Letters to the Editor
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The electorate is in a very anti-establishment mood
And I think that may, in part, explain the results in N.H. In Iowa, Barack was the anti-establishment candidate, and Clinton found herself locked in as the "establishment." Same thing happened with Huckabee.
But after the big Chris Matthews-led anti-Clinton pile-on, it's possible that the NH voters came to see *that* as the establishment, and Clinton suddenly became anti-establishment. And who do they vote for on the Republican side? McCain, an anti-establishment candidate of a different sort. We've known for years that his status as an iconoclast is largely what fuels his popularity. The minute he starts looking like "the anointed one," he's toast.
Any way you look at it, it appears the electorate across the board is giving a big "f-you" to the ruling elites in this country, and it's a glorious thing to see.
Great article, Rebecca.
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A couple of things...
Good article by Rebacca Traister but Gloria Steinem's generally good op-ed has a couple of big flaws. As others have pointed out, the whole "black men got the vote 50 years before women" line is incredibly disingenuous. Especailly when it's presented as fact without the very important context. Secondly, while I'm not a big Obama person, the notion that a woman with his experience wouldn't be a Senator is unfair and hardly provably true. Especially considering that are examples of women with much less experience than him (e.g Mary Bono, Jean Carnahan) who became a congresswoman and Senator, respectively.
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So much for feminist credibility
I commend Rebecca for her honesty about the events of the past week leading up to New Hampshire. I just find it unbelievable that women would allow themselves to get played like this. Yes, the gleeful but premature proclamation to the end of the Clinton dynasty was pathetic, but no more pathetic than the shameless pandering of the Clinton campaign the entire time. What I saw was a campaign scared shitless by the results of Iowa and scrambling to blunt the rising tide for Obama by orchestrating the "the men are beating up on a helpless lady" sentiment to cover the fact that she was probably running as the most meanspirited and callous candidate of the entire primary. The Clintons smeared Obama's record with the help of AFSCME. The Hillbot makes questionable remarks about the legitimacy of Dr. King's dream. The Hillbot even goes Rovian by suggesting the terrorists will attack us if we don't elect her. But, she breaks down about a simple question about how she does her hair and the men dog her so fuck it let's vote for her? I'm sorry, but the feminists just lost the credibility argument with me. How can women ever argue about how sexist mean treat them when they pander to the same stereotypes themselves in order to support a candidate just because she has a vagina? Women have been fighting for equality for much longer than the Clintons have been running for president. I believe they just pawned all their legitimacy just to help one of their own win a primary.
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True dat
Yes, Matthews does indeed have it in for the Clintons. Why?, I don't know. Clinton hatred has always been a mystery to me. And the hatred, and the mystery of it, are especially pronounced with Hillary (as opposed to Bill). The only response I ever get is that they are 'fake' and 'they try to have it both ways'. Really? moreso than anyone who has ever run for office? I'm not buying it. They both seem pretty solid, pretty genuine to me.
Matthews hatred for Hillary is a little bit creepy - some gender issue he has not quite worked out.
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Thank You
This is exactly how I felt as well.
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My eyes are all leaky
As a simple-minded, white middle-aged hetero guy from Orange County, all I can say is:
YOU GO GIRL!!!
Excuse me a minute ... I'm all Verklempft ... Talk amongst yourselves.
Oh, one more thing, Chris Matthews, you dumb jerk, next time you make my girl cry, I'm gonna punch you right in the nose!
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@eclecticbrotha, you write
I just find it unbelievable that women would allow themselves to get played like this.
Presuming that you are correct - and that is NOT a safe presumption in my view - why shouldn't women be played? Men get played all the time. It works. It has gotten them goodies. It has allowed them to keep on to more than their share of power. Why shouldn't women want that???
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Hello President John McCain
As much as the gasbags hate Hillary Clinton, they love, love, love John McCain.
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on dropping houses and other trash
I do not watch the reactionary conservative talking heads like O'Reilly, Matthews and Limbaugh: I equate them to the Nazi Minister of Propaganda from the 1940's
It is much more fun to watch Stewart and Colbert, and to know that their antics are intended as satire
on February 5, I will probably vote for Obama: I would prefer to vote to put the entire Democratic field of candidates in the Oval Office and name each one of them as co-President [my neighbor, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, needs all the help that he can get in passing the right bills through Congress]
in November, I would prefer either an Obama / Colin Powell ticket or an Obama / Clinton ticket (with Bill being named Ambassador-At-Large on a State Department SWAT team)
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"Could New Hampshire end the Democratic primary race?" leered Olbermann on Monday.
Leered?
I think you are emotional and overwrought. Perhaps you should lie down lest you catch the vapors. You are being hysterical. Maybe you should talk to your therapist about this, because I think you have issues.
/I am a feminist.
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I think some people are missing the point
When they are attacking Hillary for going after Obama for his Senate voting record. It isn't hypocritical because she voted the same way--that is the whole point. The point is that it is calling into question attacking someone for being the candidate of the status quo when you've voted with them on many, many issues.
It does bring up, however, a big potential weakness for the Democrats in general--the only real candidates that we have are Senators. Voting records in Congress are easy to spin (especially since a lot of bills have everything including the kitchen sink crammed into them). Remember how it was easy to portray Kerry as a flip-flopper based on his votes? A Republican candidate who was a governor can potentially clobber our Senators--so maybe we shouldn't start hammering on Senate voting records early on...
That, I guess, is an argument for Obama, since he has the least amount of time to have been tarnished, but let's not be overly anxious about who voted for what and why.
I'm more concerned that Obama thinks you can improve healthcare without mandating coverage and confronting insurers and drug companies than whether he voted for the Patriot Act.