Letters to the Editor
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Hate to say this
Really, really hate to say this....
But I agree strongly with AKA Smith.
It is possible to overplay the Monica-as-victim card.
Monica's own account suggests nothing more than that Bill was a user and a piece of shit.
That said I do think Bill Clinton displays all the marks of a predator. But he has never been caught, so we must suspend judgement on this issue.
We have a man who was charged with a pretty serious case of sexual harrassment sitting on the Supreme Court. I don't know when the standards are going to change, so that treating women like dirt might, you know, put a damper on your career the way it should. Right now it doesn't.
But c'mon, I don't think Bill Clinton's a rapist.
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@AKA Smith
I'm bored and confused by most of your letter, and I'm going to give up now, but this one statement does require a response:
"Hillary is running on her record as a Senator, an activist, an attorney, and her time as a first lady."
Look, I'm not going to do your research for you and post links, but she got every one of those positions because of Bill.
She's running on her record as First Lady? Um, OK, an unelected position, which she kept by being Bill's "wife." Whatever that means.
Her record as a Senator? OK, and she would have won this seat all on her own, even though at the time that she ran, her husband was the SITTING president. Yeah.
Her record as an "activist?" Look, honey, Marian Wright Edelman won't even speak to her now, the 1990s welfare reform hurt people so badly. She worked there for less than a year right out of law school, and took the job because she failed the bar exam. Or do you mean her "record" at the Legal Services Corporation? I'm sure that Jimmy Carter appointed the young wife of the attorney general of the state of Arkansas to the board for COMPLETELY nonpolitical reasons. And when Bill was "promoted" to the governorship of the state in 1978, I'm sure that Carter "promoted" her to the chairman of the board for COMPLETELY unrelated reasons.
Her record as an attorney? OK, that's what we're left with. Why don't you flip through the records of the Rose Law Firm, and the records of the Wal-Mart board (which, by the way, Hillary MUST have been on because she was such a good lawyer, and NOT because her husband was... um... the GOVERNOR of the freaking state in which the company was headquartered) and get back to me about the great work that Hillary did in these positions.
Conclusion: Hillary married very, very well. I'll give her credit for that, if nothing else. And I do give her credit for nothing else.
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Anon: again, sexism and racism both are bad.
I understand that it sucks to be told that something you are doing is hypocritical. However, unless you have made a point of criticizing the statements of anyone (like many Hillary supporters who post here, like many prominent feminists and politicians, and like Mark Penn) who claims that votes from states with large black populations are somehow less important to the nominating process than states with majority white populations, then you are standing by idly as black women's votes are marginalized. Plain and simple.
Yes we have a long way to go, but as I said in my original post, this is not about who has it worse: black people or white women. I am tired of Hillary's supporters responding to any demonstration of racism within her campaign with: "well I've seen people be sexist too." One is not a defense of the other.
Sexism and racism are real. For most women in American, except perhaps white women, they are also completely inseparable.
My point remains that it is counter-productive to feminism and to Hillary's candidacy to support her as she ignores and even promotes racism when it is politically expedient for her and at the same time allow her to claim to be the champion of feminism.
And if Obama motivates you to send more money to feminist organizations, then good for you and good for them.
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Phi Beta Kappa at Univ. of Hawaii as an Exchange Student from Kenya
That's right. Barack Obama, Sr., father of Barack Obama, came to the U.S. in 1959 at age 23. He graduated in three years at the top of his class. He was rather well liked and the first African to attend the University of Hawaii. He helped organize the International Students Association there and became its first president. He met and married a fellow student, Ann Dunham, from Wichita, Kansas.
Their son, also Barack, was born in 1961. Sadly, both father and mother (Ann) are deceased. Yet the son will likely be our next President.
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@AKA Smith
I said I was done, but I'm not. I also have to point to this statement in your long letter:
"I think the difference we have is that you are arguing about moral and I am arguing about legal. No complaint = no harassment."
You know what? You're right. I'm arguing that the Clintons are morally repugnant. You're arguing that since they haven't done anything legally wrong (Bill's perjury excepted), they are blameless.
See, I hold my behavior to a higher standard than, "Have I violated the law?" I'm more concerned with the ceiling: How good can I be? The Clintons are more concerned with the floor: How bad can I be? And this is behavior that you, and I think most Clinton supporters, endorse. The rationale seems to be that while they may do and say whatever it takes to win, hey, they'll throw us plebes a bone every now and then, so let's all get behind them!
See you in Sunday School, chump.
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Anonymous @4:20 PM
Nice try at bootstrapping.
As, however, I have stated many times on Salon forums, "your pain ain't like mine."
You are a white female; I am a black female.
To equate our relative status within the USA is ...absurd.
Yes, you can fight for what you believe, but please, do not attempt to make it my struggle too.
Do not pull me into your fiction that in pushing for the superdelegate votes I, a black woman, and other black folks and ordinary folks benefit from the generosity of your struggle.
I am voting for Barack Obama because he actually SEES all people, because he is a thinker, because he does not prevaricate, because he has not supported America's ill-fated foray into Iraq, and because he found the time to vote no on FISA.
I have watched Hillary Clinton very closely. I have observed.
Barack Obama is the better candidate for all Americans. And, that includes you.