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Still Stuck In Second
But Senator Clinton has not only had to prove she is strong enough to be commander in chief, she has had to prove she is soft enough to feel your pain. For a man in a position of leadership to be sure and sympathetic is a bonus; for a woman it's base line. When Michelle Obama talked of how she had taken to the campaign trail and left her two girls in the care of their grandmother it was seen as praiseworthy, a woman helping her husband realize his dreams. But if Michelle Obama were away from her children pursuing her own political ambitions, I can guarantee a spate of articles about whether that was bad for the kids.
Attacking this persistent pernicious nuance isn't victim politics of years past. It's important for the future. There aren't that many wonderful people running for elective office in America; if you need reminding, take a look at some members of the Senate. And if half the available candidates are held to some unexamined standard in which ambition is considered a pejorative and a loud voice a turnoff, that deficit will persist. Make no mistake about it: if we're going to continue to have elections that excite and engage, we need the women.
Exemplary husband, perfect kids, no negatives—I guess you could argue that the double standard guarantees that female candidates are stellar since they are required to be all things to all people. It was a woman politician, the mayor of Ottawa, who is responsible for one of the most notable quotes about this: "Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult." It may be an era of change, but Charlotte Whitton's 1963 comment still rings true. I've just always thought she was a little too sanguine about the math.
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: musician51 @ 03/21/2008 3:32:06 PM
Comment: In the end, Obama is a novice compared to Hillary Clinton. Obama was born in 1961 and was 10 years old in 1971 He was 20 years old in 1981, get it? We already have a president with training wheels and we don't need a third term of this garbage.Hillary and Brak were both told Florida and Michigan were going to vote early. Hillary the wise, put her name on both ballots where Obama and his merry band of inexperienced (make us feel good with Opra crew) Goofed and did not cover his bases. Didn't pay attention to detail. This is what America will get if he wins. His blackness or her female gender I couldn't give a C_ _ _ ! We need someone with experience to see the invisible, fading away middle class. We need to attend to the engine that drives this country, the Middle Class. Without the middle class to hold this country up we are screwed!
Posted By: BoomerWisdom @ 03/20/2008 1:15:20 PM
Comment: Anna Quindlen has ???hit the nail on the head??? as to the quandary Hillary is in. Given that two historically unprecedented types of candidates are competing for the same ???brass ring??? it does seem as if ???damned if she does, damned if she doesn???t??? is the biggest obstacle Clinton faces in the race. Just this week more proof of that became evident to me: Obama???s ???Reverend Wright??? dilemma. Why hasn???t the media latched onto the irony of Obama???s statement that there are some things that Reverend Wright has said that he disagrees with, when contrasted with his statement about Hillary in the February 26th Cleveland debate:
"You can't take credit for all the good things that happened but then, when it comes to issues like NAFTA, you say, well, I ??? behind the scenes, I was disagreeing. That doesn't work," he said. "So you have to, I think, take both responsibility as well as credit."
Posted By: DJGriffin @ 03/17/2008 9:30:33 PM
Comment: