We can certainly agree on putting our efforts into helping and supporting other women coming up in the pipeline. I have and I will continue to do just that. I must disagree that this is not the time and place to stand against sexism for just that reason. If we cannot assure that the next woman having the fortitude to run for president will have a more level playing field by calling out what is wrong in this election cycle then they may stay stuck in the pipeling for a long time.

I won't try to rebute your reading of transcripts etc. because I plain don't know the facts you are refering to but I do rebute your account of Hillary's behavior towards other women.What you have recounted here comes from a novel of fiction written by Joe Klein under the psudoname,Anonymous.It was supposed to be an expose of the Clinton's. It is not documented fact but rather a writer's imagined facts. I do not now nor have I ever thought of Hillary as a victim. I think of her as a survivor. I have always been of the opinion that Bill Clinton would never have made it without Hillary. She has always given structure, focus and discipline to their efforts.I have never judged her for keeping her family together because I respect her right to make her own decisions in that regard and believe that it is her business alone.

Please do not think I am attempting to be snarky when I wonder out loud if you are not a former Republican who is supporting Sen. Obama because of your willingness to accept many of their smears against the Clintons.I can't understand how you can think they should be disbarred after a life of public service.

We obviously see things differently but we do agree at least that sexism is a real problem in our culture.

Hillary did NOT denigrate MLK when she said it took both MLK's leadership of a grassroots movement and a president dedicated to the legislation to get the Civil Rights Act into law. Bill Moyers ( a national treasure) has spoken of this, he worked for Johnson's administration. He has said that the two worked together to get it done.The fact that writers misrepresent this shows that informing people of the truth of a historic event is much less important to them than feding the narrative they like.

Why is no writer covering how much help BO has recieved from the current Daley machine? Because it goes against the narrative that they wish to present.

This is irresponsible journalism and misleads many young voters.

I was surprised when Salon had Paglia start up again. After about her third or so 'women hating rant' in the 80's I stopped finding her interesting. Let's see hummm...James Carville, Joe Wilson, James Rubin, John Murtha, Ed Rendell. General Wesley Clark and something like 15 flag officers, Terry McAuliffe,Bill Clinton,and Howard Wolfson...yup these are girly men.

At the risk of sounding like a bossy,boring second wave feminist I just think young women need to give a lot of thought to why they are so afraid to express even mild feminism.What are you afraid of exactly? I could make some guesses but I don't want to presume.Thanks Rebecca for this article. I will send it on to my daughter like I have so many others you have written.

It was nice to see the many thoughtful responses on this topic from all camps. I completely agree with the overall criticisms of the meda in general. The freak show has severely damaged our national conversations on serious issues facing this country. I wish we could go back to the League of Women Voters type debate. Wouldn't it be great if we could have debates that were themed on our various challenges like; climate change, the economy, immigration, healthcare, the war etc.Let the candidates fully explain their ideas on each topic.

As a Clinton supporter if we had seen anythng near the outrage we have seen this week for each time she was unfairly attacked, I don't think you would see the deep divisions we do today in our party.

The world was a completely different place when Bill Clinton made those statements. I think it has been pretty obvious lately that Sen.Obama does not do well under pressure.In the moment,on his feet he stumbles and mumbles and gets irritated. The next day after a response script has been written he does better. Hillary's ad is fair, she is better in the moment, under pressure. She is also fearless.Going to Tavis Smiley's 'the state of the black union' when AA's were at their height of being upset with her, tonight going on the KO show when she knows he is going to do everything in his power to make her look bad, letting herself be interviewed by the editorial board of the paper owned by the man, who made it his mission to take her husband down. She has shown her courage many times through the years and throughout this campaign.

PS....dataguyx you are not in charge and you don't get to make up the rules.

When I realized that the Obama campaign,added by the cable gasbags was going to try and paint the Clinton's and their supporters as racist, I really started to lose respect for him. He went on to use racial code language as he campaigned across the South.I guess he thought the general public was too stupid to notice.Then, he started using sexist code language which he continues to use to this day. Most recently, he used another form of nonverbal sign lanuage to get his message across, again thinking the non hip would never get it. And enemies call Bill Clinton ..Slick Willy? At least Bill has always done it with a twinkle in his eye, Obama's silver tongue is far more poisonious.