Letters to the Editor
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Excuse me, who is claiming that Obama is not a politician
I don't know who out there thinks that Obama is the Messiah; I for one have never entertained the notion that Obama is anything other than a politician, and I wouldn't want anyone in the Oval Office who was not a politician. He just happens to be a very, very, very good politician. When he compromises, he seems to compromise wisely and in a way that builds up his political capital for other endeavors. Versus Clinton, whose idea of reaching out to the right is by sponsoring an anti-flag-burning statute. I mean, gees, if you're going to sell out, at least do it well!
Sorry, but I think there's a real generation gap here between the generation of feminists represented by NOW and those of us who are a tad bit younger. Try as I might, I cannot get behind the Gloria Steinem concept of "I'm a woman, she's a woman, therefore I must vote for her so we can have a woman president." I mean, I get that this often happens on a subconscious level in the voting booth, but an actual, conscious, intellectualized decision that this is what we're supposed to do? That is just completely alien to me.
I'll grant you this: when I was putting my 3-year-old daughter to bed the other night, we somehow got on the subject of presidents (they had studied the White House in daycare that day), and I was explaining to her that mommy and I don't like George W. Bush very much, but he can't be President anymore, and we'd really like Mr. Obama to be President next. Then I paused and said, "There's also a really nice lady named Hillary Clinton, and she'd like to be President, too." And in that moment, I did appreciate the fact that, because of HRC's candidacy, I could raise my 3-year-old daughter to just blithely assume that women can be serious Presidential contenders. So, I get the cool factor. But that still doesn't translate into a vote for this particular woman.
Maybe I'm more optimistic than older feminists, that this is not going to be the last time, ever, ever, ever, in my lifetime, that a woman has a serious shot at the Presidency. There are lots of good female governors out there, a woman is already third in line for the Presidency as it is, why should I think HRC is a one-shot deal?