't get where you are as a woman by marrying up or marrying anybody, other than another woman. That's okay.  They've been trying to make her likable. They've been trying to erase this Nurse Ratched thing for 23 years. What makes them think they're gonna be able to do it this year? I'm genuinely curious.

Fox's Keith Ablow: Clinton Got Her Offices Because “She Was, Well, The President's Wife.” During the April 10 edition of Fox Business' Lou Dobbs Tonight, Ablow, a Fox News contributor, said: “What you have is somebody elected to the United States Senate and who becomes secretary of state, because she was, well, the president's wife. I don't see what else she did, necessarily, that would have led her to those offices.”

Herman Cain: I Refer To Clinton As “Bill Clinton's Wife” Because “She Has Only Ever Gotten Anywhere In Politics Because Of Who She's Married To.” In an April 13 column for his website, Herman Cain wrote: “There's a reason we refer to her around here as Bill Clinton's Wife. It's because she has only ever gotten anywhere in politics because of who she's married to. She is only taken seriously as a candidate for president because of who she's married to. Anyone else with her unimpressive track record would be laughed off the stage. Not only does she have no impressive accomplishments in her career, but she hasn't even offered any compelling policy ideas, or even any serious priorities or goals.”

Fox's Bernie Goldberg: “Hillary Got As Far As She Has Because Of A ... Man.” Goldberg, a Fox News contributor, wrote in an April 12 column on his website that “If Hillary Rodham married some guy named Bill Smith we wouldn't be having this or any other conversation about her” (emphasis in original):

And here's the best part: If Hillary Rodham married some guy named Bill Smith we wouldn't be having this or any other conversation about her. She might be a lawyer someplace or other but she wouldn't be running for president - and wouldn't have been elected to the United States Senate and wouldn't have been picked as secretary of state.

Or to put it another way, Hillary got as far as she has because of a ... man. A man whose coattails she rode to stardom. Without that man, there's no Hillary as we've come to know her.

Dennis Prager: Clinton Is The “Antithesis Of The Message Feminists Want To Convey.” Prager, a radio host and syndicated columnist, attacked Clinton's “female achievement” in an April 14 column, writing: “Anyway, how exactly does Hillary Clinton exemplify female achievement? What she has achieved -- all the fame, being elected a US senator and being named secretary of state -- is due to the man she married. Isn't that supposedly the antithesis of the message feminists want to convey to young women?”

The Blaze's Matt Walsh: Clinton “Embodies Just About Every Negative Stereotype Of Female Managers And CEOs” Including Riding On The Coattails Of Men. Walsh, a contributor to Glenn Beck's The Blaze, wrote in an April 13 piece: “Hillary embodies just about every negative stereotype of female managers and CEOs. She's a cold, manipulative, conniving, thin-skinned, angry, distant, ruthless snob. She rode to power on the coattails of her husband. Everything she has achieved has been handed to her by men. First, Bill got her elected to the Senate, then Barack made her secretary of state.”

PJ Media's Roger Kimball: “What Were Her Qualifications? That She Was Married To Bill Clinton.” In an April 12 column for conservative website PJ Media, Kimball wrote: “A question to ponder: how was it, exactly, that she, as resident of Arkansas, managed to become a New York senator in 2000? Yes, I know she bought a house in Chappaqua, New York, before the election, but really, what were her qualifications? That she was married to Bill Clinton.  That was the chief qualification. The auxiliary credit was her sex: in contemporary American the fact of being female, even if one is only a technical specimen of the genus, like Hillary, is like running in a rotten borough in early nineteenth century England.”