Letters to the Editor
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@person
Can you give me an example of anyone ever saying "I feel down in the polls?" Because it sounds really awkward. But I can point to many, many cases of "I feel down" with a silent "in the dumps." I just can't buy your argument.
If Obama had meant to refer to her place in the polls, I think he'd have made that clear. He's an eloquent speaker with a poetic command of the English language. He'd have said something like "Everytime HRC's poll numbers reach a new low, she goes on the attack" or "Hillary's attacks rise in proportion to her her shrinking lead in the delegate count" or "HRC is attacking me in an effort to bolster her faltering campaign" or any number of other things. And any of those statements would be "fair game."
Are you telling me that Obama is not the master orator his supporters and the msm claim him to be?
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More subtle than you realize
His statement is actually a palindrome, in Urdu, and I would blush to repeat here what it is he is truly saying about Senator Clinton. The mind reels at Senator Obama's hideous and unprovoked attack on Clinton. Who does he think he is, George Bush setting his sites on Iraq? For shame.
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Sexism is real!
And so is racism, bigotry, religious persecution, ignorance and stupidity.
I am an Obama supporter. I am also a woman, a feminist and African-American. In my experience sexism is very real and very pervasive. A lot of things that have been said about Senator Clinton have been sexist, no doubt about it. Could this particular quote from Obama be another example? I don't think so, but I can understand arguments either way. But Obama didn't make the "how do we beat the bitch?" comment; that was a question a woman asked McCain. Obama doesn't work at MSNBC. He has never said anything remotely to suggest that Hillary is not capable of leadership because she is a woman. He isn't responsible for the legacy of the thousands of years of sexism that have made Western Civilization what it is today. Just like voting for Hilary because she is a woman is not going to make sexism go away.
Just like Hillary is not responsible for the racism that pervades our culture. She is, however, responsible for her campaign explicitly trying to marginalize black women and men's votes. Bill's comments about Jesse Jackson also winning the South Carolina primary and her strategy of claiming that states with large black populations are not as important to the overall delegate count as states with majority white or large Latino populations, serve no purpose other than to remind voters that black votes do not count for as much in the US.
By ignoring this and instead leaping to her defense for every perceived slight to womanhood, many Hillary supporters come across, in my opinion, as hypocritical and irrational. Sexism is bad, but racism you can deal with.
Please understand, I am SO not trying to make the which-is-worse-sexism-or-racism argument. My point is that they both exist and they both should be addressed. But you are not doing your candidate any favors by not calling her to the carpet when she crosses the line.
Obama has two things that Hillary does not: people like him and he has run a better campaign. Obama's immediate family is both African and American. The fact that there are so few references in the media to his blackness and his African-ness is a testament to how successfully his campaign has worked to neutralize this issue. Hillary has said from the beginning that she believed a central pillar of her campaign would be prove to people that a woman could lead. She has said that she was surprised at how little this came up. So instead she and her supporters have turned every criticism of her into a gender issue, because that is what they know how to defend against. While, at the same time, they find it unfair that no one is making a bigger deal of Obama's being black.
It's too bad, because this really is an historic moment for American women of all races. I think when the dust has settled, though, we'll find that Hillary's campaign strategy and her supporters' tactics have done more harm to the cause of feminism than good.
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Juliebird
Obama, writes a good speech and delivers it well.
Interviews and debates? Are his weakest points. He is not very good off the cuff. It is why Hillary feels she can get him in more debates, while his points tend to be good his delivery is questionable.
It is also why he tends to avoid speaking to the press more than Hillary does.
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Media narrative
"Sexism is alive and well in America and the media."
I think it's more that a media narrative is alive, right or wrong. It's still BS, but not necessarilly sexist or racist.
John McCain is a maverick, a straight talking independent guy. Yeah right. Double edged sword though, conservatives now don't think that he's conservative, despite his voting record.
Obama is a nice charismatic guy, never talks policy, just "hope". Not true, but what the MSM focuses on, policy talk is boring.
Hillary a strong, evil, say anything, type of woman. This hurts her with some, but also paints a picture of a hard, competent person that has some appeal. Double edged sword.
Edwards and Huckabee were/are marginal, fringe guys, that have little to no support. Not true, they just were covered by the MSM that way, regardless of their standings.
GW Bush, a native Texan, rancher, down to earth, good guy. Likeable...now why aren't the Republican's running ads showing themselves with the oh so popular Bush?
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@person
Cou.ld you please address my "I feel down in the polls" question? (Quoting GWB won't count, as he is the only possible person I can think capable of torturing a sentence like that).
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Juliebird
People don't speak in exact quotes, but "Down in the polls" is fairly common parlance.
Further, feel can be used as in: "I think I am..." or "I suspect."
That said, even taking your interpretation of what he said: It isn't sexist. There are lots of people who go on the offensive when they feel down - and a lot of them are in fact male.
You need to show that the attack is indeed sexist, which I honestly don't think you have. Claiming that he likened Hillary going on the offensive to her going shoe shopping is to be frank, putting words in his mouth.
While what he said can be construed as a particularly feeble attack (And one which Hillary to which Hillary could have turned around and called him a wussy for making it wasn't actually sexist.