Treatment of Hillary Turns "Even" Conservatives Into Feminists

Many of Barack Obama's supporters have credited him with nearly-miraculous powers. Finally, I'm inclined to agree with them. It takes something pretty remarkable to infuse someone like me - a conservative woman with minimal sensitivity to "gender issues," who has opposed Hillary Clinton and her policies since 1992 - with even a twinge of feminist outrage on her behalf. Kudos to the Obama campaign; it's succeeded.

Certainly, reasonable people can disagree about whether Senator Clinton should have been Obama's vice presidential pick. Anyone can understand his reluctance to be upstaged and sidelined, as he doubtless would have been had the Clinton team - with its endless hunger for attention and interminable psychodrama - been placed on the ticket. And the decision not to choose Hillary is one that Barack Obama, as the nomination's clear winner, was certainly entitled to make.

It's not at all troubling that Hillary was denied the vice presidential nomination. In fact, for Republicans like me, it's something of a relief. She would have been formidable. Rather, it was the revelation that the Obama campaign wasn't willing even to consider Hillary seriously - despite the candidate's frequent attestations that she'd be "on anyone's shortlist" - that rankled.

Certainly, many American women don't sympathize with Hillary or her policies. Lots of them recall her broadside against the women who "bake cookies and serve tea." Plenty of them can't understand the decisions she's made in her personal life. But just about all of them can relate to any frustration or humiliation Senator Clinton felt as Joe Biden - who can do nothing for the Democratic ticket that Clinton couldn't have done more effectively - was named Obama's veep.

It has nothing to do with having been passed over (that happens to everyone at some point, regardless of gender). Rather, it's about not being taken seriously. Almost every woman can recall at least one instance in which she was treated with similar disrespect - despite being as hardworking, as prepared and as qualified as any rival - by a man who found it necessary to let her know who was boss. And there's really no other explanation for Obama's dismissive treatment of the woman who nearly beat him.

After all, despite a deeply flawed campaign, Hillary Clinton nonetheless managed to win 18 million votes. Her policy knowledge and dogged determination on the stump won grudging respect even from those who had always opposed her. Senator Clinton's support came from states and constituencies that Barack has yet to win over. And after she lost, she ultimately said all the right things about supporting Obama.

Yet none of it was enough to secure even the nominal courtesy of being seriously considered. What, exactly, did Hillary need to do in order to get a little respect from the Obama campaign? You know, the kind extended to Joe Biden - who won a grand total of 9 thousand votes during his most recent presidential campaign - and Evan Bayh, with a wife whose extensive service on corporate boards made his spouse a potential detriment?

Hillary didn't deserve any special treatment because she was a woman. What she did earn was the right to be treated with every courtesy that would have been extended to a similarly-accomplished man. It's hard to understand why the Obama campaign never sought from Senator Clinton the kind of information gathered from the likes of obscure Congressman Chet Edwards of Texas. It's even harder to conclude that the slight was accidental.

Recent reports reveal that some Clinton backers believe that Barack Obama delivered news of his vice-presidential decision at 3 a.m. as the coup de grace for Hillary, who drew blood with an ad highlighting his lack of preparedness for a foreign affairs crisis. Given the gratuitous arrogance and unabashed pettiness of such a stunt, I would previously have dismissed the muttering as the paranoia of embittered feminists.

One of the great "miracles" of the Obama campaign is that now, I'm not so sure. And like other American women, including many with whom I disagree politically, I'm left to wonder: If Barack Obama is willing to treat a worthy but vanquished rival from his own party so disrespectfully, just how credible are his promises to unite us - male and female, Democrats and Republicans alike?

Comments

[more amazed]

In order for Hillary to be seriously considered, one must feel comfortable with her. By her repeated insistence, she did not respect Barac. How can you feel comfortable working with someone who does not respect you? Sure, eventually you can earn their respect but who needs the hassle? Everyone talks about how she was treated but no one mentions how she deserved to be treated.

[BobbyJoe]

This columnist IS a feminist, as she spends ten paragraphs establishing that women can be concern trolls too.

[readyfornewleadership]

You are just sorry he didn't pick her. It would have energized the republican faithful. I work as a professional woman in an overwhelmingly male environment, and I can tell you that she has already gotten many times the attention and coddling she would have gotten in the "real" world.

[JoeSun]

Hillary earned the right to be considered.

And Obama won the right not to consider her.

[JoeSun]

Who is this poster kidding?

Liebau: Obama did not take Hillary seriously.

Fact: Obama beat Hillary, so of course he took HIllary very seriously. You don't beat the most established name in Democratic politics by believing its going to be a cakewalk. On the other hand, its clear that Hillary had no respect for Obama:

1. She diminished his candidacy to a speech made in 2002.
2. She openly mused that Obama might meet a similar fate to that of Ted Kennedy.

But all that aside, her most obvious dismissal of Obama was in the way she ran her campaign. How else can you explain her not knowing that she was overspending? She assumed that Obama was so weak that she didn't even keep track of her finances.

Liebau: HIllary is as qualified as any rival.

Fact: Joe BIden has 36 years in the Senate. Bill Richardson has decades of experience as a diplomat and governnor. Hillary Clinton has only 8 years in the Senate during which she has accomplished nothing of note. The truth is that, with the exception of John Edwards, Hillary Clinton was the least qualified of any of the candidates running.

[arnray]

Here's a fun game for PUMAs. Take two sheets of paper. On one write down all the derogatory remarks Hillary made about Barak during the primaries. On the other write down all the derogatory remarks Barak made about Hillary. Now, which sheet looks like a picture of a polar bear in a snowstorm?

[davidly]

Why "consider" her, if he knows he's not gonna pick her? Isn't that worse? I mean putting her through the vetting wringer and then nada?

Senator Clinton earned precisely what she got. If a male candidate had run the kind of race she ran, he'd 've been toast before you could say, "Bayh-Bayh."

It's no mystery that she "won" Texas and won Ohio (to name only a couple of states) with massive help from crossovers and otherwise stay-at-homers who never would have voted for her in the General, but I wonder just how many of those 18 million votes were:
- anti-male?
- anti-black?
- anti-black male?
- manipulated (NH)?

How many real votes would that leave her? And as second on the ticket, she sure as heck wasn't gonna bring home the anti-black or the Republican vote. Now that IS a fantasy (regardless of what "IS" is)!

[burntbeans]

the essential argument of your essay is based upon a flawed premise:

"Rather, it was the revelation that the Obama campaign wasn't willing even to consider Hillary seriously - despite the candidate's frequent attestations that she'd be "on anyone's shortlist" - that rankled.

this is a misperception, which has been frequently bandied about in the media. senator clinton would not allow a complete vetting, because it would have required giving out donor information to the clinton presidential library, which she was unwilling to submit.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/25/112810/868

[AuntSally]

I've been following Obama pretty closely. I simply haven't seen any disrespect coming from him or his campaign directed toward Sen. Clinton. And make up your mind, by the way: is it a few of his millions of supporters that have had less than respectful words for Clinton, or Obama himself?

Finally, just curious: Will you be equally distressed when we learn that McCain 'refused' to consider most of his fellow Republican nominee contenders for the number two spot?

[jvarga]

Apparently the fact that Senator Obama's campaign didn't vet someone whose husband refused to be vetted and carried huge negative ratings is such a slap in the face that this republican now hates Senator Obama.

Wow a republican hating Senator Obama. Stop the presses folks.

[thegaygardener]

Clinton was not "vetted" because she asked NOT to be unless Obama could guarantee that she was under serious consideration! PERIOD.
Clinton was justifiably concerned with turning over sensitive documents, particularly the list of donors to the Clinton Library, without virtual assurance that she would be the pick. Clinton took herself out of the running. I can't really say I blame her. I think it is rather sad that the real reason she could not be the VP was her husband & his questionable dealings of the past decade.

For you to promote the false story of her being ignored & "passed over" by the Obama Campaign in order to inflame anger among Conservative woman & independents is disingenuous at best.

Clinton was not vetted, because she did not want to be vetted. The End.

[bethinCary]

Yeah and Sen Obama would have had to absorb ALL of HRC's campaign debt..

So HRC already had proven herself NOT to be a good mananger-NOT of finances, NOT even of her own campaign..
She also did NOT want to hear about her own ignoring BIll C's vetting of his library donors-or his role as a VP's hubby who just happened to be a former Prez...

umm...these are MAJOR things that would have brought down his campaign..
He didn't need to absorb that debt & why should he have too?

Supporters need to realize that the 90s are over...and Dems are ready for "change" politics.