newddle

Those standards must be sexist. posted 06/10/2008 at 23:16:58

Sorry if some of us Obama backers offend, but some of us have wounds of our own to tend. HRC's unending candidacy scared me, and, in fact, I'm holding my breath about what she says tomorrow. Young's article reminds me of some of the scary things that happened, or that she did, in her campaign.
Even more, I was never sure that she was damaging BHO's GE candidacy very much during the primaries, but she and her followers have really been damaging it with her failure to shut down VP talk immediately. And with the insistence that if she's not VP cand, her backers won't support him in the GE.
How do we reach out to each other?
Is this the time to reach out to each other or do we need a bit more private time to heal first? posted 06/06/2008 at 11:22:28

As a 70 year-old white male, I'm glad that this conversation about sexism seems to be moving along. I started favoring Clinton, although I remembered her secretive handling of health care reform, which made me wonder whether she had learned to be more transparent. On the day of the Illinois primary, between our back door and the voting station, I decided that I had a bit more trust in Obama than in her, so I violated my wife's instructions (LOL) and voted O.
I used to say I'm not racist, but I've learned better, so I won't say that I'm not sexist, but I'm having trouble seeing sexism in my support for Obama and my opposition to Clinton. I'm looking forward to discussions about sexism here and elsewhere that clarify the issue.
I won't pretend to understand why HRC and surrogates point to sexism as A or THE major cause of her primary defeat. I do understand that when I've failed at something, the hardest place for me to look for reasons for my failure is in the mirror. It's far easier to wrap myself in explanations like "X provoked me" or "the system was rigged against me." It's also oddly comforting.
I hope that, little by little, we're able to
1. distinguish the systemic and cultural factors from the personal and organizational factors that influenced these elections, and
2. get a good-enough estimate of how much weight to give each of these factors. posted 06/06/2008 at 13:05:24

Not a day passes that I don't thank heaven for Hillary's lapses and for Obama's careful reading of the rules for nominating a Democratic candidate for the office of president. posted 06/05/2008 at 23:43:43

Sour grapes bc it didn't work for HRC, who expected it to be over on Super Tuesday, huh? posted 06/05/2008 at 17:20:28

Venting and sorting out our thoughts IS part of moving on. Posts like yours are efforts to control an uncontrollable process. Maybe you should read Hillary blogs for a while so that your system isn't taxed by other humans being human. posted 06/05/2008 at 11:48:38

Rahm Emmanuel said whether the winner wins in the fall depends on how the loser loses. posted 06/05/2008 at 11:22:40

Ms. Jong, may you live long enough to see a woman in the oval office. Me, too.
As a 70 yr old white male, I think we really do need to discuss sexism. For starters, I need examples of what is and what isn't sexism. Two examples are clear to me:
1) women tell a man who is calling on Clinton's behalf that public office is not a woman's place (post in J Martin's blog, "Fiorina: Hillary was a Victim of Sexism," Politico, June 2, 2008),
2) people say "a female president, but not this female."

A possible example: refusal to discuss rationales for rejecting a candidate

What else counts as sexism? It doesn't matter whether I agree that it's sexism, I just need to see what you consider sexist. Bill Clinton's comment about Jesse Jackson's performance in S Car was, IMHO, racist without taking responsibility for the racism. In gender discourse, how do people say things that parallel Clinton's?

What tipped the scale for me against Mrs. Clinton? I decided between our house and the polling station to vote for Obama. I was beginning to consider Ms. Clinton less trustworthy than I wanted a Dem nomineee for pres to be. She said things as if they were true, but we could check them. posted 06/04/2008 at 15:19:33