Letters to the Editor
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@person
I'll take that as a "no" then.
(I googled "feeling down in the polls" and the only references I can find are from Obama supporters insisting this is what he meant).
Of course men can "feel down" as well as women. Can any one point to male political opponents accusing one another of "feeling down" as a basis to launch an attack?
It seems there are "fair game" rules that only apply to this female candidate. It's "fair" to accuse her of "pimping out" her daughter to Superdelegates, while remaining silent about all the children of male candidates who work on their dads' campaigns. It's ok to say this female candidate is where she is *only* because women feel sorry for her, or because her husband is famous, while remaining silent about the coattails other male candidates freely ride. It's "fair" to accuse this female candidate of being too emotional, or not emotional enough, while the male candidates are not similarly discussed (howard Dean's "scream" comes close, but that was a singular event; Romney is far more plastic/robotic, and MccAin is more emotional -angry as opposed to teary, perhaps, but wrath is an emotion). It's "fair" to conflate this female candidate with her husband, as if they were a two-headed monster, and critique his actions and ideas as if they were hers, while the male candidates' politically-active family members are considered as separate from the candidate. And it's "fair" to decide everything HRC says and does is "calculating", while everything Obama says or does is given the benefit of the doubt.
As for what Obama meant by his statement, only he knows for sure. The rest is opinion. My opinion is that he was implying that HRC uses negative campaign tactics as a mood-booster. I suppose that in and of itself isn't "sexist", but since such accusations have not been leveled at any male campaigner, and plenty of them have gone negatives (and many of them are perobably in need of a mental pick-me-up), I think the comment was also a comment against HRC's sex.
Lastly, I assume (though would be happy to be corrected)Obama was referring to HRC's "speeches vs substance" speech given on Feb. 14. which *was* a valid argument for HRC to make. Voters are free to agree with her or not, but her statements were not demeaning, degrading, misandrist, racist, or IMHO inaccurate. Instead of rebutting HRC's criticisms, which Obama could surely have done (how many times have I heard Obama supporters say "He's got plenty of plans! Plenty of specifics! Plenty of service!"), he instead said she was being mean because she felt bad about herself.
As I've said before, I'm hardly "outraged" by this one comment, or by Obama in general. I'm just disappointed in slips like this: I expect better of him.