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."
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I think that as a general principle we should move forward and not back. Clinton is OK, her husband was a good President, but we've done that. I'd much rather have a President with new ideas and a fresh perspective. I like Obama's sound judgement and calm demeanor. I also like Edwards, but think Obama is the best.
"Superlatives flowed like Sam Adams beer at a Patriots tailgate party." And will, no doubt, again.
We must REFUSE to allow the media to play Whack-a-Mole with our emotions! And we must stop tearing each other apart -- we are not the enemy. I insist upon the right to respect you even if I disagree with you.
I think everyone needs to pay a visit to http://www
There is no question that Obama is a stirring orator. But we must demand he demonstrate that he is not "an empty suit" -- if we don't, the Republicans certainly will.
Hillary does not inspire us, but she's steady and astute (perhaps it will take a tug boat instead of a clipper to move the country where it needs to be). Still we must demand that she confront the animosity she engenders -- if she doesn't, the Republicans will own the debate.
In a little over a year, a new president will be inaugurated. I pray it's a Democrat. This election can't be about sound-bytes. We have to make this one count.
My thoughts, and -- once again -- you're welcome to them.
"Rarely before have news outlets savaged one candidate and practically canonized another after one vote count in one early primary in an atypical state."
I have noticed the word "Dean" does not appear anywhere in your post.
I like Hillary, but I really don't want Bill back in the White House. Don't know why, but it just doesn't feel right. Maybe he'll think it's his third term? Another thing that disturbs me; she has been speaking in generalities, but has she ever denounced America's adoption of torture? How about Guantanamo
RIDDLE ME THIS:
WHY WAS HILLARY CLINTON ANOINTED THE PROSPECTIVE FIRST WOMEN PRESIDENT OF THE US SO EASILY , WHILE HER HUSBAND WAS PRESIDENT OR EVEN BEFORE SHE RAN OF SENATE OF NEW YORK??
WHY DID HILLARY CLINTON WIN SENATOR OF NEW YORK, A STATE SHE NEVER LIVED IN, SO EASILY??
WHY WAS HILLARY CLINTON CONSIDERED THE FRONT RUNNER - FOR MANY YEAR PRIOR - SO EASILY??
HOW CAN SOMEONE COME ALONG, LIKE BARACK, WHO TAKES THE WIND OUT THE SAILS OF THE ANOINTED CLINTON, SO EASILY??
Gloria Steinem made her point. I support Hillary not that she is a woman but she is strong, intellegent, is vocal about the things she believes in.
Yes, she and every one else(except Denies) voted for Bush to go after Iraq , they were not given the truth, it was then..
Obama did not vote, because he was not a Senetor then, that is a fact no matter how one spins ! Since then he voted for the funding or chose not to vote.
Hillary a free pass ? Never !
Don`t get me wrong, Obama is a very good candidate. The race is exciting and us the voters get to decide.
In the mean time Mathews and the talking heads are so desperate to spin. Spinners who take us as fools are the ones who are !
A "connection with the people?" Sorry, but as we saw this past week we've gone from "I feel your pain," to "Please feel my pain."
Hillary, the poor little woman. She is not tough enough to take a little scrutiny after her campaign falls apart because of her arrogant micromanagement, but we are expected to believe she is tough enough to run a country of 300 million people entering into one of its most trying times. Perhaps all these "click" women think that Bill will swoop in and rescue her, just like he did from the mean ole NH press corps.
I couldn't agree more.
Obama has gotten almost exclusively positive press while Hillary gets negative press.
Don't let the media control the next election!
I'll echo what has been said, why did they anoint Hillary over a year ago? The press not only anointed her as the eventual Democratic nominee, but as eventual president as well. Now you're mad that they did the same thing with Barack? Please.
I don't where you got this notion of a click moment. All I saw was a woman who would do anything to win, so she looked like she was going to bawl, hoping people would have pity on her. It worked. I was unaware until now just how easy it is to play the voters of New Hampshire. Play the weak female that is.
I wish people would understand that Hillary isn't a feminist. When I was growing up in the 70's, I understood feminism to mean that a woman could a achieve the same thing as a man, if she worked at it. You don't get it handed to you and you don't rely on a man. If Hillary had started at the local level of politics, then got elected to her state legislature, then the US House and/or Senate, I would have more respect for her. She got elected to the Senate with the help of her husband's name (come on, you know it's true) and is now trying for the White House using the same tactic.
I'm not sure why Hillary feels she can skip those other steps and land the White House, but she does. It's that arrogance, that sense of entitlement, that pisses me off and turns me off to her. Her being a woman has nothing to do with it. I'd feel the same way if she was a guy.
I think that when she institutes the draft, that she will make sure that women are able to fight in front line situations, just like men. Maybe she'll lower the draft age as well, to extend similar rights to children.
She's certainly proved thats she every bit as tough as George Bush, (and every bit as sold out, as well) and that's why she has assisted his absurd, avoidable disastrous initiatives in in Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon.
just be sure to tell your kids to keep their heads down in those foxholes, and certainly regardless of how horribly she handled health care the FISRT time she botched it, and regardless of her support of the Iraq war, the Iranian saber rattling, and the summer war with Lebanon, we should put her in the white house JUST because she is a woman, albeit a sold out, incompetent one.
"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.
Okay, lets compare Hillary and Baraks political resume. She been in the US Senate for 7 years. Barak Obama has been in the US Senate 3 years and was in the Illinois state legislature for 9 years. So, actually I think their resumes are comparable and neither have previous executive experience. Which is why I'm supporting Bill Richardson, who has enough experience for the both of them.
I don't appreciate the presses focus on Hillary's laugh, or her almost teary eyedness, its ridiculous. However, I also don't appreciate being told who the next president of the united states would be based on some house parties in Iowa and some inaccurate polls in New Hampshire. But the attacks that Clinton supporters use against Obama are as superfluous as the medias attacks against her.
The problem is, they can't attack him on his real negatives - that he's voted to fund the Iraq war, that he was too busy campaigning to fight against telephone immunity, that he hasn't sponsored or been a spokesperson an important bill in defense of our civil liberties or to end the Iraq war. Because guess what? Neither has Hillary...
Hillary probably is better off having the press focus on inaccurate polls and her personal ticks, it creates more sympathy for her than anything. Because if people were actually evaluating her and Obama based on their real experience and voting record, neither look pretty, but she probably looks worse.
YOu're right, it's SO unfair. Woman can be a war monger too.
Give me a break. The media and the Clintons have deemed her the anointed one for years now, so of course there was some schadenfreude when she blew it in Iowa. Hillary has a likeability problem, and when you couple that with her "air of inevitability", it made her insufferable to a lot of people.
I love Bill, don't love Hill. Has nothing to do with her gender and everything to do with her voting for the war and taking money from the drug and insurance companies that she's supposedly against. And her message of "let's work within the current broken system" doesn't resonate. It's not enough to just undo what Bush has done. We need to give our creaky system and much-needed overhaul.
I actually agree with you that that's what happened. The only thing wrong with the whole scenario is that Hillary's gender doesn't hold her back, it's actually an asset for her. It certainly worked for her in NH, and there are many people who would not otherwise vote for her accept that they like the idea of the first woman president. And the thing that makes it disgusting is that she happily played the gender card, and not in the "vote for me I'm your gal" kind of way, but in the "I'm an emotional woman being picked on" kind of way. What would people say if Obama suddenly stated that Hillary was trying to keep a Brother down? I don't think it would play to his advantage, and he is way above that anyway. You will NEVER see Obama play the race card.
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