Letters to the Editor
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Hmm...
People are flawed, so is Obama, but his heart is in the right place. "Sweetie" may be demeaning, but he recognized it and apologized quickly, aparently sincerely, and without qualifiers. Traister seems to acknowledge that, so what does she mean when she says Obama's gaffe still means something? What does it mean? His voting record and work over his career clearly show that Obama believes in a world in which women are equal to men, if he has certain small and unconcous tendencies that may in minute ways work against those fundamental beliefs I think the worst we can accuse him of is being human and fallible. Intolerant demands for and expectations of orthadoxy are ugly no matter where they come from, and while it amy have been fair to call Obama out for his mistake, it should have been let go as soon as he aknowledged his mistake and expressed contrition. If we all had a camera on us 24 hours a day it undoubtably would catch us doing something that conflicts with our values at some point, and if you don't believe that then you are either deluded or a liar.
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Juliebird I should have said
smart competent women in the public eye. Or at least here there it is more observable.
I also admire Michelle Obama, and wish that she could do a hit back on this ad showing her stuff as a compassionate public figure. It disturbs me too that according to the Washington Post, McCain's campaign theme is going to be that he is an "American running to represent Americans..." ie. people like the Obama's aren't really American. (And oddly, according to surveys of some parts of the country, some white people fill out their race on surveys as "American" so maybe gearing toward these people is what his campaign is all about...ugh....)
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What a waste of time
Anyone who would think this is important enough to devote this much time and this many words to, to the use of a term of endearment which was clearly meant to convey warmth to someone who was asking a question at an inappropriate time and so who therefore needed to be put off, but gently, is seriously wasting their time. The politics of grievance went out in the '70s.
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Completely Off Topic, But.
Michelle Obama probably said exactly what she meant to say, as a lot of Americans are proud of their country for the first time in their lives, just her message didn't get across like she had intended.
America is far from perfect, and we have a lot in our past to be ashamed of. It is arrogance and foolish to say that you are proud of everything in America's history.
I have often wondered how proud McCain is about America's involvement in Viet Nam (does he want to re-fight that war, because that seems to be his position with Iraq).
But Michelle's comment fits into the narrative that the Republicans are trying frame around Obama; that he is unpatriotic. Republicans know that they are going to have a hard time trying to say that Obama is sexist or elitist, but they love to point out that Obama didn't wear a flag pin, didn't hold his hand over his heart while the "Star Spangled Banner" played, has a father and a step father that were never American citizens, and has a wife that was "never proud of her country."
A lot of people vote Republican, simply out of a sense of patriotic pride (after all, the Republicans are the Party that wants to ban flag burning).
It will be difficult to combat all that, but I see Obama as being up for the challenge, and lately now that his chains have come off, because he is no longer playing defense against the Clinton legacy, he has landed some pretty heavy hits on McCain and Bush.
I am confident that America doesn't want McCain, now we will see if enough Americans can see Obama as the new and true hope for real change.
However, attacking the potential first lady is a real wienie attack, and it makes the Republicans look like idiots, just like when they ran against Hillary in 1992. In the 1992 General Election campaign Bill Clinton had the best line when he said "Bush can run against my wife if he wants to, but I don't want to live with him."
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You need help... really
If you ever wonder what happened to feminism, you have a great example of it. To even consider this subject for more than 2 seconds shows where your head is.
The real question is why are there so many women who can only view life through a very artificial lens: is this good or bad for women? Like a computer, 0 or 1, 0 or 1.
Try this. Try very hard to start thinking like a human being.
Really. Try it for a day or a week.
Maybe whatever is eating your soul will go away.
But you are not doing any good. You and those like you have chased away kind thoughtful people. You are left with a PAC of women and strange men who have a warped view of life.
Really. Let this mindset go. It will truly help human beings (especially women)
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re: blunderdog
PS: Is the patronizing "honey" bit supposed to help us in this conversation somehow? I don't see the lesson. It just comes across as kinda petty.
Well, that answers my question. There's apparently not much point in me talking to you.
But... hope springing eternal... let me try once more. You didn't like being called honey in that context? Huh, how very odd. Wow, I wonder if she had a point in trying to demonstrate what that feels like?
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@ doloresflower
Thanks for filling me in. That's rather what I thought was going on. I watched it, but I couldn't hear the words.
Do you remember the guy who had about fifteen long guns behind him and a display case full of handguns? They know what they are about.
I say this kindly, this is how they are going to attack Obama over and over and over again. (Obama supporters need to be prepared.) John McCain himself need never say anything overtly racist. I would be extremely surprised if he did. Code words and code symbols will do the trick.
Does sexism figure in? Yes, but not the way most people think. Get Susan Faludi's book (The Terror Dream) on how 9/11 influenced gender relations and read the first two or three chapters and you will begin to see what I mean.
Can you figure out what influence Barack Obama's "sweetie" slip up might have on people whose racism is deeply unconscious? Really, the whole sexism problem is a tempest in the teapot compared to what can be hidden beneath the surface of the moderate or conservative Southerner's mind.
Fetboy, almost got it the other day in the other thread about sweetie, but then it slid past.
I didn't want to be too explicit about the problem because I didn't want to arouse people's ire. Sometimes it is difficult to talk straightforwardly about some things without people misunderstanding and thinking one (meaning me) is dissing Obama when I am usually just being my analytical self. The way people communicate and the codes of things absolutely fascinates me.