To those who keep infering hte democratic party did not want Clinton to win
- Look up until Feb 4. Hillary was ahead 270 - 180 in superdelegates. THIS IS THE PARTY!
- Bill and Hill are a democratic powerhouse with more access to donors than anyone in the party (Proof. Bill earned almost $100m in a few years after presidency).
- Democrats like to win. You saw the handwringing after Kerry 04 and even before. They know it wil be hard to elect a black man. They expected the system to take care of him like it did Sharpton, Jackson b4 him.
- Even the black vote was initially Clinton property. BO had 38% support as late as Nov 2007.
- And Clinton had more media surrogates than BO (inclding SNL, George Stephanopoulos - a former staffer and almost all ABC and yes even Keith at the beginning. BO started to get good coverage slowly including from Mika whose Dad was an advisor to BO and later even lost it there when Joe went for Hill till this day).
- Even the issue of Michigan and Florida is an example. The RNC made their rule and stuck to it. THe DNC kept waffling on theirs when Hillary was getting behind to leave wiggle room to install what they thought was a stronger candidate. If Hillary had won on Feb 4 or even leading today (and BO had Michigan and Florida) trust me no one would even go back to those issues.
So what's left. Someone suddenly woke up and decided to support this mixed guy with a muslim middle name because they like to lose. Let's not let the emotion of the day cloud our thinking!. Now why he won, that's a different story. But Hillary lost as much as he won due to her own competencies and deficiencies.
- 1
- 2
Enough About Us. What About Them?
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
At the risk of offering yet another gender-based generalization, I'll wager that most women are ultimately pragmatic. And that for as many of us who define ourselves by the cut of our pocketbook, a lot more will vote what's in it. Sure we get a little tipsy at the symbolic value of seating the first woman president. But most of us will not cast a vote for that reason alone. As some of the newest wave of feminists keep reminding us, issues of class and race are as important to most women as gender is to the feminists that came before. The women who voted last Tuesday may have been saying less about themselves as women as they were telling us about themselves as voters.
I've loved every minute of the great big gender intervention we women have staged these past weeks—the frank discussions about public tears, brutish husbands and whether it's sexist or respectful to be asked to speak first. It's all been a long time coming, and it's focused the mind, and the women's movement, in all sorts of important ways.
But health reform and civil liberties and the Supreme Court and the war in Iraq and the economy are pragmatic problems, not symbolic ones. All this talk about women and America has been most illuminating, and I am now ready for it to be over. Hey, candidates? Enough about us, let's talk about you. And what you can do for us.
Dahlia Lithwick is a writer for Slate and Newsweek.
© 2008
- 1
- 2









Discuss