Palin-Bashing and Hillary-Bashing: The Same Thing?

The explosion of Palin-bashing (and yes, it's bashing, justified or not) across the political spectrum reminds me of a campaign that happened a lifetime ago. Back then, Hillary Clinton reprised her role as the political world's favorite target. Attacking her was elevated to an art form; participants of all stripes joined in. It was the pinnacle of bipartisanship; right and left hammering away at her in an all-out assault that ultimately cost her the nomination.

I don't want to rehash whether or not any of it was warranted -- I'm more interested in another angle that's been completely overlooked in the torrent of punditocracy about Palin's resignation.

It's that Sarah Palin, like Hillary Clinton, is a person, a human being, a mom, a wife, a daughter, once a little girl.

Vulnerable, like all of us.

Self-centered, like all of us.

Fragile, like all of us.

Opinionated, like all of us.

Defensive, like all of us.

Deceptive, like all of us.

Lost, like all of us.

And totally wrong on the issues as far as I'm concerned.

Unlike Clinton, Palin didn't have time to develop the layers of thick skin required to handle the withering glare of the national celeb/politico spotlight, a glare that for some reason shines much more harshly on women like Palin and Clinton.

For three years I lived the gulf between Hillary Clinton's image as an inhuman, Borg-like ambition-machine eager to destroy or assimilate everything in her path and the all-too-human, funny, considerate person her friends have the privilege of knowing. When a reporter implied that Hillary Clinton was 'pimping' her daughter, Hillary's private reaction was as emotional as any mother's would be -- it was a stark illustration (and there were many) of the chasm between the public image and the private person.

With Palin, we should also keep the public/private distinction in mind.

Patrick Hynes, my co-blogger at CTN, is chronicling some of the more offensive remarks about Palin. All I ask of my fellow Democrats and progressives is that no matter how wrong-headed Palin's policies, no matter how inconsistent her rationale for stepping down, and no matter how muddled her infamous press conference, we remember that she is the rare public figure who for some reason attracts infinite interest and attention, much of it negative.

Granted, you ask for scrutiny when you enter public service, but not this much, not so quickly. She may not have Hillary Clinton's character or experience to cope with the spotlight, but even if she did, it behooves us to avoid outright viciousness and mockery on a level that few of us could handle.

Follow Peter Daou on Twitter: www.twitter.com/peterdaou

Comments

[bowseat93]

If folks are still following this post, they should check out what Laura Clawson has to say over on Daily Kos. Money paragraph:

----
Why did he select [Palin] as his running mate, despite having barely spoken to her and not having vetted her? Because she was a woman. ... That's where the real and massive sexism in how Palin has been treated lies, and while she was certainly affected by it, the real victims are women who have worked hard to get somewhere in politics, and women voters who were assumed by a major party presidential nominee to be stupid enough to vote for a woman without consideration of her positions.
----

Read the rest: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/12/751482/-Unqualified-By-Design

[Janet Barnes]

Palin got it much worse, especially from woman...and simply because she was very good looking compared to Hillary.

Women get very jealous of beautiful women.

[erp65]

Were Peter Daou & David Sirota separated at birth?

[samjer]

Hillary has always been bashed for doing what was good for the public. It made the republicans look bad so they bashed the messenger. The "progressive media" on the other hand would say and do anything to raise thier candidate up, to the detriment of thier own party. How many times did we see her words twisted and shaped to look as if she was a racist monster, or even worse someone who wanted Obama assasinated (RFK quote taken out of context). Ive always been a dem but Ive never seen the likes of this campaign. Palin on lthe other hand only had her toes in the water when she got bit. Hillarys been doing this for 20 some years and keeps truging along even though the constant bashing would have brought most men to thier knees. Thats why I think most people really admire Hillary for sticking it out even when things got tough. Something Palin cant or wont do.

[2Bfair]

poor poor Hillary, she is such the eternal victim ... of Bill, the press, evil men everywhere, the vast right wing conspiracy, so qualified to lead the nation and the world.

[jhamm1]

"Hillary has always been bashed for doing what was good for the public. "

I presume you're referring to such "good" as scre;wing up her own healthcare plan with an all-or-nothing attitude which alienated her own allies and thus doomed the bill from the start, or opposing international landmine treaties, authorizing a needless war which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of american soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, giving Bush all but a freehand in what almost manifested as an invasion of Iran, threatening to oblierate 70 million people, favoring bills that would enable the US to disregard any and all directives from the UN, and similar acts of "good" which once again certify the average HIllary supprter as prone to seeing only what they want to see.

[samjer]

As for health care reform that Hillary did, obviously was 20 years ahead of her time and kept the repubs at a distance because of what they are doing now with health care. They dont want it and they will stop at nothing to make sure it doesnt pass.Obama figured that out and is now thinking he wants to do health care just with the Dems because of the repubs defending of the insurance companies. If her health plan did pass, there would be alot more people with health care and a lot less who were bankrupt because of it. As for Iran, she was right again. Obviously Obama is rethinking his "Lets have tea with dictators" speeches. Her Obliterate Iran was in responce to Iran bombing Israel. Something that Iran was thinking about and stating it often that they (Israel)should be wiped off the map. The IRG was also sending weapons and IEDs into Iraq to kill American soldiers and her responce was to declare the Republican Guard a terrorist group and stoped the flow of weapons(right again) As to the Invasion of Iraq, she and the other dem senators were lied to by the pres and vice prez and 3/4 of them voted for the war. So dont get all high and mighty with the facts like most Obama supporters do and dont do the homework behind it. Please try harder next time to puff up Obama instead of bashing Hillary.

[becky16]

On the level of admiring her as a woman im a Palin fan, but please, even Hillary would cringe at any comparisons made between them both.

[NYC]

Here here! A lot of the most vicious comments I hear come from women! I especially love, though, how now the pundits try to compare what Palin is going through to Hillary's bashing, but while Hillary was bashed they either joined in or stayed silent. What a joke.

[2Bfair]

I can only speculate, but one reason women might resent Hillary is she has built a "career" on being Mrs. Bill Clinton. There are so many more accomplished women who have made a career on hard work and merit, do they really admire Hillary? Why don't women back one of them for president instead of Bill's wife?

[lbicomber]

She's been named the most admired woman in America for 7 years in a row, so I guess your theory is all wrong.

Of course, most men (even Republicans) approve of her, too.

Heh, heh, heh.

[JustMyWords]

Actually, Hillary had quite a successful career as an attorney, a career that she left for the sake of her husband's career. Since then, she has been elected to the Senate in her own right, and has made a new career for herself.

Her accomplishments are hardly nothing more than being "Bill's wife."

[mrsgm]

As much as I hate the fact that us ladies have to be ten times better...at everything, to be respected, I must say that I would not trade in the last of the sexism just yet. As horrible as it is when they show their true colors as in calling Palin a slutty looking flight attendant, what are us girls going to do when we get so equal that the guys stop noticing that we are girls? I know it probably sounds horrible but I know a lot of men who don't know what they are there for and so feel as if their wives are unapproachable. They often fight with their ambitious wives about sex, when the truth is that the wives are becoming so like the ambitious men they work with, that their husbands are becoming less attracted to them.

[Hemihead]

Oh, I don't think ANYONE with eyes wouldn't notice that Palin is a girl, and an attractive one that actually wears dresses and skirts.

[norgotoad]

Sara Palin (multi-college dropout to finally get a BA in Journalism -- which requires a THE IQ of a walking brain stem) the wolf shootin' from a helicopter, Bible totin', godzilla from Wasilla Versus
Hillary Clinton (Honors at Wellesley and law degree from Yale). AND THESE TWO ARE EQUALLY qualified to be VP or president? WTF? NOW THAT IS SEXISM!!

BTW : And when was the last time the right wing, conservative, neo-con, Republican media EVER had second thoughts on bashing Hillary??? It takes no courage or talent to lay down first and get up last. Liberally minded folks have been laying down for the past 30+ years with such wonderful results (12 years of Reagan/Bush, no national single payer health care, 8 years of BushII, we are now a torture state, 9-11 cover-up, Iraq war without end for oil, worse recession since Great Depression, Katrina, destruction of rule of law, and I'm just getting warmed up). Yeah, that's worked out soooo well. And you want Liberals to lay down some more?? I have some choice suggestions for ya on that one.

[wavydavy]

Oh, please. What a load of rubbish.

First of all, your list of things ending "like all of us" is just ludicrous. No, NOT all of us are like Sarah Palin and the world is a much better place because of that. Just think how ugly the world would be if there were more Sarah Palins in it. As Bob Dylan put it:

Now anybody can be just like me
Obviously
But then again
Not to many can be like you
Fortunately

Second, and more importantly, this women claims to have the skills, experience, etc. to run the most powerful country in the world. For what possible reason should we NOT examine her record? And as far as bringing her family into the discussion, that is entirely on her. She dragged them on stage at the convention, she made Bristol a spokesperson for "abstinence only" (how's that working out?), she's the one going on incessantly about Trig and all the wonderful things she's doing for him (you know, like taking a 22-hour flight after her water broke and she told nobody about it).

The more bad things that come out about Palin, and the more that makes it unlikely for her to ever hold public office again, the better for the entire world.

[roshni]

Agree

[DoTheMath]

Any comments focused on behavior or characteristics related to Palin's qualifications for the position she sought (VP) or the position she held (governor) were not only justified but required. At a minimum, her judgment, grasp of the issues, and reasoning ability were fair game. Her performance in those areas attracted plenty of well-deserved criticism.

Of course, some people make unwarranted, unsubstantiated, irrelevant comments. That happens to varying degrees to most very prominent public figures, especially in politics, which many see as a game to be won by knocking down the opponent by any means necessary. It's in poor taste. It's unfortunate. However, we should not conflate those over-the-line taunts with the well-justified and necessary flood of objections to the elevation of such an incoherent, under-informed, irresponsible, rabble-rousing anti-feminist to such a high position in our government.

[larmar]

Brittany Spears and Sara Palin both can draw crowd and the majority of voters wouldn't vote for either one for exactly the same reason.

The sad part is the contempt Republican string pullers must have of the masses, to even consider Sara Palin as a contender for the National Stage.

I for one think Americans are far more savvy then Republicans would give them credit.

[tj101]

Hillary attended and graduated from Wellesley with a BA and Departmental Honors in Political Science. She attended Yale Law School, served on the editorial board of the Yale Law Review and Social Action, the list goes on.

Hillary had the brains, drive and desire from the beginning of her college career.

Palin, on the other hand took 5 years and six different colleges to attain her degree in Journalism as her dream job was to work on ESPN.

You betcha Palin deserves extra scrutiny when the GOP announced her as VP candidate.

[2Bfair]

tj101, your post illustrates why Hillary is not trusted by so many. She and followers always try to portray her as somethig she is not.

You state as evidence of her intellectual accomplisments that she served on the editorial board of the "Yale Law Review and Social Action." Why is that significant?

It was cited during the campaign to offset the fact that Obama was President of the Harvard Law Review, arguably the most prestigious in the nation, elected by its 80 editors, and a major statement about his accomplisments as a law student and a leader among leaders.
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/06/us/first-black-elected-to-head-harvard-s-law-review.html

The intended distortion in your post, and Hillary's bio is that she served on the editorial board of a prestigious law review also. However,Yale Review of Law and Social Action was a fly-by-night student publication produced at Yale 12 times between 1970 and 1973. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_Review_of_Law_and_Social_Action

The Yale equivalent of the Harvard Law Review is the Yale Law Journal . Unless I am badly misaken Hillary Rodham was not one of the 80 or so members of tis editorial board. right?

That would have been a true distinction worthy of her resume, not just padding intended to mislead, like bullets in Bosnia, peace in Northern Ireland, being named for Sir Edmund Hillary. Depends on what your definition of honesty is?

[samjer]

Would it have been sooo prestigious if it were from Stanford law or is it soooo prestigious because "HE, THE LEADER OF LEADERS" went there? Sounds like your trying to pad his resume because politicaly it was kinda thin.

[bowseat93]

Boy, they should put a link to this post in the dictionary under "law of unintended consequences." Or maybe in a discussion of implication vs inference. 800 comments on HuffPo? And only 5 on Daou's own site?

In his response to one of my earlier comments, Daou wonders that so many commenters thought he was equating Palin to Clinton. He says what he was saying was "both receive intense, uncommon scrutiny and that attackers on either side should remember that they are both human beings."

Well, yeah. Boy, sure would be nice if all of our discourse was so polite, and that members of both sides remembered that candidates were sons, daughters, spouses, parents, etc. I'd love that world! But I don't see this happening any time soon, which is why this plaintive plea for courtesy (or at least the way it was presented) just doesn't ring true ... to me anyways. And it seems, to me, to paint Hillary unfairly in the comparison, however it was intended. But that's just me.

Like I've said, there may well be a place for a discussion of viciousness and mockery and sexism in the media and the blogosphere. But to paraphrase Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, making that point by what seems (damn that inference!) to be nursing your old Clinton wounds? Big mistake. Big. Really big. Seems a lot of us here on HuffPo have our own wounds we're nursing.

[LemonMeringue]

Clinton earned her way by being smart and hard-working.

Palin snuck in some other way.

[roshni]

Agree.

[barackobama4prez]

The same thing? Hardly. The two women are different in soooo many ways.

[everyman1973]

Last year the liberal media and the democratic left did a very good job of undercutting two capable ladies when they dared challenge the desiginated candidate for president. Only a bunch of liberal democrats could get away with mistreating these women they way they did. My wife and many other women will remember this in future elections.

[mrsgm]

It wasn't just the "liberal" media. Did you never hear Rush's comments about Hillary Clinton? I don't think he wants to be her friend. I understand the mistake though. It must be hard to get a full picture when your news programs are constantly telling you everyone else is wrong. Man, the conservatives are geniuses at making money!!!

[clevelandchick]

Bull. The "liberal" media painted Hillary as the inevitable candidate and Obama as the underdog without a chance until he won Iowa.

Hillary didn't lose because of the "sexist" media, her campaign alienated a lot of people that would have been prone to support her.

[roshni]

Nonsense. McCain and Rush were vicious to HRC.