Today's episode of my favorite show on NPR, On the Media, opened with a story discussing the fact that Hillary Clinton's campaign to become the Democratic Party's nomination for President is effectively dead in the water, and whether or not the media is responsibly reporting this fact (listen to their lead story on their website for context).
My good man, Bob Garfield, co-host of the show, who I recently listened to for an hour and a half at Macalaser College a week or two ago, seems to feel that the media should tell the public that Mrs. Clinton is indeed, barring miracles, running a campaign of attrition. I don't agree with Garfield. There are at least ten primaries to be had, and while numerically there won't be a decision even after said primaries, I feel like a good old fight to the end is in order. Shit can happen to change everything.
What has bummed me out over the past three or four months of campaigning is the total misogyny that Clinton has faced. Even if I'm not a supporter and I will vote for Obama this November, I have noticed the amount of vitriol that has been sent Clinton's way due to her gender. It's telling about our country, where a male black candidate can get through a debate without a racial epithet thrown his way, while Clinton is told to "iron my shirt", or something to that effect.
It's done for Clinton, I'm dismayed about what ended up being her true undoing; her gender. If you disagree, give one valid reason that isn't just blind distaste. She's polarizing because she made some choices in the 90's that made her distasteful; the reasons that we find her choices distasteful is because she is a strong, ambitious woman. With all that said, Vote Obama.
1 comment:
I have been trying to figure out if that's the reason, and I keep coming up non-plussed. On the one hand, it's totally reasonable to blame it on mysogeny. But she's running against a BLACK man--a hard sell even with a lot of 'Liberals', if we're going to be honest about how racist this country still is. And when you consider how close they are in terms of delegates, I think this race is really coming down to two issues. First, Obama is simply more charismatic. Second, we've got a lot of Democrats who so desperately want the Republicans out of the White House, they feel we need to identify our nominee now, and focus our energies on the presidential race. And, perhaps I'm looking at this through rose-colored lenses, but his charisma and his lead in delegate votes may be why everyone is leaning towards Obama on Capitol Hill. I'd like to think it's those issues, not the fact that Hillary has a vag. But either way, I'm on the side of folks like you, willing to look at the deeper issues of race and sex--as long as we keep the fucking Republicans out of office.
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