Hillary

At a recent local event, I spoke with two supporters of Hillary Clinton's just-fell-short Presidential campaign (both middle-aged women whom I greatly respect). OK, 'spoke' isn't the right word - as a supporter of Barack Obama, my role in the conversation was more along the lines of 'punching bag'. To say that they were unhappy misses the full flavor of their anger and perhaps even bitterness. While I had intellectually understood the meaning of Hillary's campaign to many women, the full import had not hit home until that mostly one-sided exchange.

Obama has his work cut out to win their support, although I expect he will get it in the end.

Clinton's campaign especially resonated with to women old enough to have lived through the great advances in gender politics over the past four decades and smart enough to see that the glass ceiling hasn't been completely removed. As you can see by watching some of campaign retrospectives, blatant, crude sexism is still considered acceptable at America's largest television news outlets. National talking heads referred to Clinton -without being reprimanded - as 'rhymes-with-witch', a she-devil, the nagging wife, ball-busting, overemotional, and on and on.

While the GOP will no doubt launch slimy attacks on Obama, it's doubtful they will call him 'rhymes-with-Tigger'. But I could be wrong on just how low they will go.

I should point out that these women recognized Clinton made enough of her own mistakes to lose the race on merit. But talking about the campaign without acknowledging the sexism she faced would be dishonest whether that was why she lost or not.

The sense of loss among Hillary's most ardent supporters was no doubt heightened by the one-time seeming inevitability of her nomination and election. (See this story from November 2007: Clinton Sustains Huge Lead in Democratic Nomination Race). Losing something that you so cherished for so long and that appeared to be in the bag - well, it hurts.

Take a look at Katha Pollitt's column in this week's Nation (The Nation Unconventional Wisdom Since 1865) for a better explanation of the meaning of Clinton's campaign. Iron My Skirt Here's an excerpt:

Love her or loathe her, the big story here is Americans saw a woman who was a serious, popular, major-party candidate. Clinton showed herself to be tough, tireless, supersmart and definitely ready to lead on that famous Day One. She raised a ton of money and won 17.5 million votes from men and women....Once the bitterness of the present moment has faded, that's what people will remember. Because she normalized the concept of a woman running for President, she made it easier for women to run for every office, including the White House. That is one reason women and men of every party and candidate preference, and every ethnicity too, owe Hillary Clinton a standing ovation, even if they can't stand her.

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She could begin by pointing out that Obama is pro-woman and prochoice and as President will pursue policies to benefit all women--on labor, healthcare, sexual violence and many other issues. She could tell her supporters a vote for McCain is crazy. She could even tell them that a biracial man in the White House will make it easier for voters to imagine other nontraditional kinds of Presidents--like the next woman who decides to run.

Whoever that woman is, though, she'd better have the hide of a rhinoceros.

Or check out this piece byJessica Wakeman of the Huffington Post. On Sexist Media Coverage of Hillary Clinton Election 2008 AlterNet


And now, let's get on with electing Barack Obama President of the United States. Welcome to Obama for America