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Life's a bitch, and so are all the anti-Hillary slogans
Creative ways to smear Hillary Clinton hit new highs, lows.
Rebecca Traister [2008-01-28]

  • Where are the "John Edwards Is an Orc" T-shirts?

    Ha ha, just kidding. I can't resist the opportunity to refer to one of Rebecca Traister's most shameful and ridiculous moments. It's probably because to this day, neither Traister nor anyone else at Salon has offered any kind of explanation for that bizarre outburst of a not-really-an-article article.

    But whatever. Compiling a big list of Hillary-bashing slogans and other gimmicks is fun. You know, this stuff didn't crop up overnight. A lot of these things are just rehashes of material from when Bill Clinton was president and Hillary's health-care plan had people asking, "Who hired her?"

    I think we can all agree that sexism is alive and well in the United States. The really weird part of it is how many women participate in the practice. Sure, there are men who are dumb enough to wear a "I Wish Hillary Had Married O.J." T-shirt. But what about their wives and girlfriends who gleefully encourage them to do so? What's up with them?

    Racism is alive and well, too, but you don't see people trying to make a quick buck with Obama-hating T-shirts (or do you?). Is it because people won't cross those lines, or do people not hate Obama as much as Hillary? Or are these T-shirts and other merch in anticipation of her likely Democratic candidacy? (As much as I hate to admit it, I am afraid she's going to edge out Obama in the big primaries.)

    I am torn on this whole subject. On the one hand, I hate the Limbaughs of the world who get off on bashing Hillary. On the other hand, from the angle of pure comedy, Hillary is ripe for satire and other fun-poking.

    I was a longtime subscriber to Spy Magazine, and they did some excellent Photoshopped covers of both Bill and Hillary throughout the 1990s. Spy's "health care" cover had a freakish image of Hillary pulling up a proctologist's glove. Later they had a pretty hot image of Hillary in S&M gear. There was also one where Hillary's skirt was blown up to reveal a bulge in her undies.

    Anyway, what's with the "I love country music" rebus? If Hillary is the part between the "love" and the "tree," wouldn't that make her a "cun"?

    -- Xrandadu Hutman
    [Read Xrandadu Hutman's other letters]
    Monday, January 28, 2008 02:41 PM
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