Why Was Barack Anointed So Instantly?

Did the media's savage attack on Hillary Clinton stir up some atavistic instinct of anger or protectiveness among women, helping her to win New Hampshire? Was there a massive CLICK moment, as old-guard feminists used to call it, when women collectively thought, "Hey, this isn't fair!"

My guess would be yes, given the fact that she did so much better in the granite state among women than she did in Iowa.

The media assault was nothing short of astonishing. Rarely before have news outlets savaged one candidate and practically canonized another after one vote count in one early primary in an atypical state. The Media Archangel swooped down from above, anointed Barack Obama with precious oils while kicking Hillary Clinton to the ninth circle of political hell.

Many women, including myself, detected a certain undeniable glee in the media pile-on. Almost with one voice, the media punditocracy pronounced Hillary yesterday's woman, too old, stuck in the '90s, an ambitious dynasty builder unable to connect with real people, chilly, passionless, unlikable, and what experience did she have anyway? I half expected people to say that Hillary regularly boxed Chelsea about the face and ears.

At the same time, Barack Obama, who only a short time before had been chided by the media for being lousy at debate, not tough enough and lacking in edge, suddenly became the golden child. Superlatives flowed like Sam Adams beer at a Patriots tailgate party. Suddenly Barack was the new JFK and Martin Luther King rolled into one, he was the voice of a new generation, his rhetoric was soaring, he gave people hope, he would re-connect America to the world, he was authentic, he all but spoke in tongues. He was the young (not so) white knight banishing the wicked witch of the west.

Meanwhile, Hardball's Chris Matthews all but buried Hillary's career and tossed in a few shovelfuls of dirt, with an unseemly joy. The New York Post ran an unflattering picture of Hillary on the front page with the boxcar headline PANIC. Pundits said maybe she should skip South Carolina and just go home, because it was all over, and Barack would glide through the next primaries like Cleopatra borne by golden sails along the Nile.

Now, I like Barack Obama. He's super-smart, he's exciting, he has a great gift for oratory and he's one of the most remarkable people to appear on the political scene lately. But, hey, Hillary is not chopped liver. Isn't this the woman the media once dubbed "inevitable" (albeit with little enthusiasm) and who just couldn't make a mistake?

Why did the punditocracy all but declare Hillary politically dead after she finished in a virtual tie for second with John Edwards in a state that was hardly tailored to her strengths? Mitt Romney got clobbered after spending a fortune, and while the media said this was a big problem for him, no one wrote him off. Many, in fact, said he was still the presumptive nominee.

And why was Barack anointed so instantly? To use a sports metaphor, it was like the talented rookie being handed the Cy Young award after his first pouting on the mound. As Gloria Steinem noted in her much-discussed New York Times op-ed, what if Barack Obama had been a woman, with the same resume? She'd have been laughed at if she said she wanted to run for president.

I believe a lot of women thought "This isn't fair. Give her a chance. She's earned that. Maybe she won't win in the end, but if she loses, let it be fair and square. Any why doesn't the media seem very excited about the first woman president. Why isn't that 'change?""

For women of a certain age, there was an air of familiarity about the whole process. Often, women work hard, learn their craft, pay their dues, don't try to step in front of other people, and then, when they are due for the big promotion, something happens. Some young guy is suddenly standing in front of them. He's the hot new commodity, and she is just expected to gracefully step aside.

I encountered this early on, when I was in college. My best friend, who was due to be appointed editor of a large college newspaper, was suddenly pulled aside by the faculty advisor and told that she was not going to get the top job. It was going to a male student, an Army veteran, who was fairly new to the paper.

"He's a man, and a veteran, and you're just a girl, " said the professor. "Don't you think it's right that he gets the job?"

In fact, she thought it was quite unfair, but somewhere inside a little voice was saying, Maybe he is right. Maybe the guy deserves it. Maybe I am just a girl.

I know another woman, who, many years later, was in line for a senior editorship, but her boss hired a younger, less-experienced man instead. He said to her, "He reminds me of myself when I was young."

Often, women who do superb work watch as men who perform much less well get fulsome praise, while their own accomplishments seem invisible. Women who sit in board meetings notice that they are ignored when they make a suggestion, but when a man makes the very same suggestion a few minutes later, the room lights up with praise.

A lot of young women, who haven't yet had these experiences, think they never will, and that all the world is open to them. They don't need to back a woman for president. I hope they are right, but I suspect they'll hit the glass ceiling at a dead run and will be astonished at the thud.

So women made Hillary the Comeback Kid. That doesn't mean she gets a free pass. She'll have to earn the nomination, cementing the connection with people that really began in New Hampshire, she will have to get out of the bubble and talk to the press and to the voters in an unguarded way, as she's started to do.

Women are usually harder on other women than they are on men, but sometimes, not often these days, but once in a while, there cones a point when they hear the "CLICK."

It happened in New Hampshire.

Boston University Journalism professor Caryl Rivers is the author of "Selling Anxiety: How the News Media Scare Women."

Comments

[BUSHsurvivor]

Don't forget dems attacking dems! That's disgusting too. I don't agree with the rethugs many times, but I will give them one thing, they do come together when the family is in trouble!

[bjneider]

The thing I find most sad is the constant barage of negatives coming out of woman against Hillary Clinton. If you read the comments, the most negative reactions are from woman not men. When are you going to wake up a see how the media etc. have succeeded in keeping women down. I even heard a comment from a newscaster that Hillary reminds them of their controlling mother. Give me a break! Where would they be without the support of their so called Controlling Mother. We are taking such a bad rap and should pull together not divide.

[talkstocoyotes]

In a way, I hope the sexist and ageist assaults continue -- they've been very successful in shoring up Senator Clinton's support so far. Now all we need is a hysterical suicide charge claiming that anyone voting for "Hillary" is automatically racist, and she might just have November sewed up.

We older women are here. We vote. Get used to it.

[divyasari]

Where is the click of intelligent thinking? Why don't 'not fair' women grow up? So what the media 'picked on Hillary'. She is old, stuck in the 90s, and notoriously lacking in passion. Why doesn't she say 'Yea, so what, tell me something I don't already know'.

[jsm397]

While I agree with most of your commentary. Hillary has placed herself in this position. Yes, I agree that if Obama was a women he would be laughed off the stage. But, so would a woman, other than Clinton, campaigning that she gained experience during her husband's presidency. I could not apply for a job and use as my qualifications, "I helped my husband--a lot". Both of these junior Senators lack true experience. Although, Clinton clearly has more. Lastly, when people talk of change, I believe, it is about starting afresh. Yes, Clinton was a great President but he did take this country through scandal. Therefore, Obama would be something new. A change from the controversies that plagued both Bush years and Clinton years.

[Nonamnesiac]

Obama was anointed so instantly because no one really wants Hillary -- who is a well known warmongerer with a limited world view. The same media that presented her as inevitable, fearing they may have been unsuccessful as a result of the Iowa caucuses, rushed to abandon her so that they could associate themselves with what appeared to be a rush by the electorate away from her.

Obama was unanointed because there is little real difference between him and Clinton and the Clintons and the media have successfully sold the fairy tale that Hillary is experienced and ready to serve as President from day one -- ignoring that she's been wrong across the board in her record at a devastating cost to the U.S. and to young Ameicans and Iraqis and has no executive experience whatsoever.

[castlerider]

We can talk anout Hill and Barrack's qualifications and over-talk it to death...

But the point you made about the MS media's irresponsible actions in so obvious misleading and telling us how to think is very very valid and right on.

It shows they are a corporation with no real interests but their own.
In this same manner Corporations are unjustly given the rights as individuals and then end uo taking a much bigger piece of the pie, to put it very kindly. The results of these actions are actually much more brutal... Like watching so much of your money go down the drain spending it on gas when you have a lot of running around to do one week, and realizing you've caused yourself to put off paying another bill, wondering how you'll get to that, then hearing ExxonMobil is reporting record profits for the year... Something so damn wrong with that picture.
And watching our country get sidelined spending hundreds of billions to kill people across the globe while our housing market goes down the tubes at the tune of the same hundreds of billions. something really wrong with that.

Then watching Edwards go through a complete blackout by this MSM because he had the nerve to bravely talk against this monster...
Thanks for a great post.

[vbond]

"Why Was Barack Anointed So Instantly?"

Why?

To paraphrase Howard Fineman: "The guy is a phenomenon... he just IS!"

1. His intellect is manifest.

2. His executive abilities are on display every day that his highly complex and effective campaign continues to hum, which it does.

3. His temperament and convictions were on open display during the months-long period during which he was powerfully persuaded by friends, respected advisors and financial contributors to "go negative" on Hillary... and he didn't. History will show that this was - in a smaller but no less meaningful way - his "Cuban Missile Crisis Moment." He passed.

4. He is displaying the incredibly rare ability to inspire without inciting, and he is doing so across a wide spectrum of political beliefs and attitudes. Name one other national leader - other than John Kennedy - who has done this in the modern era. [Bill Clinton was wonderful, but he did not do this.]

In summary, he is doing now - right now - what we, at this time in our national life, need a President to do, and people - including the media - can see it.

Iowa - and his close finish in New Hampshire - were the result of these attributes and actions, not media coronation.

The very opposite was and is true: his "coronation" (and I completely acknowledge that it is and will continue to be just that) is a consequence of his superior performance as a candidate, and as the leader of a movement to restore the UNITED States of America.

[WIDESTANCE]

one must NEVER FORGET that "the media" is owned and operated by large corporations that have an agenda which is totally unrelated to the welfare of the american people

the days of murrow and cronkite are long gone, dead and buried but the corporate media continues to trade on their legacy of truth and trustworthiness in order to advance an agenda driven by self-interest and greed

[NewBritainDemocrat]

Professor Rivers: Good point on media trying to write Hillary's obit prematurely and savagely. The Clinton NH win stems from two factors -- sympathetic women and, more importantly, a GOTV infrastructure that relied on local pols' getting out the vote for Bill's partner who's been the frontrunner for one year not five days. It would be beneficial for Dems to move beyond Steinem's shallow gender/race divide as quickly as possible.
from an SPC '72 alum

[mjjcpa]

I think it's because the competent leaders of the democratic party have been pushed aside by the photogenic and silver-tongued. The party is bereft of leadership at the top in congress, but there are some bright spots in the House and a few governors. They can't just keep complaining about everything without any solutions. They say they couldn't accomplish anything because they were the minority and GWB and Delay's gang had them hamstrung. Now that the American people swallowed that whopper they have a majority (although razor thin), and then complain that they can't overcome the President's veto. They had the white house and congress in the 70s and it was the worst period for America since the Depression. If they win the white house what will they do with all that power again? What will be their excuse this time for not showing leadership and compromising on the panoply of issues that face America and therefore the world.

[Rescisco]

The media is almost as stupid as we are. Everything, from politics to art, is all about the moment. Its about "feelings" and its always superficial. There are no standards of excellence, no context, and no substance. We are beyond the cult of personality here. We have become a society of fluff junkies and fantasy thrill seekers. This election is fiction at its best.

[xrayman]

"Suddenly Barack was the new JFK and Martin Luther King rolled into one,"

I think it was his late message that it was all about him, his time, his moment, instead of being about the voters, that cost Obama NH.

He began believing that he is JFK, Bobby, Martin Luther and Oprah all rolled into a big grin and a pocket full of hope. He began believing in his own celebrity.

Clinton is a nuts and bolts politician who cares about the voters, and can get things done.

[TheKiddy]

There were a few moments that really got to me. One of them was during the NH debate when the likeability issue came up and Obama injected himself into it saying something like you're nice enough Hillary. This is not the first time he has spoken in that kind of dismissive, patronizing tone toward her. I didn't like it.

[hlhicks]

This is exactly why this progressive woman turned away from feminism in college. I have always known that the issues discussed were not about me. The way their spokespersons have come to the defense of one of their own at the expense of a seemingly decent and equally deserving candidate is not surprising. How dare these women heap sympathy on this woman who has had access to power for decades. To portray her as a victim of misogyny is ridiculous and it weakens the very real concerns of gender inequity in this country.
I fear that this contest will expose the Democratic party as one that is not so different from the Republicans when it comes to race. All of these pieces (Steinem, Jong, et al), after eviscerating Obama, put in trite phrases where they damn him with faint praise. As if saying in their condescending tone, it is more important for us to have a woman president than a man who is not white. (It is such a shame that Obama doesn't know his place.) And to the ridiculous assertions that Hillary is being savaged because she is a woman, and that would never happen to anyone because of race: Thanks, I needed a laugh.