I certainly believe that women can have fortitude - guts even "balls" - ; hell I believe that women tend to have more fortitude than men. With that said, I think Clinton has nothing close to fortitude - narcissistic and untrustworthy - but this meme that Clinton is "tough" is the biggest crock of shit. And all these folks who buy into it are being duped royally; they are projecting their own "toughness" onto someone not deserving of this honor. As Bill Maher has said Obama is the "Jackie Robinson" of politics. No question it was tougher for Robinson - as it has been for Obama - to play through all the bigotry. Clinton playing the mix of Scarlett O'Hara and most any John Wayne character - both deeply representative of American exceptionalism and mythology - comes nowhere near what it truly means to be tough.

Looks like Guam's gone to Obama.

Joan, why no mention of Clinton's laughing when she was told she was so tough she made Rocky Balboa look like a "pansy"? Isn't that sort of casual homophobia comment-worthy? And what about when Clinton let go with her "Rich people, God bless us!" remarks. Didn't that make you cringe just a little bit?

"testicular fortitude" - I thought steroid use was illegal.

Does anybody think that if the names of the candidates in this article were reversed - if Obama had done something Joan thought was "ballsy," but also had done some of the most naked political pandering any of us could remember - that the headline would be pure praise? That the area where Clinton was indisputably being more honest than Obama would be buried midway through a paragraph, an aside dismissed as soon as it was raised?

I'm sure Walsh is convinced that her brief praise of Obama in the middle of this article is there so she can convince herself that she's being fair.

I notice that my query requesting information about a refund for the remaining part of my premium subscription has gone unreturned.

Stay classy, Salon.

If Obama had said, "The rich, god bless us," would Salon be ignoring it?

Joan Walsh's pandering to 24 hour news shows and their inane political coverage is only one factor making Salon more irrelevant with each article's posting.

The site is devolving into retread articles about superfluous trends instead of being a true alternative to the mainstream media. Andrew Leonard, Glenn Greenwald and Cary Tennis are the only ones with anything worth reading anymore. There are things going on in this world that are crushing ordinary people.

You've almost lost me completely, Salon.

Dé gracias a dios para personas como ustedes. No lo podría decir cualquiera mejor.

Si, pero cuando usas palabras como "mariachis" y "rednecks" la problema es, estas hablando como mis perras ladrando por un motocicleta. No es una ejemplo de "censorship" para dicir eso. Es un mano ofresca a ti.

Y, el razon como los iligales pueden vivir aqui es los necesitamos. Mira que esta pasando in Arizona ahorita con ese pregunta de trabajadores ilegales.

La pregunta que necesitas examinar, si quieres entender porque sus palabras pasan por los oidos como un viento purturbado, es esto: porque mucho gente como usted, en estos estados unidos, tienen este inseguridad tremendo. Estan temblando por los imigrantes, por las palabras franceses, pr la idea que este paiz tiene problemas con nuestro policias internacionales y, possiblimente, podemos mejorar nuestro situacion y al mismo tiempo la vida humana en general. Porque? Si necesitas, porque no usas una luz en su quarto de cama por la noche. Tengo un infante de cuatro meses, y este el calma mucho.

[Mira, todos que hablan espanol y estan riendo de mi y mayando en sus pantalones sobre este "post." Da me un breakicito por favor. Estoy tratando.]

i'm definitely a member of La Raza, and you've got my endorsement for honorary membership. thanks for calling out racist language when you see it. mexican immigrants have become the scapegoats of the bush economy. it boggles the mind that the corporate and war-mongering overlords get away w/ putting the blame for economic pain on the poorest and most exploited.

before giving it up, and only one person, Bob @ Pacifica, mentioned that it was John McCain, not Hillary Clinton, who proposed the gas-tax holiday.

...then she can't possibly become the first female president. She'll just be another guy overcompensating for his castration anxiety. I'd love to see a woman in the White House, but I'm holding out for one with ovarian fortitude.

I'm posting my comment immediately after reading Joan's words and without having seen any of the comments.

Hillary didn't propose the gas-tax holiday. John McCain did.

Hillary is a "me, too-er" or a "Janie come lately" to the party. For political gain, of course.

But I agree that she does have testicular fortitude.

Paul Gipson, president of an Indiana Steelworkers Local, is endorsing Hillary Clinton because of her “testicular fortitude.” Could he know something we don’t? Consider:

As a youth Clinton presided over her local Young Republicans and campaigned for Barry Goldwater. Then even more than now the party was dedicated to relegating women to full time roles in the kitchen and the maternity ward. She married Bill. Any normal women would have sent him packing for his serial philandering; she spent uncaring decades looking the other way.

In the White House she sabotaged health care reform, an issue of pressing concern to women voters. She was sent to Bosnia and subjected, by her own admission, to heavy sniper fire. This at a time when even professional female soldiers weren’t sent into combat. She wrote a book about how it takes a village to raise a child. Nowadays even single dads bring up kids on their own.

Elected senator, she vigorously beat the drum for war in Iraq, then voted to authorize the invasion. Choose any poll you care to; women overwhelmingly reject wars of all kinds, much less unnecessary and unjustifiable wars.

During her presidential run she demonstrated her manliness by tossing back boiler-makers and professing her love of guns and hunting. Her entire campaign has been an exercise in such traditional male pursuits as knee-capping, swift-boating, and gob-smacking.

The secret’s out, the cat’s unbagged, the gaff‘s blown. The women who support Hillary Clinton because she’s a woman have been duped.