I've just sent an email to Susie Tompkins Buell of San Francisco, the proud and angry "Hillraiser." It's probably a bit early for her to comment as I requested, but I'll post her reply later if I receive one.
She and other Hillary uber-loyalists can't be happy to read this morning's AP story about a riff by comedian Bernie Mac, a Chicago native and FOB (as in Friend of Barack -- NOT as in Friend of Bill.)
At an Obama $2300-a-head fundraiser last night in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago the host of the The Bernie Mac Show let profanity and misogyny creep into his standup routine, including, according to the AP, a joke about menopause (that'll be big among Hillraisers and other FOHs) and the following: "My little nephew came to me and he said, 'Uncle, what's the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question? I said, I don't know, but I said, 'Go upstairs and ask your mother if she'd make love to the mailman for $50,000. Hypothetically speaking, we should have $100,000. But realistically speaking we live with two hos."
The famous comedian also called Obama "a man's man." When women hear that phrase they usually don't jump up and down with joy and approval.
Once onstage 15 minutes later, Obama seemed to rebuke the comedian, but not really. "We can't afford to be divided by race. We can't afford to be divided by region or by class and we can't afford to be divided by gender, which by the way, that means, Bernie, you've got to clean up your act next time. This is a family affair. By the way, I'm just messing with you, man."
So did the last line let Bernie off the hook?
I read this AP report just minutes after reading an Los Angeles Times report that Obama had called Hillary backer Jill Iscol last Thursday and during the conversation had assured Iscol, who took the opportunity to lobby for Hillary as VP, that Hillary was on the shortlist, but that the selection was complicated by the fact that she is married to Bill, a former president of the United States. Reporter Peter Nicholas interpreted that to mean not that Bill's post presidential life is a gift-wrapped Pandora's Box for the Republicans -- a point I make Clinton in Exile, my book on Bill's post presidency -- but rather that the Oval Office is too small to contain a sitting president and a former president.
Iscol of Westchester, New York told Nocholas, "... nobody has been vetted the way she has been vetted. We need to pick the most qualified, wisest, smartest, experienced person to serve our country alongside of Barack Obama. And I think it's Hillary Clinton. We need her, and the party needs her, and it will be a ticket that will steamroll its way to the White House."
Like Susie Buell in her conversation with me that same day -- see my post in which Buell, co-founder of the Esprit clothing company and a backer of the Clintons since 1991, goes into detail about the lack of respect show both Hillary and Bill by Obama and his people.
Iscol said she'd wait to see if the Obama campaign helps Hillary pay down her debt--not looking so good now -- and whether Obama selects her as VP before deciding whether to back Obama financially. On the latter condition, Obama cannot possibly be planning to give the nod to Hillary, so he might as well strike her name -- and Susie Buell's -- from his donor list.
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Posted July 12, 2008 | 12:56 PM (EST)