Hillary Rodham Clinton played the gender card on Thursday after the worst stumble of her campaign, suggesting she is being singled out as the lone woman in an all-male presidential field. “In so many ways, this all-women’s college prepared me to compete in the all-boys’ club of presidential politics,” Clinton said during a speech at her alma mater Wellesley College in Massachusetts on Thursday.

In a fund-raising e-mail to supporters, her campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle struck the same theme, calling her boss “one strong woman” and chiding Clinton’s male opponents for attacking her “six against one” at Tuesday’s debate.

Raising the issue of her sex so early in the campaign is risky for Clinton — especially since her opponents’ attacks haven’t been explicitly gender-based and Clinton herself has emphasised her toughness, repeatedly saying she wants no special consideration as a female contender for the nation’s highest office. Clinton’s remarks were part of a multi-media damage-control blitz that included attempts to target moderator Tim Russert for being too harsh on her.

Speaking on a conference call with donors on Wednesday, Clinton strategist Mark Penn said his polling shows Barack Obama and John Edwards already suffering a “backlash” among female voters. “All the distractions in the world won’t undo the fact that, on Tuesday night, millions of Americans saw John Edwards speak honestly and directly, while Senator Clinton once again took multiple positions on multiple issues,” responded Edwards spokesman Chris Kofinis. “Forty-eight hours after the debate, we have lots of excuses.”

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