In a November 3 article discussing candidates' responses to the October 30 Democratic presidential debate, New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller asserted: “Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton [NY] and Barack Obama [IL] tangled on Friday over whether women should be treated equally to men in the boxing ring of presidential politics. At the same time, Mrs. Clinton elaborated on the 'pile-on politics' video her campaign prepared, which showed her under assault from the six male candidates at the Democratic debate on Tuesday.” However, none of the quotes Bumiller provided in the article support the suggestion that either the Clinton campaign or the Obama campaign had asserted that women should not “be treated equally to men in the boxing ring of presidential politics.”

Bumiller quoted Clinton's November 2 comments to reporters in New Hampshire that “I don't think they're picking on me because I'm a woman. I think they're picking on me because I'm winning.” Clinton added: "I anticipate it's going to get even hotter -- and if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. And I'm very much at home in the kitchen."

Bumiller went on to note Obama's comments on the November 2 edition of NBC's Today:

Mr. Obama got the gender argument rolling early Friday when he criticized Mrs. Clinton on NBC's “Today” show for her post-debate strategy.

“One of the things that she has suggested why she should be elected is because she's been playing in this rough-and-tumble stage,” Mr. Obama said in response to a question about whether Mrs. Clinton was playing “the gender card.”

“So it doesn't make sense,” Mr. Obama said, “for her after having run that way for eight months, the first time that people start challenging her point of view, that suddenly, she backs off and says, Don't pick on me.”

Mr. Obama then hinted that he had not introduced race into a Democratic debate in Iowa.

“We spent I think the first 15 minutes of the debate hitting me on various foreign policy issues,” Mr. Obama said. “I didn't come out and say, Look, I'm being hit on because I look different from the rest of the folks on the stage.”

[...]

Shortly after the Democratic debate, when Mrs. Clinton came under attack, Mrs. Clinton's campaign posted a video on her Web site called “The Politics of Pile On” that showed short clips of the men at the debate.

On Thursday, Mrs. Clinton went to her alma mater, Wellesley, and said, “In so many ways this all-women's college prepared me to compete in the all-boys' club of presidential politics.”

The same day, her campaign sent out a fund-raising appeal condemning the men's actions at the debate and saying, “Hillary's going to need your help.

But nowhere in her Wellesley speech, the “Politics of Pile On” video, or the November 1 fundraising email did Clinton or her campaign assert that women should not be treated equally to men. Nor did Obama assert that during his interview on Today.

From the November 2 edition of NBC's Today:

MATT LAUER (co-host): Let's start where Andrea [Mitchell, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent] left off, this idea that when the guys challenge the gal at this debate this week, that in some ways, you were ganging up on her. And you heard what Senator Clinton said at Wellesley yesterday. She said that in some ways, that that all-woman's college prepared her for the all-boys club of presidential politics. Now, it sounds to me, Senator, as if I just heard the gender card drop. How are you going to deal with it?

OBAMA: Well, look, I am assuming, and I hope that Senator Clinton wants to be treated like everybody else. And I think that that's why she's running for president. You know, when we had a debate back in Iowa a while back, we spent, I think, the first 15 minutes of the debate hitting me on various foreign policy issues, and I didn't come out and say, “Look, I'm being hit on because I look different from the rest of the folks on the stage.” I assumed it was because there were real policy differences there. And I think that has to be the attitude that all of us take. We're not running for the president of the city council, we're running for the presidency of the United States of America.

LAUER: So you don't feel as if you have to be sensitive at all to this gender issue, that if you do vigorously challenge Senator Clinton that it might take on a more perilous tone than if you vigorously challenge a male candidate?

OBAMA: No, look, I don't think that people doubt that Senator Clinton is tough. And she's used to playing in national politics. And, in fact, that is one of the things that she has suggested is why she should be elected is because she's been playing in this rough-and-tumble stage. So it doesn't make sense for her after having run that way for eight months, the first time that people start challenging her point of view, that suddenly, she backs off and says, “Don't pick on me.”

LAUER: Let me --

OBAMA: You know, I think that that is not obviously how we would expect her to operate if she were president.