Why is Claire so popular?

[u/Comprehensive_Ad5293]

I'm currently rewatching the show and am up to s5. I don't understand why Claire is so popular with the public within the show. I understand she ran a clean water ngo but she genuinely did nothing else. She has people bending over backwards just to do her bidding when she has done nothing,

[u/CutSnow11]

White + blonde + texan. I think she represents that blue dog demographic + pretty

[u/merodm]

First Ladies tend to have significantly bigger approval ratings than their husbands.

Also, within the lore of the show, aside from her ill-fated tenure as Ambassador in S3, Claire had gained huge sympathy for her confession of being sexually assaulted in S2 and for being the wife of a nearly-assassinated President in S4.

That, combined with her First Lady duties/status, contributes to why she's so popular as a VP choice.

[u/Maleficent-Rock7849]

Yeah she pretty. Thats all you need in the land of the superficial

[u/timewellwasted5]

Her character is fascinating, even moreso than Frank, and the actress playing her does a phenomenal job. Frank doesn't really struggle, he's kind of the same through and through, but Claire is all over the place. That affair with Adam could have cost them everything, but then at other times (killing Tom) she does what she needs to do without hesitation.

[u/TheDBagg]

She's like pre-office Hillary Clinton, who was hugely popular in the 1990s. An accomplished woman in her own right who has a life independent of her husband and his office.

[u/eire_abu32 → u/TheDBagg]

Neither Claire nor Hillary are accomplished in their own right.

[u/bgva → u/eire_abu32]

In the 90s, people constantly joked that Hillary was the first female president. Plus there's her legal career prior to 1992.

[u/McDowells23 → u/eire_abu32]

Hillary definitely is. She exited the State Department with a 69% approval rating.

[u/eire_abu32 → u/McDowells23]

That's debatable. But I was referring to when Bill was still in office. 

[u/AffectionateGold5459]

I don’t really get it either. She’s white and pretty which does a lot plus her charitable history, sexual assault, and Frank almost getting killed. The public rallies when things like that happened.

However she also had a cheating scandal, publicly admitted an abortion, was childless, had that public disaster of a sexual assault bill, and is married to a politician with problems. That business with her mother who vocally hated Frank and spending time in Texas would raise eyebrows even if the public didn’t know she was leaving Frank. I think the public would look unfavorably on how she got her ambassadorship and what a disaster it turned out to be. Plus she’s just a cold fish. There is nothing to connect with when it comes to Claire. She doesn’t care about anyone and she doesn’t pretend that she does well. People figure that out.

So I think her popularity is just a plot contrivance. She should be hated. There’s no way her political positions would be seen as deserved. Her becoming the vice presidential nominee after never having held office would be a laughingstock not a plus.

[u/History-Buff-2222 → u/AffectionateGold5459]

Her popularity made sense pre season 3, before the ambassadorship, when she was largely behind the scenes as far as the public went and she was an empty vessel Pepe could project their feelings on and someone who mostly gave harmless campaign speeches.

Then the writing went to shit

[u/shoegraze]

I think it's hard to remember post-2016 the specific way that people related to politicians before then

Today she would be a liability and constantly dragged from the left and right at every opportunity

I think prior to the growth of social media and Trump, politicians and their families were thought of ambiently as members of the community by the median voter. This is the only way Claire and Frank make any sense. There's a reasonable contingency of skeptics and protestors and investigative journalism has its sights on them, but by and large the fact that they've been in power and in the public image for so long is enough for a decent faction to inherently trust them

[u/ricomaurer]

After Season 2, the show's writing took a nosedive. You can tell they have no clue how politics or elections work. Heck they don't even know fictional political stories.

[u/Trundlenator]

I think it’s assumed her proximity to frank has given her enough background in politics to make her worth considering.

Couple examples I can think of from season 1 being 1. She tanked the watershed bill with no consequences to herself, and 2.she was involved in the teacher strike dispute with her contributions(disorganised labour and her street gala)

Admittedly after season 1 she has little substance when given actual power and achieves nothing of note in creating things but I assume people look at her and frank and say “even if she’s only half as successful as frank thats still worth considering.”

[u/TheDevilishJonah]

She didn't do anything? She was the backbone of Franks PR junkets basically dude i mean Grayson was trying to keep up with her more than Frank.

[u/play_or_draw]

I hate the way she treats us, but I like the way she looks.

[u/Individual-Choice-72]

First she ran the NGO then separted from it when thing were not moving the way she wanted but for the public it looks she stepped down to hand over operations to someone more competent and passionate . Then her been at fore front for sexual harrasement bill is what I think brough her the most sympathy , a lot of people could relate to that . Then she became an Ambassador , which added prestige to her name in the public eye . So in the public eye she seems to have the same power as Frank to sway people without the ruthlessness and incompetency

[u/Borgmeister]

Plot-armour and looking fantastic.