There are other examples where the Hillary Clinton campaign is playing cheap games with the "gender card". As some of the links point out, she is no stranger to that tactic, using it when she ran against Lazio in 2000 when she ran for the New York Senate position.
“It goes beyond logic — it’s a gut response,” Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said of the spectacle of Clinton onstage confronting seven male rivals and two male moderators at a debate in Philadelphia on Wednesday night.
Smeal, who has endorsed Clinton, compared the debate scene to the congressional grilling of Anita Hill when she challenged Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court nomination in 1991.
“Every woman — it was just so visceral — that panel was all male,” Smeal recalled. “It didn’t matter almost what was being said. It
a visceral gut reaction, and I think that’s what you’re seeing here again.”
“Turnabout is fair play,” said Marie Wilson, a Clinton supporter and president of the White House Project, which trains women to enter politics. “When you’re the one and only, those stereotypes are coming at you all the time. If she has one time when she can make them work for her, why not?”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/6691.html
The Hillary Clinton campaign produced a video showing the "piling on", the "ganging up", the "6 men on one woman" routine. Mark Penn admitted to using the tactic in a campaign conference call.
She released a cleverly edited video showing rivals John Edwards, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd uttering her name in rapid-fire succession to the strains of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
The video then cuts to the words, "The Politics of Pile On."
Her top strategist, Mark Penn, told supporters on a conference call that Clinton needed their help to survive "this six-on-one to try to bring her down."
Clinton's advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss internal matters, said there is a clear and long-planned strategy to fend off attacks by accusing her male rivals of gathering against her.
The idea is to change the subject while making Clinton a sympathetic figure, especially among female voters who often feel outnumbered and bullied on the job.
As one adviser put it, Clinton is not the first presidential candidate to play the "woe-is-me card" but she's the first major female presidential candidate to do it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_po/on_deadline_clinton_1More on the tactic used by Mark Penn:
The Hill newspaper, listening in on a conference call with Clinton fundraisers, quoted chief strategist Mark Penn being even more explicit about the "backlash" he was detecting among female voters: "Those female voters are saying, 'Sen. Clinton needs our support now more than ever if we're going to see this six-on-one to try to bring her down.' "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/01/AR2007110102146.htmlHere is the email from the Clinton campaign the day after the debate in Philadelphia:
Dear XXXXX,
If you saw the debate Tuesday night, or if you've seen the news coverage since, then you know that this campaign has entered a new phase.
On that stage in Philadelphia, we saw six against one. Candidates who had pledged the politics of hope practiced the politics of pile on instead. Her opponents tried a whole host of attacks on Hillary.
She is one strong woman. She came through it well. But Hillary's going to need your help.
Her opponents, trying to boost their falling poll numbers, started attacking Hillary weeks ago on the stump. Now they're doing it in the debates. And soon they'll begin a barrage of negative TV ads and mailings in the early primary and caucus states.
But Hillary knows that voters want real change -- not more negative attacks. And with just 60 days left before the Iowa caucuses, now is the time to show her that you are right there with her.
Will you help Hillary with your contribution today?
Thank you for standing with Hillary at this critical moment in the campaign.
Sincerely,
PSD
Patti Solis Doyle
Campaign Manager
Hillary for President
No, Hillary Clinton would not come right out and say her opponents are "sexist" because they may disagree with her. She has plenty of paid merchants to do that work for her. What the tactic does is take women's rights and the feminist movement 10 steps backward in my view.
Besides trying to play the "Frontrunner Underdog" act, this tactic of making it seem like women have to raise a flag when being "picked on" when engaging in a discussion with men makes women look like they need someone to back them up and not have the ability to stand on their own. Sort of like how Hillary Clinton also uses her husband's resume for her to gain "validity"...
As the reaction has been seen since this "woe is me" campaign strategy, people are seeing through the tactic.
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