Gender More Of A Hurdle Than Race In American Politics. [View All]

[Karmadillo]

Last night, Margaret Carlson raised the question of whether or not Hillary had a heart (her uncanny persistence in the face of adversity made one wonder...). And there's Obama's Saturday Night Live performance where Hillary was portrayed as a witch. And there's the cackle and the cleavage. And, and, and, so it goes.

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/011833.php

Sunday :: Jan 27, 2008
Gender More Of A Hurdle Than Race In American Politics

by Jeff Dinelli
Looking ahead to February 5th's Super-Duper-Tsunami-Mega-Fat Tuesday, we should be able to look back and learn a thing or two from what's happened so far. One of those revelations is it's clear that America is ready, willing and able to elect its first African-American president. It's a wonderful development and fills all of us with an unprecedented optimism for this country's enlightenment and its future.

At the same time, however, it's abundantly evident that this same country is not necessarily ready to support the candidacy of a strong woman looking to lead from the Oval Office. The most discouraging aspect of this uncomfortable truth is the right wing hasn't floated this theme; indeed, it hasn't even had a chance to assign its formidable slime machine towards injecting some subtle sexism into the 2008 campaign. No, it's the media, the lefty netroots and even members of the Democratic Party that have led the runaway train of shoddy treatment handed to Senator Hillary Clinton.☼

The wonderful Chicago Tribune writer Jessica Reaves picks up on the truly, unbelievably unfair media coverage of the first viable female candidate in our country's history:

From Day 1 of this seemingly endless election cycle, it has been clear that the media don't have any idea how to handle Clinton. She was first lady for eight years, so it's not as if we haven't seen her before. It's just that we've never seen her like this: a candidate on her own terms, the equal of any man, with a real shot at the presidency.

And so we did what we've always done to women who overstep their bounds: We picked her apart, piece by piece, ignoring the substance and pouncing on the superficial. We sniped about her hair, her laugh, her pantsuits, her voice (which Chris Matthews, MSNBC's resident blowhard, likened to "nails on a blackboard").....

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