Obama And Clinton: On Stage In New York And On Topic With Women

At a fundraising Women's Breakfast at the Hilton Hotel Thursday morning in New York City, the main plot concerned how the Democratic Party was going to address issues that traditionally matter to women and how much cash voters would pony up in return to help elect Barack Obama. The subplot was how Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who appeared together, were getting along.

"Barack and I were talking about the rigors of the campaign trail," Clinton said a few minutes into her remarks. It painted a nice picture: the former rivals chatting backstage, bonding over their shared experience. Politicians are just like us! They make small talk. They try to be friends.

Obama told Clinton she looked somewhat rested. Clinton said she was, somewhat, and she was even trying to exercise every day since liberated from the grueling primary schedule. "As I'm sure you've read," she told the audience, "Barack Obama would get up every morning and go faithfully to the gym. I would get up every morning and get my hair done."

The crowd in the Hilton ballroom, a majority of whom were women, laughed.

"It's one of those Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire things," Clinton said. Zing. Apparently, being friends does not mean that you can't also be just a little bit bitter.

Throughout her speech, Clinton re-iterated the message that women are working harder for less. Issues like wages, health care, and education are important for all Americans, but for women, she said, the stakes are higher: women remain discriminated against at work; women comprise the majority of low-wage earners and therefore also the majority of those without health care; women worry more about whether their children are getting a good education, whether class sizes are small, whether a motivated young person has an opportunity to go to college.

As has been true in her speeches throughout the primary season, Clinton's locus of attention was on the sort of person not likely to be among those eating her breakfast on a white tablecloth at the Hilton ballroom. Instead, Clinton insisted the Democratic Party would pay attention to those women who served in the hotel, getting up at the crack of dawn to go to work and leaving their children at home or in childcare, hoping they would be safe. Fairness is an American value, Clinton insisted, and for a moment I saw the old Hillary, with her jaw set and mettle in her voice.

But for most of the speech, Clinton's tone was soft and her language pitched somewhere between Oprah and Lifetime TV. She acknowledge how hard it was to "turn on a dime." Adjusting to new circumstances, she said, was "a process." It was time to "start a new chapter." The ballroom grew very quiet. Clinton seemed to be revealing something of herself, and it triggered at least in me a response that was half empathy, half fascination for the spectacle of a warrior defeated.

However, one is not taken into Clinton's confidence for very long. In an instant, the personal turned political. "Everyone who voted for me has so much in common with those who voted for Barack Obama," she concluded. There. She had said it: Get over it and move on. I have.

The power that Clinton seems to still wield with her supporters was somewhat astonishing. When Obama's sister, Maya, introduced him, she cited (predictably) the strong women in his life: herself, his mother and grandmother, his wife. "And then there's...um...Senator Clinton." It was a funny but revealing turn of phrase: on the one hand, Clinton was part of the family; on the other hand, she was something beyond it, a mythical force that loomed large in the imaginations of the Obamas.

Indeed, when he took the stage Obama acknowledged that he needed Hillary Clinton, as well as...um...Bill (brother and sister have really mastered the art of the "um"). He also introduced himself as someone who campaigned with Hillary Rodham Clinton, but "didn't do it in heels."

No doubt Obama was playing to his predominantly female audience, but he also had the hang-dog look of a man schooled in the frustration and lack of parity many women experience. When Obama spoke about his wife's feeling of being split in two by the competing demands of work and family, he admitted his pain at being "complicit in some of the struggles she's going through." The fact that Obama was home less than a week in this primary cycle, and that Michelle has left her job and been the primary caregiver for their young daughters, was probably not lost on many of the audience.

With Clinton looking on, Obama raised many of the existential issues I hear women talk about all the time: being worn out, feeling like they have to choose between a career and children, wondering why they can't get more help, worrying about their kids while they were at work and worrying about work while they were with their kids. As is appropriate for a presidential nominee, Obama extrapolated to larger, national concerns, pointing out that women were the backbone of the middle class, and if a woman made only 77 cents to the dollar her family suffered, too.

While it's a relief to hear these issues taken seriously and aired on a national stage, one doesn't have to go much further than the ladies' room to get a snapshot of what Clinton and Obama were talking about.

"Did you try under the welcome mat?" said a female voice from inside a stall, presumably multi-tasking on her cell phone. "How about under the planter? It's not in the door?"

Another women typed furiously on her Blackberry. Another, in a maid's uniform, wiped down a sink.

A casual poll of women around the ballroom revealed that the spectators had been generally happy with the event. Elba Olaya, a banquet services worker picking up the breakfast plates, particularly congratulated Obama and Clinton on their speeches. Although Olaya said she didn't speak English very well -- she's originally from Peru -- she liked what they had said about fair treatment. After 17 years of working without benefits, she had been overlooked for promotion in favor of a man only three years on the job, and had been turned out of her place of employment. The Hilton, she said, was much better because it was unionized.

Hillary Clinton, I reminded her, had said this election was not about the candidates, but about people like her. Olaya beamed. "I like her," she said. "I like him, too, but I voted for her."

If Clinton continues to identify with the underdog, and Obama defers to her as much as his body language on Thursday's stage suggests, then Olaya and others struggling for basic justice and security may find themselves with their own friend in the White House.

Comments

[Readbetweentheelevens]

...[Former President] Clinton concluded his speech by reminding governors, who are marking the association's centennial, that the issues they face today are similar to problems President Teddy Roosevelt grappled with a century ago.

Those include inequality among rich and poor, immigration and energy policy.

If those issues are dealt with, "We're about to go into the most exciting period of human history," Clinton said.

"If we don't, in the words of President Roosevelt, dark will be the future," he said. "I'm betting on light"I hope you are, too."

Don't worry about it folks, these two (Clintons) are going all the way to the convention, and if they don't win there, they'll make sure Obama loses. Get ready for McWar as No. 44.

[mscriblerus]

The wage disparity still blows my mind. It's 2008 for crying out loud. How do we still give institutionalized wage discrimination a pass?

[mantysDOTus]

OK. So you are aware that there is a wage disparity between genders. Why don't you state the figures so we can all be shocked. And while you're at it why not describe how women perpetuate this discrepancy almost as much as men do! Impossible? Just expand the lessons of the "Doll Experiments" beyond race to gender. I am a man and I hate some of the things my wife has had to endure from men at work. But I am also shocked at how much other women contribute to the ambience of institutional inequality. The "backlash" is alive and well as long as there are willing proponents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Clark_(psychologist)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlash:_The_Undeclared_War_Against_American_Women

[mamamay]

Are we going to allow this rift between Hil and Obama kill the dream of ever getting a woman as Pres? If we dont do the right thing in Denver and in Nov by our Dem Nominee, we wont get this chance again for centuries more to come. We need to bury this hatchet and do the right thing as women, and stop pushing our luck. This has always been aman's world and they take us as they see us. Now if we sit home and do nothing because we are strung out over not getting our way, just go on... You may have hollered loud for Hil, but it's pitiful that that was as far as the women's dream will go. Perhaps if all vote for the Nominee now, the next go round will be a woman... 4 more years is not that long as long as it is not 4more years of McBush. Lets be strong and stand up together for our Nominee now, before we fall for less.

[Jessegirl]

So true...women will lose out more in the end if they try to stay bitter right to the end. Not to mention , make it look like we can't handle a good fight. Nothing in life is "perfectly fair". We have to be as equally "tough and strong" when we don't get EXCACTLY what we want. Let's not let our emotions overcome the importance of : soldiers in Iraq, the Supreme Court etc,etc...Surely our core beliefs and values haven't changed, have they?

[hillary4me]

We ALL need to get over the crap and have Obama and Clinton on the ticket to win! Just as we first envisioned -- knowing it would be a winner.

[LeftLeanWing]

Did you know that in 2006 that:

Black Men .... 72.1% of White Men's salaries
White Women .........73.5% of White Men's salaries

source:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0882775.html

[NTO08]

Don't even try to prevent comments on Bill being a "complication" in Obama's words...

Bill has so much more skills than Obama ever can bring to the table...Obama is third string, stand in, last in line next to him...get over the notion that Bill is anything complicating for you, Obama...you WILL deal with him on HIS terms, not yours...now, and forever.

[ndnndpendent]

I dont agree with that, Bill Clinton lost the respect of the electorate this past primary season. I think it would be good to bury the hatchet. I noticed with the terminology Jackson used lately and all of this squabbling, its lost that we have to respect Barack Obama and sadly he is being treated as undeserving of the respect he has EARNED by so-called Dem leaders, probably because he is AA. It's the opposite, Bill Clinton has to learn to respect Barack Obama.

[StillIRise]

"... you WILL deal with him on HIS terms, not yours ... now and forever."

Who do you think Bill Clinton is? A King? And who do you think YOU are to voice these demands to Senator Obama? Senator Obama has made it very clear, and rightly so, that he is his own man, and that he will continue to conduct his campaign, to select his VP running mate, and to inevitably lead the country on HIS terms! I am sure that there are many fine Democrats who can and will bring their skills to the table, but it will be President Obama's table they will be sitting at, not President Clinton's. Bill Clinton's presidency is OVER ... now and forever ... and whatever fantasy you have of him serving a third term, under the auspices of a Hillary Clinton presidency or vice presidency, you can give it up. Bill Clinton, as skilled as he is,damaged Senator Clinton's campaign and destroyed her chances of being the VP pick for Senator Obama; and Senator Obama is far too intelligent to allow Bill Clinton to undermine his presidency as well. The best President Clinton can do is to try to redeem and preserve his legacy, and that in itself will take some doing.

[AlindaFaye2000]

President Clinton is not worried about his legacy. He is to busy licking his wounds from being bested by Sen. Obama. He beat the Clintons at their own game. He is acting like a sore loser. Very disappointing.

[Thron]

If this was only half true, Bill should have crushed Obama during the primaries with his own experiences, relationship, advices to Hillary campaign. It's seems that you must be from the same past as Bill, No offense! But must be relevant in that case.
THIS IS TODAY! You can't apply the same tools and the same old method of yesterday in an accelerating world of communication, economical and social network, so inter linked.
And by the time your " now, and forever" comes up, Bill might become a political fossil.
He is the one who shouldn't have stayed in the kitchen in this heated political fire.
THIS IS POLITIC. A game not invented by Obama, but well played.
Can you feel me?

[Thron]

It is sad that Obama must pay to Hillary the price of her final primaries of stubbornness. This is money he really needs. And all this mascaraed, in order to court her old feminine follower, which I must, never the less, respect. Still...hate the political game....

[ClaCo]

Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, what an ugly, unnecessary column. The worst enemies Obama has are people like you who are intent on keeping friction between the Clinton and Obama people. Nothing can be done about the angry Hillary supporters other than be patient and let them work it out, but YOU can stop with the snide and hateful remarks about a great Democrat and a great lady - Hillary Clinton.

It's time you grew up just a little Ms Nuxoll. For heaven's sake!

[Thron]

We want substances rather than bitter factos. You got that right....
I'm feeling you.....

[squarebird]

I'm sorry, but no "great lady" would say something as bigoted and small-minded as "women worry more about whether their children are getting a good education and ... whether a motivated young person has an opportunity to go to college." This hateful view of Fathers has no place in the Democratic Party. It also does not ring true. I find it far more common that it is the father who is willing to push their children harder to make the grades to get in good universities, and also the one who argues for making the financial sacrifice to have their children be in good school districts. I myself not only had a battle royale with my own wife to make a salary-increase related move .. but it is also a common topic in my office of the husbands being more insistent on such moves. The reasons seem to boil down to a natural conservatism of the Mothers to both resist these moves and to resist being hard on their children today in order to make them better people tomorrow. Actually, that willingness to push the children is likely one of the secrets of the overall better success and happiness of children raised with both a Mother and a Father.

[NTO08]

What crap. Every Mother I knew was just as tough on her kids doing well as the Father...and such generalizations are ridiculous...with the notion of traditional nuclear families now hopelessly and thankfully antiquated, such idiotic gender stereotyping is not only pathetic, but tired.

[orangepetal]

interesting perspective....

[donnal]

If BO is so into equal pay... then why does he pay his female staffers less than his male staffers? Once again, says one thing and does another, are you all tired of his flip-flops?

Then help 175 Supers change their vote to Senator Clinton, and she will be our candidate and the next President.

Call Nancy Pelosi (1-202-225-0100) and let her know that we want the Super D's to give their vote and to place Senator Hillary Clinton on the first ballot at the DNC convention.

[Kwaayesnama]

Time to wipe your tears and move on.
The Democratic Party has its nominee.
The Republicans in all their wisdom have theirs.
Now the choice is up to the American people.
Your Lies, bloggs, letters, petitions, threats and tears will not change that.
In November you will have to choose between.
The democratic candidate promising a change from Bush/McCain politics.
Or McCain, who says he is not running on the Bush presidency. But McCain might want to check
his campaign's position papers. In his eternal quest for the Republican nomination, John McCain has adopted virtually the entire Bush agenda, often reversing long held positions and compromising core principles. From Iraq, tax cuts for the wealthy, broken promises on the deficit to opposition to SCHIP, tax credits for health care, overturning Roe v. Wade and a right-wing Supreme Court, without question John McCain represents a third Bush term.
So you could be bitter, or you could work to save this nation.

[morninmist]

answer the question about the women on his staff getting much less pay!!

No change on that deal--just more of the SAME!!---just words, not substance.

[ginamc]

No crying from me. And, no, the Democratic Party does NOT have its nominee. It has its SELECTEE. If you think that losing the popular vote by 800,000 votes and stealing from MI and FL makes BO a winner -- think again.

In the final analysis, the only one crying will be YOU in November, because the MAJORITY of Democrats will NOT be standing behind Obama.

[yhgtup]

How do you know what Obama female staffers make? We DO know that John McCain has voted "NO" to every womens' health issue put before him. We do know that John McCain voted "NO" in requiring insurance companies to pay for prescription birth control pills. AND, we DO KNOW that John McCain is AGAINST Equal Rights/Equal Pay. McCain said "women just need to get more education". You need to be careful what you ask for, considering WHO the alternative is.

[mypov123]

Thank you for setting the record straight on who the REAL sexist is in this election...

[closetodemfection]

Its true. O's female staffers make $6000 less than his male staffers on average. Of the five people who make over $100,000K only one was a woman - his administrative manager.

Sadly, Mc Cane's staff has more women and they make more on average.

O broke with NARAL (who endorsed him) in an interview with a christian magazine.

He tells HRC's core supporters they'll "get over it"

This is how he goes after the women's vote?

[Rosie2]

Where have you been it has been over a long time? Hillary is aware of it and moved on, and it is passed time for you. Nancy Pelosi also knows it's over and has, long before Hillary conceded. She would not be in debt if she had all her "loyal supporters " really supporting her. Hillary is trying to unite the party not divide it as you are.

[NTO08]

You rely on Nancy Pelosi as a standard for knowing when it was over?

[frenchie25]

oops

www.voteboth.com

[frenchie25]

obama-clinton 08

www.voteforboth.com

[wrabbitt]

Support Hillary? She has enough money to bail her self out! She is the one who refused to quit. You played the game, now pay the piper! Bitter works both ways!

[NTO08]

Obamabots, get those wallets out now, or lose!

This is a choice you have no decision in...PAY UP!

[StillIRise]

Are you still shouting out orders?

[itolduso]

I love Hillary, but I think maybe she should have skipped the hairdresser and gone to the gym. Why is she reinforcing the same old tired myth that women have to do more than men & LOOK better doing it?! Two of the most powerful women leaders-Golda Mier & Maggie Thatcher- worked hard on issues that impacted peoples lives and I dare say they didn't waste a lot of time on their frigging hair! That's why they won!

[danaseilhan]

Why are women continually blamed for standards we didn't set and for the consequences of not meeting those standards?

[Bozwellian]

uh, sister to sister...just WHO imposes those "standards" and "itches" about the conseuences when all too often the arbiter who "makes notice" of the issues/standards/etc...We are indeed brutal to EACH OTHER just as often as seemingly comeserating with each other. Frankly, its time women gt OVER IT ALL a bit and face reality, with out US, there would be NO COUNTERPARTS and that should be obvious to all.
As to CLinton on the stump, find her still stumping HER platform/cause more often than FOR OBAMA...she is like assuming that she DOES hold 18million in control, when in fact does not . Find her semi abusive when she plays at "common woman"....she uses issues for HER grandisement and plays it as if for OUR benefit ...Is how they approached the campaign as well, review it....Usage of "invevitble" was intermingled with the copting of FEM VOTES, was to overwhelm...the common folk came after the inevitibility factor proved false when folks were voting/caucussing/etc ...all "strategies" and take a hard look at the "losers" demands for compensation, not just $$ debt, still attempting to dictate what and etc and is repulsive...she ain't doing US any real favors ladies, she is still abusively using as front /excuse/negotiation tool for her own positioning. Sorry, there was a reason for the NO SALE and why unable to finalize it.

[quest44]

Good point ! itolduso .I think you can add Ellenor Rosevelt to that list also !

[punkingale]

The women listed above were all "lightning snaggers". Hillary is an attractive woman. If she had been on the campaign trail without make-up and having her hair done, that's ALL the MSM would have talked about for MONTHS.

[swoosie1]

She says it because it is true. Bottom line--in America, you get stuff when you are a man. You don't get stuff when you are a woman. If you are in business or politics, you have to prove yourself in a way that men never do. This is not Britain or Israel, where women have always been leaders, this is America and we are not enlightened or educated. We are cultural dunces, and we don't respect or value the dignity of labor or how women have earned a place at the table of democracy. Obama is the nominee, not because he is special or interesting, but rather because he is a tall, swaggering man, with youth and good looks running against a sixty-ish woman. People in America don't like old women. Really.

[Bridgeport]

I really wish she is given the chance to be President some day. She is terrfic and the best candidate we have seen in a generation. The boys are just not cutting it.

[Bozwellian]

...many of us did NOT find her as THE girl that actually cut it ....there are definite reasons why she was unable to make the final sale !! Perhaps NOW, perhaps she will do something of value for others, not just pretend to !!!

[NTO08]

WRONG.. The men are a disaster. Both of them...I am going Green with Cynthia McKinney...she takes no prisoners, and doesn't cave to BS like Obama has.

[orangepetal]

You are so ungrateful, at least there are those of us who do recognize and appreciate when people go out of their way to try improve the lives of others.

[clsmithj]

Do we know how many milliions of voters that John Edwards had in 2004, why do people constantly bring up Hillary's numbers? Who cares the primaries are over, we're all in the same boat now, and its time we start acting like it our we're going to lose like we did in 2004 and 2000.

[quest44]

Really I was thinking the same thing myself when I read a post where a Hillary supporter said they better give Hillary the role call of votes she got in Denver or I am not voting in November .
I couldn't help but wonder how often in the past have they given a role call of the runner-ups votes in the primaries ?????? I never heard of it before ! Why do Hillary supporters think that just because she is a woman that it is necessary to show the world just how well she did in the primary ? I am a 63 year old woman and in all my years of elections I have never heard of such nonesense . I just don't get why Hillary supporters are demanding special treatment for her above all candidates who have come before her and that includes the one woman who ran for president before Hillary , Geraldine Fiaro who herself is a Hillary supporter .As a woman I want equal rights not special rights above anyone else !

[NTO08]

Pay up and shut up is the mantra for Obamabots...and better be prepared for Hillary's pumas to rock your world...I will be standing on the sidelines, laughing at the spectacle, as I will not be giving Obama any chance at my vote, nor McCain's.

[orangepetal]

We will vote for Hillary but we will not vote for Obama. We can vote for whoever we want. If we tell you this it is because we are trying to let you know that there are millions of people that want to vote for a democrat but won't. But you do not want to listen. Don't cry later, me, I already cried in June.

[punkingale]

Geraldine Ferrero was the VP on Walter Mondale's ticket, not President.