Hillary Clinton should make her own lemonade, Stephen Colbert said on The Late Show Wednesday.
Not the drink. The Beyoncé album.
Colbert was speaking with Charlamagne Tha God, the host of popular radio morning show The Breakfast Club who’s known for questioning why radio hosts don’t ask the "obvious questions" in interviews.
So Colbert asked about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Convention: "Her husband is, like, demonstrably, you know, disloyal and has said a few things that aren’t true. Why do you think he skates when the idea of her untrustworthiness sticks to her?"
Charlamagne’s answer: All of Bill Clinton’s indiscretions "humanized" him. "Guys can understand a guy getting some fellatio," Charlamagne said. "Hillary should talk about those things. It worked for Beyoncé."
"She should drop her own Lemonade," Colbert responded, considering the success of Beyoncé’s most recent album which revolved around Jay Z’s infidelity.
The line of questioning boiled down to a single premise: Hillary Clinton is perceived differently than her husband. Whereas Bill Clinton was able to appear on Arsenio Hall’s show, play the saxophone, and charm the nation, Hillary’s more light-hearted public appearances haven’t helped shake her 55 percent unfavorability rating.
Hillary Clinton has largely shied away from talking about her husband’s infidelity on the campaign trail. In his speech at the DNC, Bill Clinton’s timeline also skipped 1998 — the year that he had oral sex with a White House intern, lied about it, and was impeached.
Had Bill mentioned that incident on Tuesday it could have helped Hillary, but it would have also made the campaign about something it is not, Vox’s Libby Nelson argues:
It could have reminded Americans of what Hillary Clinton went through — and why her popularity jumped 10 percentage points during that period.
But it also would have made the speech all about Bill — when, perhaps for the first time in his career, he was giving a speech that was barely about himself at all.
Hillary could easily make her own Lemonade, but it seems her strategy is not to frame her strength or humanity on the ability to overcome Bill’s indiscretions. Instead, the hardship she highlights in her campaign is that of the American people.
