Letters to the Editor
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Politics is the art of persuasion
If Ann Richards were running with Obama's platform and bonfides, I'd be voting for her and hoping Obama would be her running mate.
Politics is the art of persuading people to come to your point of view, a skill that Obama has in a measure we haven't seen since Reagan sold the Republicans on standing tall.
Whenever we run wooden policy wonks, we lose - see Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry. Worse though is someone with anti-charisma, and Hillary pinging some kind of latent or blatant sexism unfortunately for people who support the Republican-lite version of her policies, has ant-charisma in spades.
A politician's ability to connect with the populace matters. How well they articulate their ideas matters. If Obama had Hillary's policies, background and personality, I'd think of him the same as I do Hillary, and I'd use the same words to describe him: he'd be shrill harpy who couldn't get me to vote for free beer.
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It's amusing.
It's funny how I don't see Obama supporters telling Salon to back off when then attack Hillary or the main stream media for that matter either. It is a fact that the majority of articles written about Hillary have been negative, a statistical fact and the majority of articles they write about Obama have been positive to the point of fawning.
I don't think the Press is doing anyone any justice by creating one candidate as a Saint and the other as a sinner. They don't ever talk about the issues Clinton talks about, but sure love to tell us how charismatic Obama is, and inspirational. Well not all of us feel that way. Not all of us are supporting Hillary or McCain because we're some kind a racist. People have different views and positions when it comes to politics and always have. For Obama to blame his lack of support from small towns on a bitterness and veiled racial language is an extremely negative view of who Americans are. Very similar to the view of his Pastor. Americans for the most part although not happy about certain things still go about their lives laughing and supportive of each other.
Obama's sociology 101 is a bit weak and his view of America seems now to be totally opposed to his speeches. He lives a divided life and nothing he says is believable anymore. It's all just your typical political speech, except he blames those who don't vote for him as some kind of racist gun carrying radical religious. While the majority of us embrace our religion and politics doesn't get preached on our pulpits. Love and compassion do. Maybe he should switch to a more united church and get a clue as to who people are that doesn't include just the small area of Chicago he called home. I know that politics play a larger roll in black churches and have for decades, but most unified churches preach the Word and most are pretty positive about God's love and compassion. Most people in small, middle, or large towns find this to be true. We go to church or are spiritual because it lifts us up, we don't go to whine to God. Sure somethings can make people bitter, but it doesn't last long, we are too busy just trying to make it through each day.
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The Bosnia Factor.
As a young male, I do want to point out that one of the things that has turned me off about Hillary has been her embellishments of her visit to Bosnia, an obvious attempt to make her record look better. She gives the impression (at least to me) that she believes that she is justified in making her experience/record look better because she is female, in order to be equally competitive against males (in this case, in defense issues).
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I'm way too old to be labeled an "Obama Boy"
but I certainly share some of the visceral dislike for Hillary which Ms. Traister describes. I've given it some thought, because I like to think of myself as reasonably pro-feminist, and it disturbs me to feel such antipathy for the first plausible female Democratic candidate for President.
My own self-analysis may be useful on this issue: I think the key to the violent anti-Hillary sentiment is that, despite all of her tough talk and very aggressive campaigning, she is finally a woman hanging on her husband's coattails. I feel none of the dislike I have toward Hillary for Nancy Pelosi, who I rather admire. Barbara Boxer sometimes impresses me. My own female Congressperson is a valued old friend.
But they all got there on their own merits! How many readers really feel that Hillary would be on the ballot if her last name were just plain Rodham, and she had never married Bill? And to combine such blatant dynastic connections with the tough, even arrogant way she approaches the campaign simply leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Doesn't she realize that she ought to show a little modesty about herself, since she's only where she is thanks to her husband?
That's what rankles about Hillary, at least to this Obama supporter. Why, the politician whose attitude she most replicates is . . . George W. Bush! Most of us don't really like people who wake up on third base and assume they've hit a triple, whether they got there by birth or marriage.
This isn't about anti-feminism, I think. It's about plain, old unwarranted arrogance.
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This article sums it up
Thank you for writing it. I have had these feelings all through the campaign but haven't been able to put it into words as you did.
I'm a Clinton supporter who will happily support Obama in the general. (I'm also a huge Daily Show fan, so let's not stereotype about the fans of that program!) I have become increasingly frustrated with the "Obama is the Messiah" rhetoric that I see everywhere. And I worry that some of his rabid young supporters will get bored and move on, as they often do with their idols, forgetting to vote in the general.
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Gleeful bashing, true. Gender, not so much.
As a distant observer, it seems to me that in the beginning of the campaign there was no Hillary-hate, at least not on any significant scale. There was some distaste with the dynasty-idea, true. But that had less to do with her gender than with discomfort that American politics would remain in the hands of two families for decades on end. After all, the last time a politician rode to power on the coattails of a family member, it didn't work out so well.
The gleeful bashing I see really started when she started using Republican talking points to criticize her rival. I also sense a lot of fear that the protracted combat on the Dem side will give the White House to McCain, and Hillary being behind Obama, she is blamed for that. It (the bashing) goes too far and makes many threads unreadable, especially at Huffpo. But although the way disapproval with her is expressed may be misogynic and over-the-top, the origins of the disapproval have little to do with gender.
Gender may play a role, of course. But Hillary herself seems to think it plays a positive role. Women feel solidarity with her because of it, and she is definitely banking on that demographic. If she had seen it as a problem, she would have tried to frame herself as a candidate who transcends gender, like Obama transcends (or tries to transcend) race.