"No one has called Barack Obama a witch."

edited



http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080123_Sexism_is_candidate_Clintons_primary_opponent.html

Sexism is candidate Clinton's primary opponent

Jodi Enda- is a former White House correspondent for Knight-Ridder


Posted on Wed, Jan. 23, 2008


No one has called Barack Obama a witch.

No one has suggested John McCain is too ambitious.

No one has disparaged Mitt Romney for misting up.

No one has accused John Edwards of faking emotions.

No one has depicted Mike Huckabee as calculating.

No one has critiqued the pitch of Rudy Giuliani's voice.

No one says male presidential aspirants are cold or feisty or careless about their cleavage (or any other anatomical feature). If they tear up, or even - gasp! - cry, no one says men are too weak to run the country. If they blow a gasket (à la Bill Clinton), it's manly. If they blow off a question (classic Reagan), it's strategic.

But when a woman has a chance to win the presidency, all bets are off. It's no conspiracy; this is America.

Sure, Hillary Clinton is a popular target in ways that other women are not. Clinton-hating is something of a blood sport, and nothing Clinton does will undo that. Still, the haters did little to diminish her husband's popularity (no matter what he did to help them) when he was in office. We're talking about something different now, something . . . sexist………

When she doesn't show emotion, she's cold. When she does, she's - what? - feminine? Soft? Un-commander-in-chief-like? Unless, of course, she's faking it, in which case she's calculating. When she's serious, she's humorless; if she laughs, she cackles. If she attacks, she's partisan. If she plays nice, she's acting. If she wears pantsuits, she's manly. If she shows a millimeter of cleavage, she's flirty.
………………
In other words, too female?

E-mail Jodi Enda at jodi.enda@comcast.net
…………..

Then there was that nice bit of race-baiting she did with the MLK comment. :puke: I couldn't give two shits about her crying, the sound of her voice or what she wears.

While I agree that sexism is still a huge problem, and Clinton has certainly been the target of it, she is by no means a poor little innocent victim that I should support because the big mean boys are picking on her. She's an extremely powerful woman with her equally prominent husband behind her. She also appears to be doing very well at raising money and getting people to vote for her, so forgive me if I'm not going to join the pity party. There have been a spate of these articles lately, where prominent feminists like Steinem and Jong attempt to guiltrip women into supporting Hillary because, duh, we live in a sexist culture. Sorry, but I look at the whole person not just her gender. Ann Coulter is a woman but I'm not about to vote for her anytime soon.

for Clinton not against her. Obama shouldn't have played that card. I am sure he is regretting it now.

On the other hand, you are saying that sexism is okay if the person has attained status in this society. If some one is a poor wilting violet only then is the sexism wrong and if women actually talk about the sexism it is only to make other women feel guilty and vote for Clinton.. once again women should just shut up?

ps... what is a corporatist? How is that defined anyway? Because I think if Clinton is a corporatist then Obama and Edwards are too. Really it has become one of those idiotic memes people repeat to make themselves sound like knaves.

The expectation is clearly implied in these articles. I also find it incredibly ironic that you chastise me for what you consider to be tolerating sexism against certain individuals after accusing Obama of "playing the race card". There is no such thing as a race card, or a gender card. Both are canards used by bigots, just like when they invoke the bogus concept of "political correctness".

It was blatantly obvious what Clinton was doing when she made that MLK statement and no one should be surprised that people took offense to it. Imagine Barack Obama remarking that while those suffragettes sure worked hard to get women the vote, everyone knows it took (male) President Wilson to get it done. Just imagine how that would have been received.

he waited until the wound festered---then he comes out days later and says 'Sen. Clintons remarks were NOT racial (mlk).

I'm guessing it would be something like:

"Of course, Senator Clinton's weren't racial at all! It was perfectly appropriate for her to liken Dr. King and myself to empty suits with good rhetorical skills while reminding white voters that it really takes virtuous and more competent white people like LBJ and herself to help us blacks out with our little civil rights problems. Let's put this all past us so that Senator Clinton may continue to use that as a talking point to her white audiences across the country! Matter of fact, I'll just be dropping out of the race now that Hillary has so amply demonstrated that I'm an empty suit who makes inspiring speeches but has no ability to form substantive policies. Just like Dr. King."

Even though Obama is a civil rights attorney with years of experience in community organizing and Dr. King was a hugely accomplished man in many arenas, apart from being an inspiring preacher and orator.

fact. There was nothing degrading in what she said. That's the last thing she would do. And I'm sure in you heart you know that. You are just trying to protect your favorite who just isn't ready to play with the big guys yet. Give him time. In the meantime let someone who has the ability to get us out of this mess do it. BO is young he has plenty of time. He needs time to learn more so he won't make the gaffs that 'W' has made.

That comment was mainly a sop to the egos of her white listeners. She was saying, look you should vote for me because everyone knows it was virtuous Caucasians like us that took care of the little civil rights problem that the blacks were having. But in doing so she had to draw a comparison between Dr. King and Obama, whom she has regularly portrayed as an empty suit with good oratory skills. In suggesting that she is the LBJ to Obama's MLK, what else would she be suggesting about Dr. King?

I'm an Edwards supporter, and I have to say, you are completely wrong.

Her comment was, essentially: the world needs its inspiring leaders, and it needs people to pursue the details of policymaking. I may not be an inspiring leader, but I am good at pursuing those details.

That's all she was saying. Your determination to see it otherwise is a measure of your self-deception, nothing more.

Yet she chose to phrase it the particular way she did, to that particular audience. Please, I was born at night but not last night.

As I said to another poster, just imagine the outcry if Edwards or Obama commented that those suffragettes worked hard for women's votes but it really took President Wilson to get it done. You think either of them be getting the free passes that Clinton is getting here? Hardly, they'd be raked over the coals for being sexist and patronizing, and rightly so.

Plus, I find it terribly ironic that there's this collective hissyfit going on over Obama's Reagan comment and yet we're not supposed to take Clinton's MLK one at face value.

Why is it so difficult for people to see that? When there are so many valid things to discuss and investigate why do so many insist on delving into the fabricated issue of Clinton being racist. All that does is highlight the ignorance of the person saying it because if there is anything that neither of the Clintons are it's racist.

In many ways, it remains socially acceptable to be sexist. Whether that's because it's not always easily defined, or because women have been lulled into tolerating it, or because men still hold the keys to success is difficult to determine. Could it be that the men who dominate the airwaves and oversee most election coverage don't recognize the code words, that they honestly don't see the disparate treatment?

"of course we judge women differently, they are different"

The one that get me the most is referring to Hillary's laugh as a cackle. How bout if the media referred to Obama's slow speech as stuttering.

I am speechless that we, as a country are so PC about the black issues but when it comes to the blatant, overt sexism promoted by 80% of the media we, as a country are oblivious.

The only thing that has given me hope, has been *all* of the women who turned out to vote for Hillary in NH & NV.
We saw how much the media was dissing her. The media may be dissing her because of the polices but they're NOT doing the hard work to discredit the ideas instead simply relying on sexism to marginalize her.

That sounds like someone's saying he's too ambitious.

This is America people. Racists are smarter than before. I mean yeah we can have a poll that says most Americans are ready for a woman pres or a black person but honestly those can be played with. A racist wont come out and say he or she is really one unless they have balls to do so. Thats why when this e-mail smear stuff was sent around I knew Obama was doomed. I heard too many white folks (hell even my boss) say that they couldn't vote for a muslim (I know muslims who are very decent people so this still pisses me off). Racists are smarter.... use the term MUSLIMS which seems to be an emotionally scarring word to many Americans, instead of the "N" word. Using the N word would have gotten alot of ignores but using MUSLIM peeks people's interests.

I'm tired of people acting as if race isn't an issue. Yes both race and gender is a big issue. Honestly Americans can tolerate a white female much more than a black man. I mean hell didn't HRC's camp say that "N"egro (I'm being kind) Obama is to much of a "N"egro for Latinos to vote for. I mean hell Obama is half black and white but NO ONE talks about that.

Please all of this has proven to me that race is still a big issue in America. I just have to make sure that my future sons and daughters are protected against this BS. This election and this party has made me furious and I want Obama to drop out now. There is no way in hell that I ever want another black man or black woman to run for POTUS ever again. Theres no way in hell they have a chance in this Fucked up country.

JC
I'm Black, I'm Beautiful & I'm Proud!!!

I was at a dinner with some Hillary supporters, all Caucasian females, in attendance last Sunday. They were beaming about her 'victory' in NV the day before, and as usual trying to paint it as some great blow for equality and sisterhood. I had the temerity to point out that there are simply a lot of racists in our party and that may have had something to do with it as well. I know for a fact that the Obama-is-a-Muslim emails were flying there. Thousands of people got them and the local Obama coordinator here in AZ tells me that she constantly gets calls asking about him being Muslim.

At any rate, if looks could kill I'd have been dead on the spot. One of them let me know that "sexism is the bigger problem" in a tone of voice that made it clear that the subject was ended. You are dead on that most white people will tolerate a white female before a male of color and my Hillary friends are no exception. They'd never admit it in public but it's plainly obvious they feel the white woman is entitled to the office before the black man is. Gloria Steinem even invoked that in her atrocious NYT op-ed. Basically, her argument was that Hillary should be president before Barack because black men got the vote before white women did. Like there's a scorecard or something.

This country IS fucked up but let's at least console ourselves with the fact that Obama isn't making Clinton's coronation easy for her.

--from investment bankers, the defense industry and the health care industry. Of course they don't criticize other "major" candidates for doing the same thing, either. That's why they are "major" in the first place.

Call Mitt Romney calculating and you're stating the obvious; call Hillary calculating and you're a hateful misogynist. Give me a fucking break.

MSM has been doing this crap to ALL WOMEN...and intensifying it beginning in 1980.

And there has been no outlet for people to counter MSM's role models for women.

Roseanne is gone. Murphy Brown is gone. Now they're all buxom and married to ugly, fat guys. Gee...ain't that something to look forward to????