Letters to the Editor
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YooHOO Aka Smith...
I'm just not thinking that you get what I mean, know what I mean?...
First off, I'm an Obama supporter. I think he already has more than enough experience -- rounded out by a boatload of brilliance, and good judgment -- enough to run the country brilliantly. (And gee whiz, he doesn't go around claiming to have experience he doesn't have...)
Second, I think Hillary has no right to claim "35 years of experience." She was not president. She has 1+ terms in the Senate, her own personal legal and non-profit career experience, and her "political wife" gig. But does that tally up to "35 years of experience" that qualifies one to be President of the U.S.? Absolutely not.
As for John McCain, he could live another 50 years, and I still don't think he'd have the basic judgment and common sense to be President.
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This is ridiculous.
I'm a young woman who voted for Hillary because I liked that she knew how to play the game - politics is the art of the possible, as people tend to forget - and her past gives me reason to trust that she's a true-blue liberal underneath it all.
However, I decided to support Obama (donating money to his campaign) after he quoted Faulkner in his race speech. It is a leap of faith but it was amazing to see a politician not talk down at his audience but over their heads. He didn't take any easy shots. It was excellent.
This Hillary bashing that the apparently uber-pro-Clinton Traister talks about is a phenomenon that I've never seen, and I'm on the Young Dems board. If there's any bashing going on it's from Clinton supporters to Obama - Obama's an empty suit, he's pulling one over on everybody, he's smarmy, he's the Antichrist (Lynn Samuels spews that one on Air America every day). I have never heard an Obama supporter express anything near the level of Hillary-hatred that Traister appears to find endemic among the ever so representative circle of "people who have emailed her to express frustration over Hillary hatred".
I have heard two people say dumb things about Hillary. Both women. One was "I am voting for Hillary because she's a woman"... okay...the other was "I am not voting for Hillary because she didn't leave Bill." Fuckin' stupid, sure, but not representative of the majority, and certainly without the manufactured vitriol this article attempts to perpetuate.
No matter who wins the nomination anybody with two brain cells to rub together should be voting for the Democrat, so why waste all your time and energy working yourself into a lather hating somebody you might need to vote for in November?
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Would it be sexist to notice
that Rebecca is a lightweight...and that we old school feminists who have actually studied Hillary's record know that there are plenty of reasons to doubt that Clinton has any feminist credentials to speak of....
and she isn't much of a Democrat either.
In fact the only thing she actually has going for her is that she is a women. But then again, so is Laura Bush....and it wouldn't sexist not vote for her either.
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Obama! Are you insane?
She's not Annie Oakley, she's Calamity Jane!
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Disdain for Hillary
There are reasons to vehemently dislike Hillary that Traister does not address. For me, I looked upon her candidacy with a terrible sense of doom. I worked for the Democrats in 04 and it was so crushing to see an awful awful president get re-elected in part because we did not have a candidate who was more likable.
Both on a gut level and by looking at polling data, it was obvious that she would be an awful candidate in a general election. This why Rush Limbaugh has been one of her biggest boosters as of late. What was more disturbing was that it looked for a time that she might have been able to capitalize on the Clinton name and connections in conjunction with an ability to pull in the lady vote so that she could get the nomination.
She was driving me insane. From my point of view she was the best hope that the GOP had to retain the White House after subjecting us to 8 years of the worst presidency in our nation's history. I loath the GOP and from my perspective her hubris was looking like it might put another one of those guys in the White House. Hence my disdain.
I won't say that there is no subconscious sexism in my opinion of her. When I hear that clip where she is full-on scolding Obama, shrieking "Shame on you Barack Obama! Shame on you!" I involuntarily clinch my nether regions and my teeth. I do have a pretty visceral dislike for her (and many male politicians as well).
I can't guarantee that Obama will win. If he does, I can't promise that he will live up to his promises. Our system is pretty rotten. It is hard to know what even the best intentioned most gifted politician can actually accomplish. But if all he does is keep McCain from starting a war with Iran, that's something and something more than Hillary could have done.
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On closet liberal male misogynists
On several occasions I've had conversations with young, liberal male acquaintances on the subject of compromises between the two major parties. Guess which issue they feel is the sacrificial lamb in hopes of bringing the two parties together? You've got it...since reproductive rights only directly affect females of childbearing age, then this is apparently a throwaway issue.
The "Obama dudes" mentioned in this story remind me of a few men in my social circles. They are in their mid 30s-40s, have their hands in many progressive causes, and are known as really "NICE guys" by all their peers...except of course by the awesome women they've burned in hateful ways.
I of course don't have an issue with all Obama supporters, but it's disturbing when such the few bad apples can't even be bothered to spew such venom in the direction of republican candidates as they do towards Clinton. Sexism is still prevalent, make no mistake.