Not that a feeling ain’t valid, but…
Many of Clinton’s supporters, particularly women, also warn that they feel Obama has benefited from a free ride in the press and has taken advantage of barely veiled sexism. Clinton tellingly referred supporters to the analysis of ABC’s Cokie Roberts, who said this of the reaction some women have to Obama: “Here is this woman, she’s worked hard, she’s done it all the way you’re supposed to do it, and then this cute young man comes in and says a bunch of sweet, you know, nothings, and pushes you out of the way. And a lot of women are looking at that and saying, ‘There goes my life.’ “
God, I hope not too many women see themselves in Hillary in that way. She’s not worth it.
Not this woman. I think this meme is being pushed hard by her campaign.
she jumped thru all the hoops so she’s entitled?
wha?
“God, I hope not too many women see themselves in Hillary in that way. She’s not worth it.”[.]
“the analysis of ABC’s Cokie Roberts” is the clue here.
I find Cokie so intellectually depraved on ALL things remotely related to the Democratic Party. This woman spins 24/7 that she has become twisted. For years I’ve muted whenever Cokie pops up. Cokie and Hillary share the same brand.
Has been, since the 1980s made the Washington press corps into “stars” and shills for whatever corporation played the right tune for money. See the film, “Why America Hates the Press,” for additional reasons why.
Cokie Roberts is also the daughter of the late Representative Hale Boggs from Louisiana. This man knew a few things about the fine art of stroking; I am quite sure this b*tch learned a few things from him. She’s also married to the detestable Steve Roberts. Both of them still have conflicts of interest regarding their speechifying for questionable individuals and corporations.
I remember when she practically prostrated herself before Bush I during the lead-up and during Iraq War I. When I heard her bubbling on National Public Radio about how powerful and amazing the Bush victory was, I was so outraged that I switched to Pacifica Radio for the remainder of the coverage. Whenever I heard her on NPR thereafter, I changed the channel.
Now, I don’t even listen to NPR any more. Any station or network that would have her giving even two cents’ worth of commentary is not worth their salt with me.
This meme must be going out in massive emails to Hillary supporters because I’ve read a slightly different version elsewhere. The instructions must be to personalize the references and Cokie just blurted the basic structure without embellishing.
The version I saw was: Hillary is like a woman who works hard, slowly rises thru her firm, and is on the verge of getting a much deserved partnership. Then, along comes a charming man of no substance who can play golf and hang with the guys so he gets her promotion.
Here’s my version: Hillary is like a woman who stood by her man, didn’t bake cookies, and thinks she deserves to be president. Then, along comes a man with a Vision and most voters prefer him.
I’m sure others can come up with better versions than mine.
I think your version is pretty spot on…
If you read the Hillary supporter sites, they’re now all running the same cut and pasted text from the same articles, framed with slightly different intros/conclusions. They are their own rightwing noise machine, complete with total denial of reality (ie, Obama is ahead by every measure, and yet they insist Hillary can win on her electability. Say what?)
Your version isn’t true either.
Hillary is the woman in your firm who originally gets the interview and gets hired by the firm in the first place because she’s married to an important client. You’re happy when she shows up for her interview that she’s really competent and you have no problem hiring her. But in the piles of resumes you get each year you would never have noticed her because there are lots of people just like her looking for jobs. She used her connections to get in the door. That’s ok.
Now she wants to be managing partner. And historically the decision has always been made based on who has the biggest client base. And guess what – she has a big client base but Obama’s is bigger. Some of it he got because of his own connections in the AA community. But most of it he worked his ASS off to get and keep. Hillary? She started out with a huge client base due to her connections with her husband. But over time they’ve been leaving her.
The partners of course can always ignore the historical way of making the decision. And they might if Obama was really disliked or they really didn’t think he had the management skills. But if there is no reason to do it other than Hillary’s lobbying of them – they risk destroying the firm.
You don’t have to agree with that sentiment to understand where it comes from. Erase the name Cokie Roberts from that quote. Insert the names of millions of women who have banged their heads on the glass ceiling for their entire adult lives. You wanna tell all of them that because you don’t like Hillary their concerns don’t matter?
Lots of people are quick to see racial or racist motivations in the record numbers of blacks who have turned out to vote for Obama. I don’t see it that way. When for the first time in our history they see the very real possibility that one of their own might win the Presidency, it’s like a dream come true. Why would they not flock to his campaign?
Likewise, to every woman who has put her heart into a career only to see the promotions go to men whose talents and qualifications were no better than her own, is it any surprise that this campaign might seem like just another chapter in that same old story? We may not share that viewpoint, but that doesn’t make it any less real or less potent. We ignore it at our peril.
I think I speak for many when I say that I understand women’s frustration with the glass ceiling in their own lives, but that’s not what’s going on here, and for anyone to claim that this is a matter of the glass ceiling being in Hillary’s way is simply intellectually dishonest.
If Hillary Clinton had opposed the war from the start, she’d be the nominee right now. Period. She’s losing because of the fact that she is fundamentally out of step with the country.
The problem is that I see many of her female supporters claiming she has the qualifications without actually analyzing her record. Her qualifications, when one does so, turn out to be laughable, in my opinion. What are her successes in the Senate? The Iraq War, Kyl-Lieberman, renaming a few Post Offices in New York, and doing shots of vodka with John McCain.
I also see a hell of a lot of thin-veiled racism in the “He doesn’t know his place” views of Geraldine Ferraro, and I find that view deeply embedded in Clinton supporters’ minds. Many of them are happy to see sexism in Chris Matthews while ignoring the racism in themselves when they acknowledge Ferraro’s stunningly ironic claim that Obama is an affirmative-action choice.
for anyone to claim that this is a matter of the glass ceiling being in Hillary’s way is simply intellectually dishonest
I didn’t make that claim. Hillary’s problems are almost all of her own making. What I said was, to millions of women who have encountered the glass ceiling in their own lives, this campaign must seem like just another chapter. Whether it’s true or not is irrelevant. The perception is there and it is real. And we ignore that at our peril.
No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest you were saying otherwise. I was just making a general point.
As was I. Peace.
Ferraro’s comments didn’t strike me as “thinly veiled”.
They weren’t, but you see others comment in a more thinly-veiled fashion quite often.
just another example of the ridiculous patter of the “bought” camp followers! There is no doubt that any thinking person realizes that women have been given the shaft in this country but there is a greater problem. It is the controlled media! That should be the focus. Is it possible to unite in a struggle to get the information needed to make us all an informed electorate.
Bailout, war, poverty, healthcare, racism– What about these items?
Cokie’s been known to have a bit of Buchanan in her, some days she approaches making sense so you start listening to her and then wham she goes stupid on ya.
She was being snarky on that one and it was a wakeup call to women that their buttons are being pushed…you’re forgiven for not recognizing the double speak.
What an insult to women who really did work their way up from the bottom and then really did encounter the glass ceiling and sexism that gives the young charismatic man more money and more power. Oh, yes that does happen.
But I have no sympathy for the women who come into the work place and expect to jump ahead of the line because they married the right man. Or were born to the right man. As far as I’m concerned – that equalizes them right there with the golf-playing charismatic young studs. And at that point I judge them only on ability.
Hillary is a bright intelligent hard working woman. She’d probably be a fine president. But if she were exactly the same person except that Bill Clinton was a law professor and not former president she wouldn’t be where she is today. She would not have been able to have moved to the State of New York, announce she was running for senate and expect to win – or actually win. It would not have been possible for her to win.
I’m tired of these women cheapening other women’s hard work by not recognizing the built in advantage that Hillary has because she married Bill Clinton and he became president of the United States.
Maybe back in the 50’s you were supposed to marry your way to power but not anymore.
You’ve said this much more eloquently than I did. It is indeed an insult–further compounded by the meme that her example strikes a mighty blow for feminists and feminism.
Whaa???? That’s not how I understood feminism.
I wish you were on all the yak-yak shows saying this. It’s much closer to the truth that no one dares express. It doesn’t mean she’s not smart. But it is how she got here.
As usual, you’ve summed up what I think about Hillary and her feminist credentials way better than I could.
A thousand 4s for you.
I regret that I have but one 4 to give for your comment. I think I’ve found my quote of the week:
As a feminist, I have lost a lot of the respect I had for Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1992. First, she changed her name, from HR to HRC to HC, just for political gain. Then she didn’t dump her lyin’, cheatin’ husband. Then, once in office, she made several key decisions that I cannot support (and ran against several opponents with better records). Then she has run an irresponsible campaign — in its attitude of inevitability, in its campaign rhetoric and in its management of resources of staff and funds.
Bill may owe the Presidency to Hillary, but I don’t. I can wait for Michelle Obama or some other talented woman candidate.
…here comes this cute young man, up against a well-oiled, decades old machine, whose main beneficiary no one would know nor care about if she didn’t marry…and remain married, to her smart but philandering husband who was able to the clear the field for her to run for U.S. Senate in a state she didn’t live in.
Was THAT the way to do it, Cokie?
Of course her version was to have a powerful Daddy to get her where she is.
And they wonder why people feel like she–and Hillary–is just a crock full of shit. People like me, people like Obama, aren’t riding high on the strength of a last name, pretending that they have earned something.
Fucking spare me.