Clinton says criticism isn’t sexist

CONCORD, N.H. – Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday her status as the Democratic presidential front-runner – not her gender – has led her male primary rivals to intensify their criticism of her.

“I don’t think they’re piling on because I’m a woman. I think they’re piling on because I’m winning,” Clinton told reporters.

“I anticipate it’s going to get even hotter, and if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen. I’m very much at home in the kitchen,” she said.

The New York senator’s comments came three days after a televised debate in which her six male opponents challenged her character, electability and apparent unwillingness to answer tough questions.

The Clinton campaign reacted strongly to what it called “piling on.” One fundraising e-mail it sent out called her “one tough woman” and decried the “six on one” nature of the debate criticism. Clinton herself referred to the “all boys club of presidential politics” in a speech at Wellesley College on Thursday.

The complaints haven’t deterred her rivals. On Friday, John Edwards told an audience in South Carolina that Clinton hasn’t been candid with voters.

“Since the debate, we’ve continued to hear spin, smoke and mirrors – the same kind of double talk – to get away from the very serious issues that are in front of us in this campaign,” he said.

And in a television interview, Barack Obama, who is black, said he doesn’t assume that tough questions he’s asked are racially motivated.

“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,” Obama told NBC’s “Today” show.