In a March 6 front-page profile of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), headlined “Clinton Shapes Her Image for '08 Race,” New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich claimed that Clinton, in her campaign appearances, “essentially portrays [President Bush] as an exasperating husband who is beyond marriage counseling” and “tries to connect with women by expressing her frustration with those men now in charge.” Leibovich offered no evidence to support his claim that Clinton's criticism of Bush is tinged with references to gender or marriage to an “exasperating husband.” In fact, the direct quote he provided -- that Clinton denounces Bush's “stubbornness” -- is one echoed about Bush regarding opposing viewpoints in general, and it includes no suggestion that Bush is not listening to her specifically.

From Leibovich's New York Times article:

She contrasts the give-and-take of her chitchats -- even though she does most of the talking -- with what she suggests are the pig-headed pronouncements of a male bogeyman, George W. Bush. She rails against what she calls the “one-sided conversation” of Washington during the Bush years, bemoans President Bush's “stubbornness,” speaks of her frustration at getting him to hear opposing views. She essentially portrays him as an exasperating husband who is beyond marriage counseling.

[...]

But she tries to connect with women by expressing her frustration with those men now in charge. In Berlin, she waves her hands in the air when discussing Mr. Bush's -- and Vice President Dick Cheney's -- seeming infatuation with invading Iraq from early on in their administration.

“I'm not a psychiatrist,” she declared, “so I don't know all the reasons behind their concern, some would say obsession, with Saddam Hussein.”

In fact, a range of political figures and media figures have remarked on Bush's stubbornness:

• In a January 14, 2007, interview with President Bush, CBS 60 Minutes co-host Scott Pelley said to him, “You know that there's a perception in some quarters of the country that you're stubborn.” Pelley then asked Bush: “You agree with that? I mean, people said -- people say that.”
• In a December 10, 2006, editorial, The New York Times wrote, “The [Iraq Study Group] report shows that there have always been plenty of alternatives to Mr. Bush's stubborn insistence on staying the course, and that if he were just willing to make an effort, it would be possible to forge a bipartisan consensus on the toughest issues.”
• On September 24, 2006, then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) issued a statement that said, “President Bush's repeated missteps in Iraq and his stubborn refusal to change course have made America less safe.”
• In a September 20, 2004, speech at New York University, then-presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said, “But over and over, when this [Bush] administration has been presented with a reasonable alternative, they have rejected it and gone their own way. This is stubborn incompetence.”

Furthermore, in a February 10 posting on The Caucus, a New York Times political blog, reporter Patrick Healy, like Leibovich, also described Clinton's comments in Berlin, New Hampshire, regarding what she described as the Bush administration's “obsession” with Saddam Hussein, but did not indicate that Clinton was, as Leibovich claimed, “try[ing] to connect with women by expressing her frustration with those men now in charge.” In fact, according to Healy, Clinton was responding to a question from a man. From Healy's post on The Caucus:

Another man complained of the “congenital lying” from the Bush administration on the war, and asked Mrs. Clinton for the “real reason” that the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. She responded by asserting that President Bush and his advisers came into power in 2001 with an “obsession” to oust Saddam Hussein and resolve the “unfinished business” of the first Gulf War of Mr. Bush's father.

“From almost the first day they got into office, they were trying to figure out how to get rid of Saddam Hussein,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I'm not a psychiatrist -- I don't know all of the reasons behind their concern, some might say their obsession.”

“I guess they must have seen it as unfinished business, for want of a better term,” she added. Mrs. Clinton then turned to criticizing the administration's handling of the war, saying: “If you had been obsessed with doing this, as they apparently were, why were you so incompetent?”

Additionally, Leibovich wrote that “male politicians,” unlike Clinton, do not “worry aloud about gaining weight.” In fact, former President Bill Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee -- like Clinton a former Arkansas governor -- have been very public about their struggles with weight loss. From the Times:

In Keene, N.H., in February, Mrs. Clinton said she was so thankful to all of the people “who gave me confidence,” not something that male politicians typically say. Nor do they worry aloud about gaining weight.