I watched the returns last night at a Super Tuesday party in my house. There was lots of cheering as Hillary Clinton won Tennessee, New York, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Arizona and Oklahoma. And she basically tied with Obama for Missouri.
I won't repeat what folks said about Ted Kennedy and John Kerry when Hillary took Massachusetts. But we were all gratified to hear how little regard the voters of Massachusetts have for the glorious tradition of passing the torch from one male hero to the next. Just another timeless male tradition that expects women to be nothing more than clueless cheerleaders.
Hillary won women, working-class whites, Hispanics and Asians. In exit-polling, most Democratic voters said it is she who is "best suited to be commander-in-chief."
Given that Hillary Rodham Clinton is running against the male dominated media, against the rampant misogyny, and, oh yeah, she's running against Obama, her wins are impressive.
Last night, I made it official and switched from male dominated MSNBC to male dominated CNN for election coverage. While both channels are a celebration of all things testosterone, MSNBC may as well call itself The Obama All the Time Channel (except for Dan Abrams!). CNN is merely the lesser of two evils. We've seen the gender gap. Most women vote for Hillary; most men vote for Obama. There ain't nothing but mostly men on the cable news channels.
Their narratives portray Obama as the glorious mythic hero while they all but sneer at Hillary, sometimes as another man's wife, sometimes as sex object and sometimes as cold and calculating bitch. I go back and forth between seething in rage and being colossally embarrassed for them.
So the race for the Democratic nomination is at a dead heat. Reportedly, the motive for moving the primaries up was to get a candidate early and focus on party unity. It was a nice idea, but these days party unity is a whole lot to hope for. Between the media bias, the misogyny, and Obama's many slights aimed directly at Hillary's supporters -- including his assertion that HE represents change while the idea of a woman president represents the status quo (she's just another man's wife!) -- there is a segment of the Democratic base that is seriously pissed.
It has taken 232 years in this "democracy" for a woman to have a shot at the highest office in the land, and Barack Obama proclaims that little feat to represent nothing more than the status quo. Many of us have canceled our MoveOn memberships. We've unsubscribed to email from Ted Kennedy and John Kerry and vowed to send them no more money. Unity?
Repeatedly, Obama makes insensitive comments that make me want to throw things at him. And Michelle Obama is not helping:
Having run on the idea of broad participation across society’s divisions, Mr. Obama’s campaign often seems to teeter on becoming a cult of personality — a feeling that the candidate and those around him do nothing to dispel. In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning on Monday, Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, was asked if she would work to support Mrs. Clinton if she won. “I’d have to think about that,” she replied. Mrs. Obama quickly got back on her talking points, stressing party unity. But her unguarded answer was similar to what we heard from Obama supporters in e-mail messages that we received after endorsing Mrs. Clinton. Many of those readers said they would not bother to vote if Mr. Obama lost the nomination. That is not the way democracy is supposed to work.
Hillary Clinton Super Tuesday Barack Obama Feminist Politics Sexist Media Bias Divided Democratic Party Misogyny Patriarchy News
