Letters to the Editor
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Boy, talk about being obvious about getting mileage out of feminizing this race.
Your "reporting" is abominable. Clearly, in New Hampshire Hillary had a mental breakdown. She was unraveled at the debate on Saturday to the point of prolonged public anger. That spilled over into Monday and became another episode of psychological weakness.
However, you refuse to admit to even the possibility of her poor performance. Quoting statistics is fools gold at best...and its simply trashy to do so repeatedly.
Read this and believe it...The voters of NH wanted rid of Clinton. The last thing they were going to do was have it known that they ruined the "career" of the biggest wannabe of the 21st century!
If you're going to blog please show some insight.
Right now you simply seem no more than a teenager, at best.
ALSO, IN FACT, FOR BEYOND THE FIFTY MILLIONTH TIME, PLEASE STOP PIMPING SALON READERS OUT TO MSNBC AND THAT WRECK OF A "POLITICAL EXPERT" CHRIS MATTHEWS.
IF YOU CAN'T CONTROL YOURSELF ENOUGH TO DO SO, AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT MAINSTREAM MEDIA.
OR MAYBE YOU DON'T KNOW, JOAN...MSNBC IS MAINSTREAM MEDIA!!!
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Both part of the same explanation
Forget the specifics of Clinton's weepy moment. It's clear that her whole approach in New Hampshire was geared around appearing more humble and vulnerable. It was an inspired calculation — for whatever reason, Americans have this urge to draw blood from Clinton and she finally let herself be seen bleeding a little.
Here's the tricky part — that's in no way antithetical to endorsement by working-class New Hampshireans. In fact quite the opposite. Although Joan Walsh claims that such people are "normally no fool for a watery-eyed wealthy white woman," that's an assertion that doesn't fit the observed behavior of American voters — of all stripes.
We are a profoundly emotional people, highly susceptible to drama in our public life, and the story of the know-it-all goody-two-shoes who gets knocked around, learns a thing or two about life, and becomes a better person in the process is a fundamental trope in our national mythology. It's a huge part of who we all are. Of course it plays well — at least, as long as she can pull it off, which she has been able to so far.
To some extent the commander-in-chief thing is part of the same phenomenon — blanket trust in someone's character is going to translate to positive views across the board. There's something more going on there, though, which definitely bears closer examination.
I'm not certain that it's entirely about Clinton. It may say more about her rivals' lack of credibility in military matters — neither have served in the armed forces, and while Clinton hasn't also she kind of gets a pass on account of being a woman.
If Clinton is merely being seen as the least of evils there, though, that bodes poorly for the Democrats in general, since it points to that lingering, seemingly-indelible association of Democrats with lack of capability in managing military affairs.
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Lloyd Little
your remarks are rude and sexist. get lost!
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free pass
a white girl weighs in:
I'm depressed with the pass the mostly white media has given Hillary on her MLK remarks
you write
"Nobody wants to hear white people saying black people wouldn't have gotten their civil rights without us. Blech."
First of all, in another context, imagine a man, Edwards running against a woman, Hillary, and saying "x" a man really gave women their right to vote in this country, and I'm just like that man. Hillary, she's kind of like that famous feminist, "xxx" who just talked about the job, and didn't get it done like the man did.
I understand that campaigning may be getting her. She almost seems like a shell of her better self, but those remarks disappointed me and may end up costing her my vote. Even if she's the Democratic nominee.
I want a human being with compassion and a heart running the nation. Her remarks were so insensitive as to go over the "tin-ear" description for me. Also, you forget that someone from her campaign who was comparing Obama to MLK also prefaced his remarks with the reference to MLK's death by assassination. Is that just tin-eared? Or race-bating?
I want the U.S. to come together at some point, racially and otherwise. The thought of more fragmentation under team Clinton isn't a happy notion to this voter.
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Because...
Based on the government we have plus what passes for entertainment in this country, I'd say its because the electorate is shallow and mindless, easily distracted by shiny objects.
Be serious, even IF the media presented campaign coverage of substance, the audience would stop watching all together.
Hillary bucks the narrative that the MSM has been pandering of being an ice queen by a display of emotion marked by a choking up of her voice, and you think the MSM OR the people are going to pay attention to or even care about an honest debate about policy?
Please! We need less substance! The majority of the people think they know whats going on and are voting based on information gotten from the MSM. Can you think of anything more pointless?
Lets stop BS'ing ourselves and let Trump and Atlantic City handle our elections for us in a 2 week long beauty pageant. Couldn't do any worse than what we got now.
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57 to 43
That was the female to male turnout in the democratic primary in NH when the normal split is around 52/48 or 51/49. How do you explain the huge turnout of women, Ms. Walsh?
I'd dearly love to believe it was something much more than simply her showing a little emotion, tugging on heart strings and then having galvanized by a few gleeful jackasses in the media and John Edwards piling on a bit and pissing off enough disinterested women voters that they decided to turn off Oprah and actually get off their asses and voting, but that seems to be what happened.
That disparity skews any projections pollsters were making. It all took place in a compressed time period that was not picked up by the polling as her crying jag happened all of about 18 hours BEFORE the polls opened and was the dominate story right through til the polls closed, replete with prognostications as to how her campaign was toast.
Believe, Ms. Walsh, I would love to believe that voters were driven to support her by more valid reasons than the sense that the schoolyard bullies had picked on the girl who was crying and she needed the sisters to rally to her defense, but that 5 point disparity from historic norms is pretty damn tough to slough off as anything but.
I had my youthful idealism about voting motivations shattered after the League of Women Voter's Republican Debate in Manchester in 1980. I heard two women leaving the debate discussing Howard Baker for whom I had considered working and whom I deemed competition for Bush votes. I did my level best to listen in on the conversation for any insights I might be able to glean.
The women felt he was too short.
I drank quite a bit that night.
Now, I am NOT trying to say that only women have idiotic voting motivations. Indeed, I believe idiotic motivations happen to be universal across both parties, genders, races, sexual preferences, religions, and lord knows what other categories people may try to use a divisive calibration points.