A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on April 18th, 2008 in Campaign News

My God, I’m about ready to puke. The race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama promised to be historical. But little did any of us realize that the history to be made was a record of inanity. With a nearly two-year campaign, the media could have focused on detailed analysis and voter education. Instead, they’ve gone for sheer stupidity and mind-numbing fluff.

One of the first questions asked in Thursday night’s debate (I think it was the twenty-nineth or so), was if Barack Obama is scared people will be mad at him for saying they are bitter. Well, that question makes me bitter. People are going to be mad at Barack Obama no matter what he does, so he might as well say what he thinks. To the extent his remarks about bitterness causing people to become single-issue voters (which is really the thrust of his remark), how about we ask him why he thinks that is a problem? How about we ask him how he gets beyond that?

There are plenty of places to find laundry-lists of everything that was wrong with that debate. For me, the problem with that debate is that it took two people who were educated at a couple of our best universities and made them sound utterly stupid. From Obama:

Let me just pick up on a couple of things that Senator Clinton said, though, because during the course of the last few days, you know, she’s said I’m elitist, out of touch, condescending. Let me be absolutely clear. It would be pretty hard for me to be condescending towards people of faith, since I’m a person of faith and have done more than most other campaigns in reaching out specifically to people of faith, and have written about how Democrats make an error when they don’t show up and speak directly to people’s faith, because I think we can get those votes, and I have in the past.

As a person of faith myself, it is actually very easy for me to be condescending towards other people of faith. Europe fought a couple hundred years of various wars because people of faith were condescending towards other people of faith. The Crusades? Hello? How about we simply pick to countries in the Middle East at random and compare them - condescension between people of faith is pretty much the norm.

A better statement for Obama would have been: “My faith teaches me not to be condescending towards the faiths of others, even when they disagree with mine.” He could have said, “It is complete condescension to suggest that people do not turn to their faith - do not cling to it - during rough times. For most of us who believe, it is our faith that sustains us during tough times. Mrs. Clinton, herself, has said that she clung to her faith during the darkest hours of her life - are we to believe that she is alone in doing so? God forbid.”

But the stupidity isn’t limited to ABC News. Rebecca Traister related this story in Salon.com:

And yet, as Lossia wrote in a recent e-mail, “I’ve been really bothered by what I perceive as sexism [among some male Obama supporters] and have spent hours defending [Clinton] … A lot of guys just can’t stand Hillary, and it’s the intensity of their irritation with her that disturbs me more than their devotion to Obama.”

This is supposed to be an introduction to some sort of generational awakening to the plight of women in the workplace. What complete nonsense. There are undoubtedly some intellect- and security-challenged men out there that hate Hillary Clinton because she’s a woman. I have trouble believing that there are large numbers of them in the Democratic Party, though - or else, it would seem, there would have been howling over Nancy Pelosi becoming the Speaker of the House.

The fact is that there are a whole lot of people - men and women alike - who just plain don’t like Hillary Clinton. One reason I’ve found it to be easier and easier not to like her is all of the people howling that I must be just another misogynistic man for not liking her. If there’s any truth to that; then it is buried so deeply in my psyche that Sigmund Freud is going to have to mine with dynamite to find it. The fact is that I consider her to be not much different on a policy level than Ronald Reagan and I really don’t want another Reagan Presidency. I happen to be able to defend that statement and have done so elsewhere, but what matters is that it is my opinion and I find it condescending as Hell for anyone to tell me that they know my mind better than I do.

The problem with such lazy writing is that it obscures the real issue. Hillary Clinton really has been subjected to scrutiny that other candidates haven’t - such as the discussion of her cleavage and references I’ve heard in some places about her proclivity for pant-suits (when was the last time any male candidate was asked about those?).

Traist again:

Maggie Merrill, a 31-year-old graduate student in urban studies at the University of New Orleans who works part time at New Orleans City Hall, is a Clinton supporter who told me that she will happily vote for Obama in the general election. But, she said, “There is this Obama-mania, where these young men get glassy eyes and start spitting out vague things about how Barack Obama is going to save humanity. Really, have you seen their eyes? It’s this faraway look. It’s scary.”

Yeah. Because no woman in America has gone ga-ga over Obama. It’s a purely male phenomenon.

Valenti continued, “Because their friends were not being specifically sexist, or saying something that was tangibly misogynistic, they were having a hard time talking about the sexism of it.” Valenti confirmed that this “Feminine Mystique”-y problem that has no name was familiar to her. “I spoke to a guy friend who said, ‘You’re being ridiculous. I’m not not voting for her because she’s a woman; I’m not voting for her because she’s a bitch!’ He could not see the connection between the two things at all.” Valenti said he explained away his comment by declaring, “I mean ‘a bitch’ in the sense that she’s not good on this or that issue.”

George Stephanopoulos should frame this statement in his defense - it shows he isn’t alone in his stupidity. “Bitch”, no matter how you construe it, doesn’t mean “bad on an issue”. It means that he thinks she’s mean. It’s a judgment of her personality. It is hardly a new discovery that people don’t like politicians they think are mean - ask Phil Gramm. But Phil Gramm was never called a bitch. So why not use this as the lead-in for the whole freakin’ article?

“Bitch” is what is said about Clinton, but I heard more than one person call Phil Gramm “a real dick”. Would that be an acceptable substitute for Hillary Clinton? Somehow, I think it would only fuel the fire.

Valenti has vacillated between Obama and Clinton and has not publicly revealed whom she’s supporting. “But if I say something that’s pro-Obama,” she said, “someone will feel it’s OK to say something to me that’s anti-Hillary that I feel is coming from a place that’s totally misogynist. The same thing happens if I say something that’s pro-Hillary; someone will launch into an anti-Hillary diatribe that doesn’t have anything to do with her as a politician. But because it’s not explicit sexism, it makes it impossible to argue with people, because if you say something, then you’re the wackadoo feminist.”

I have news for you: it isn’t sexism. It’s American politics. Protest a statement that “doesn’t have anything to do with her as a politician”? Like “do you think saying people are bitter will cost you votes”? I’m not saying she’s wrong to want to focus on issues, but I haven’t heard Hillary’s side beating the issue drum. It’s been all flag-pins and bitterness and “my grampa taught me to shoot varmints”.

I have to say that I don’t think this is the race that either candidate wanted. It sure isn’t the one I wanted. But it’s the one we’ve gotten.

Technorati Tags: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Rebecca Traister

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