from HILLARY'S VOICE

Hillary's Voice

Blast from the past: Obama calls Sen. Barbara Boxer “a cutie” (Plus: update on how we can fight back)

Posted: 16 May 2008 12:28 PM CDT

(cross-posted at Reclusive Leftist)

In the wake of sweetie-gate, someone emailed me this story from a year ago:

Obama, speaking at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, raised eyebrows Monday at a fundraiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer when, as we reported, the Illinois Senator described his Democratic colleague from California as “a fighter, a leader, a charmer, a cutie.”

The remark “set off a lot of murmuring,” said one Democratic strategist in attendance, “among a lot of very strong powerful women around Boxer there who were offended.”

The descriptive of a powerful feminist senator raised “a strategic question: is (Obama) ready for prime time? You don’t call a U.S. senator a ‘cutie,’” said the strategist, whose take was echoed by others.

Actually you do, if you’re Barack Obama. U.S. senators, journalists, pharmacists, factory workers – they’re all “sweeties” or “cuties” to Obama. As long as they’re female, that is. (Can you imagine him as President? Look out, Angela Merkel.)

What the hell is this man’s problem? He’s my age — mid-40s — and there is no excuse for this. He should know damn well not to talk to or about women in that manner. It reminds me of my first job back in 1980, when the male boss called all the women in the office “honey” and expected them to fetch him coffee. Workin’ 9 to 5…

But let me get back to that Boxer article from last year. Listen to this next bit (still quoting the unnamed strategist):

From an opposition research point of view, this marked “a swing and a miss” by Team Hillary: “It would have been easy to get the blogosphere and make sure Fox News and Drudge Report knew about (the quote), and watch it go .. because in a few months, nobody could have gotten away on it.”

The irony.

See, way back in February of 2007, people like me and that strategist and the women surrounding Sen. Boxer and probably the journalist who wrote that article — we all thought that something like publicly referring to a female senator as a “cutie” would be an automatic foul. We thought that public expressions of sexism would be frowned upon.

Thousands of Hillary Nutcrackers later, we know better. “Cutie” and “sweetie” are the least of it.

But the pushback is here. People are pissed. The premature coronation of Obama this past week — after Hillary won Indiana, after she won West Virginia in a blowout, when she’s sitting on the lead in the popular vote — was the last straw. Since the fat-cat politicians and pundits don’t give a good goddamn about sexism, we’ll just have to raise a stink ourselves. Just us chickens (and some enlightened roosters).

Cynthia Ruccia and Kimberly Myers went on Bill O’Reilly last night to explain why the treatment of Hillary is a deal-breaker for women and why they plan to leave the Democratic party in protest. The tubes have been burning up ever since with people trying to find out how they can contact Ruccia and help out. People have even been emailing me, and I didn’t know anything about it until this morning. HillBuzz has the name of the group and the contact info.

Steve Corbett is a radio host in Pennsylvania who apparently reached his own breaking point yesterday, and is now launching Operation Turndown to let the DNC know that we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!

Riverdaughter has a terrific round-up post this morning with more suggestions on what we can do right now make our voices heard: Friday: Fast II and Call to Action.

Spread the word!


Women’s boycott of Obama percolates up to the mainstream media

Posted: 16 May 2008 12:24 PM CDT

(cross-posted at Reclusive Leftist)

I am woman, hear me roar.

ABC’s Political Punch reports on “female supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who are angry — at the Democratic Party, at the Obama campaign, or at the general situation that sees their candidate facing tough times, in their view, in part because of sexism.”

I’m glad our collective voices are starting to make an impact. But the amazing thing is that the guest blogger behind this piece, Rick Stein, talks about the whole phenomenon like it’s something through the Hubble Telescope that’s so far away and vague and weird that nobody can be sure what the hell it is. Dig it:

I confess to being a man who has not always seen what his female friends and colleagues see as sexist in this race. What do you think? Has Sen. Clinton faced particular (unfair) challenges because of her gender? More than Sen. Obama has faced because of his race?

Is it humanly possible to be that oblivious? I mean, if Stein were a tree sloth or something, sure. Tree sloths sleep a lot and I get the impression they’re not all that plugged in to the news. But how can any sentient non-tree sloth American be this clueless? We’re talking Hillary Nutcrackers, people. “Iron my shirt.” An anti-Hillary 501c called C.U.N.T. Another one called “Stop running for President and make me a sandwich.”

Maybe Rick needs to read this: Why I will not vote for Obama even if he’s the nominee — and why you shouldn’t either. Or check out Shakespeare’s Sister’s Hillary Sexism Watch (which has ninety entries at this point, yes, ninety, count ‘em, ninety). Or read Marie Coco’s A Farewell to the ‘Hillary Nutcracker’ and Other Obscenities. Or wade through this handy summary by Erica Barnett:

Hillary Clinton is a bitch. A big ol’ bitchy bitch. And a cunt. A “big fucking whore.” Fortunately, you can “call a woman anything.” She’s “Nurse Ratched.” She’ll castrate you if she gets a chance. She would like that. She’s a “She-Devil.” She’s a madam, and her daughter’s a whore. She’s frigid, and she can’t give head. She’s a “She-Devil.” A lesbian. A nag. When things get tough, she cries like a big dumb GIRL. In fact, she’s just that — a “little girl.” In FACT, she wants to “cry her way to the White House.” To be, ahem, “Crybaby-in-Chief.” That proves that she’s not tough enough. But she’s also not feminine enough. She’s “screechy.” She’s an “aging, resentful female.” She’s “Sister Frigidaire.” She really ought to quit running for President and stick to housework. She basically spent her entire time as First Lady going to tea parties. She’s a monster who just won’t die. In fact, she really should just die. You can buy a urinal target with her face on it to express what you really think of her. OMG she’s got claws! She’s crazy. In fact, she’s a lunatic. She’s petty and vindictive and entitled. She’s a washed-up old hag. She’s “everybody’s first wife standing outside probate court.” She’s a “scolding mother.” She’s shrill… shrill… shrill. She can’t take it when people are mean to her. She’s a “hellish housewife.” She’s Tanya Harding. She CAN’T be President, what with the mood swings and the menses. Any woman who votes for her is voting with her vagina, not her brain. Women only like Hillary because she’s a fellow Vagina-American. And because they vote with their feelings. Frankly, anyone who still thinks we need “feminine role models” should get over it and move on, already. Oh, and men who support her are castratos in the eunuch chorus. You shouldn’t make her President because she wants it too much. She’s totally just banking on support from ugly old feminists. And she looooves to “play the victim.” She cackles! And cackles. And cackles. It’s like she’s a witch or something! She’s definitely “witchy.” And now you can buy her cackle as your ring tone. Her voice, too, is “grating”–like “fingernails on a blackboard” to “some men.” She’s hiding behind her gender. She isn’t a “convincing mom” because she’s too strident. She never did anything on her own. Her husband keeps her on a leash. She hates men. Her campaign is a “catfight.” She makes people want to kill themselves, is like a “domineering mother,” and is cold. And OMG she has boobies! All of which are reasons to hate her. (And boy, could I go on.)

Oh, and if you even mention any of this, you’re either silly or a bad person.

Actually, none of that would probably help Tree Sloth Rick. I suspect he’s like the Obamabots who read all that stuff and still clog up my moderation queue with inane comments about how sexism doesn’t exist, how there hasn’t been any misogyny in this campaign, etc., etc.. No idea what we’re talking about. Hubble Telescope. Mysterious smudges of light.