Newshoggers Comments
I'm constantly surprised at the moving of the goalposts from Hillary's camp on what is sexist. Seemingly, any insinuation from any front that Hillary is weak will be transcribed as sexist... Yet saying that Obama couldn't bear the Republican hate machine in a general election, or that he takes a weak stance on issues, or that Republicans would like him as a Democratic president because they think he would be the easiest to push around -- all arguments that have been made from Hillary's side -- is looked upon as normal. For them, it's OK to call Obama weak, but if anyone ever hints that Hillary is such, suddenly it's sexism. I dunno about you, but I'm sick of double standards here.
I'm also sick of the prejudice double standards, too. For example, people making sexist remarks about Hillary equals prejudice, yet when Hillary's supports claim that Obama supports are a bunch of idiots who have been brainwashed into the cult of Obama, nobody calls them out on that.
It's bullshit crapola like this that make me not want to pay attention to this election.
I can't imagine what they're thinking in the Hillary camp. All this stuff just plays into the whole Hillary is a ruthless bitch meme that the media is promoting. I'm more than tired of it myself and I resent being told I'm not a good feminist if I don't blindly support her. Personally, I find demanded loyalty based on gender just as sexist as anything else.
Libby,
I agree with you that the furor over the fact that candidates actually confront one another is worse than silly, it's utterly counter-productive. But let me protest the emphasis that this is only coming from the Clinton camp. In fact, the comment under discussion was called out by a blogger, BTD at TalkLeft, who is not part of the Clinton campaign, and who has publicly endorsed Obama.
My blog-mate, Lambert, over at Corrente, also picked it up, but I believe that his take was meant, in some respects, as a satire of Obama's campaign finding all those instances of the Clintons' blowing racist dog-whistles.
I voted for Obama, and have given my reasons in a post. But I have also been dismayed by aspects of the Obama campaign, especially its outrage whenever Senator Clinton mounts any kind of challenge to them. I think the "disturbing" pattern of "racist" remarks the Obama campaign rolled out depended on exactly the kind of parsing and willingness to distort that's being protested by you here. He managed to "play the race card," a phrase I hate, and present himself at the same time as the Clintons' victim.
A neat trick, and not particular fair, and certainly fraught with divisive dangers, and he got away with it. If he can do that with McCain, I'm prepared to forgive him. I think he'll be the stronger candidate in the general, and I believe that though there is greater "risk" in a vote for Obama, he is not untested, but he is somewhat less so than Clinton, IMHO, but I feel that the greater gain both in the election and in having a new, fresh vision in the White House is worth the risk.
I agree the divisions are being played up too much by certain supporters of both candidates and surely by the media, what else is not new, but I think it is important to realize that this is coming from both campaigns. Luckily, it doesn't seem to be spilling over onto actual voters, which polls indicate say, in equally large majorities on both sides, they will be content, even happy to vote for the "other" candidate if theirs doesn't win the nomination process.
That's a good point Leah and I agree that both camps are guilty. I didn't address the Obama camp's fixation on racism because I was blogging about BTD's post which didn't mention it. I did mention I'm tired of both themes though.
It seems to me if we don't want this to be about race and gender, then we should stop feeding those memes. It's the catch-22 of Blogtopia. We reinforce the media spin when we bitch about it. It's a fine line between pointing it out and driving the narrative with too much attention.
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