Since when did Limbaugh, Drudge Etc. very average looking men and one up until recently was fat become the ones to measure the perfection of anyone's looks.

Drudge is nearly bald. His hat is not just a signature item. He uses it to hide his thin hair. He's also a supposed closet case, so what does it matter to him what a woman looks like?

Any public figure who talks about looks should immediately be subjected to public criticism for their own looks.

There are few that would last more than a minute enduring such vicious, personal attacks male or female.

What's interesting is it is the most average looking men who speak the loudest and longest about women who don't measure up to their standards of perfection.

Why do women put up with this. If it were Clooney, Pitt Etc. calling you unnattractive, that'd hurt, but Limbaugh, Drudge - that should elicit at best a sigh of relief.

Perhaps they resent that they have such a small female audiance, and they know why. Women can't bare the thought of spending time listening or reading the words of such plain looking men, and in Limbaugh's case, I'm sure he knows women rarely watch him, because looks alone. He's painful to look at.

So I guess that's why they're so quick to attack public women.

It's the only way to get back at all the women in their life who have spurned them LOL.

Looks don't make a politician better in any way.

Being handsome doesn't negate the evil inherent in bad politics easier to endure.

In all honesty for a 60yr. old women she looks vibrant and healthy.

Wrinkles are NOT a sign of bad health.

The silver lining in all of this is such harsh slams against Hillary for looking her age will probably gain her even more of an edge with women voters who suffer the most from this idiocy, at least enough to compensate for the men who will be 'turned' off to her for that shallow, non-reason.

I just wish these shallow observers who do their best to bring political discourse to the lowest level possible would just be shut OUT of the news.

Women can't just stay silent on this, public male figures who indulge in this kind of insulting behavior should be slammed with letters from listeners/viewers as well as publicly rebuked by all women in power.

Well - I enjoyed reading your observations but then was surprised to have to disagree with your last comment. Edwards isn't just the white male young alternative to aging female Hillary and black Obama.

He's got better and stronger plans to bring the US along - regarding the war in Iraq, the fight against big corporate influence on politics, universal health care and investigating the causes of the cancer epidemic.

WHY is his candidacy so discounted? Makes you wonder...

Drudge is essentially a Clinton operative. His post on this subject was, I believe, designed to lure Limbaugh-like idiots into making ludicrous and misogynist statements. And then ... a rallying of sympathetic support. This is just like Bill's statements of "those boys have been really hard on her" or whatever it was coming out of one of the debates. She is getting killed in the polls due to the notion that she is: calculating, untrustworthy, inauthentic, power greedy, etc., etc. These things may or may not be true, but these stories /do/ have those uncertain of her (and some who were formerly certain) questioning her ... some choosing to support other candidates in the process. The Clintons are masterful politicians. This whole issue is PR spin ... it's not about gender issues. The spin is designed to evoke those to inflame around gender, so that Clinton's "real" vice can also be dismissed as "unfair."

Rebecca, I like your writing, but this is ludicrous:

We are like babies first encountering a new object: a potential president who has breasts and hips and who was once pregnant and whose female skin has changed as it aged.

How did you arrive at this assessment? It's well written and interesting prose, but without substance.

I feel that I honestly evaluate Clinton based on ... yes ... her tone ... her laugh ... her mannerisms. This is for me to use to judge her honesty, integrity, and forthrightness. There are no blood tests for these things. It has nothing at all to do with Glamour or Cosmo issues that you bring up.

I think you were hoodwinked, Rebecca ... or your editor was.

On Drudge & Clinton:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/hillaryclinton/story/0,,2197220,00.html

I don't even know what to say. Fuck all these people. Fuck this article. Fuck talking about this shit. Fuck the government.

Fuck the media. And especially, I would like someone to take Rush Limbaugh's fat greasy pumpkin head and shove it up his fat, lying, drugged up ass.

"This summer, the Washington Post's Robin Givhan wrote a piece about a shirt the senator wore that revealed that she was the possessor of secondary sexual characteristics."

Sentences like these are why I've always loved reading Rebecca's articles and why I continue paying for a Premium subscription to Salon. Thanks for making my evening. :)

I will be surprised if this article affects ONE Limbaugh fan/Hillary hater in a positive way.

Also, I'm sure nobody here has ever laughed at a bad picture of George...

you're funny. seriously. i read some other posts from you. but ... i'm in california.

heh.

I read your column, nodding all the while, until I got to the end, where you dismissed support for John Edwards as being nothing more than wimping out.

I am very aware of the historic nature of both Clinton's and Obama's campaigns. I am proud to be a Democrat in a time when these candidates can wage serious campaigns for the White House. And yet, I am a John Edwards supporter. Because I believe him to stand for what this country really needs in this very dangerous time for our nation, not because of Clinton's neck waddle or Obama's muslim relatives.