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Know It All
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 6,594
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ericgtr
What specifically did Obama do to promote or condone sexism? Please don't say "ran for president" I mean he has ran a pretty damned clean campaign all in all and never once did or said anything to that extent.
With that in mind what exactly does he owe the women who feel slighted by his winning? I mean he's said some pretty nice things about her and is now asking donors to help her pay off her debt. I understand you are frustrated but this "we owe you something because you lost attitude" doesn't seem too fair.
Yes, he has lost the support of some women and he will also never get votes from those who are racist. Some things you just can't help.
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Where did I say anything about Obama promoting those things? I didn't. I'm talking about ON THIS WEBSITE and in the media. And I don't think women feel slighted by Obama. I think they feel slighted by the media, and the loud mouths on the web, but they are TRYING to put that aside and not let what Obama supporters do affect their opinion of him. That would be easier if his supporters would actually stop doing it though.
Nice twist and spin though. 
Quote:
Hillary Clinton's legacy to the women of the world
There no longer will be anything abnormal about women running for the top jobs
JANET BAGNALL
The Gazette
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Hillary Clinton's concession speech, delivered Saturday at the National Building Museum in Washington, couldn't come fast enough for all the male commentators who had been urging her to quit the race for months. Lady Macbeth to the bitter end was how they described her, a narcissist trying desperately, and pathetically, to cling to the spotlight.
Her 17.5 million voters didn't see it that way: The men and women who supported her throughout the most exciting and galvanizing nomination campaign the U.S. had seen in decades weren't in a rush for Clinton to say it was all over.
The public, far more generous than the pundits, were willing to let her have her final moment in a history-making campaign. This was the first time in the U.S.'s more than 200-year existence a woman nearly pulled off winning the presidential nomination for a major party. It was a moment worth savouring - unless the very idea gave you the vapours.
Clinton's loss is not a setback for women in politics or in any other public sphere. By hanging in, by never giving up, by toughing out every obstacle in her way, including the substantial ones she put there herself, she made it easier for other women.
When people think of female candidates now, they'll have an image in mind: A serious-minded, well-prepared woman who wears trouser suits and doesn't always say or do the right thing.
The mystery around how a female president might look or behave is gone. The idea of a woman running for president of the United States, to become de- facto leader of the Western world, is no longer an historic aberration, best buried and forgotten.
A woman ambitious and confident enough to go for the highest seat of power in the world is no longer a bizarre departure that was so hotly denounced by commentators from Rush Limbaugh to National Public Radio's Ken Rudin.
Her concession speech last weekend was worth the wait: "I know there are barriers and biases out there, often unconscious," she said. "You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the president of the United States. And that is truly remarkable."
As her supporters called out their approval, she continued, "To those who are disappointed that we couldn't go all the way - especially the young people who put so much into this campaign, it would break my heart if, in falling short of my goal, I in any way discouraged any of you from pursuing yours."
She added, "We weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it's got about 18 million cracks in it. And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time."
That path should be easier next time - if only because the next woman who comes along to contest a presidential nomination will be prepared for the sexism that pervades some political commentary.
For those who doubt that mainstream media commentators make outrageously sexist remarks on the air as though they were the most banal thing imaginable, the Media Women's Centre, a U.S. women's rights organization, has put together a video clip at: YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. watch ?v=g-IrhRSwF9U&eurl= http://www.salon.com/mwt/bro
On the video are some of the moments that prompted Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, to say recently to the New York Times, "The wounds of sexism need to be the subject of a national discussion ... Many of the most prominent people on TV behaved like middle schoolers" toward Clinton.
It took a long time and a lot of hateful commentary for Dean to react to the sexism Clinton's candidacy unleashed. To his party's shame, he still stands pretty much alone in his condemnation of it.
A lot of ideas filter across our border with the U.S. With luck, one of them will be that there is no longer anything abnormal about women running for highest office. Whatever strategic or other mistakes Clinton might have made, hers is an extraordinary legacy to the women of the world.
Hillary Clinton's legacy to the women of the world
There no longer will be anything abnormal about women running for the top jobs
JANET BAGNALL
The Gazette
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Hillary Clinton's concession speech, delivered Saturday at the National Building Museum in Washington, couldn't come fast enough for all the male commentators who had been urging her to quit the race for months. Lady Macbeth to the bitter end was how they described her, a narcissist trying desperately, and pathetically, to cling to the spotlight.
Her 17.5 million voters didn't see it that way: The men and women who supported her throughout the most exciting and galvanizing nomination campaign the U.S. had seen in decades weren't in a rush for Clinton to say it was all over.
The public, far more generous than the pundits, were willing to let her have her final moment in a history-making campaign. This was the first time in the U.S.'s more than 200-year existence a woman nearly pulled off winning the presidential nomination for a major party. It was a moment worth savouring - unless the very idea gave you the vapours.
Clinton's loss is not a setback for women in politics or in any other public sphere. By hanging in, by never giving up, by toughing out every obstacle in her way, including the substantial ones she put there herself, she made it easier for other women.
When people think of female candidates now, they'll have an image in mind: A serious-minded, well-prepared woman who wears trouser suits and doesn't always say or do the right thing.
The mystery around how a female president might look or behave is gone. The idea of a woman running for president of the United States, to become de- facto leader of the Western world, is no longer an historic aberration, best buried and forgotten.
A woman ambitious and confident enough to go for the highest seat of power in the world is no longer a bizarre departure that was so hotly denounced by commentators from Rush Limbaugh to National Public Radio's Ken Rudin.
Her concession speech last weekend was worth the wait: "I know there are barriers and biases out there, often unconscious," she said. "You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the president of the United States. And that is truly remarkable."
As her supporters called out their approval, she continued, "To those who are disappointed that we couldn't go all the way - especially the young people who put so much into this campaign, it would break my heart if, in falling short of my goal, I in any way discouraged any of you from pursuing yours."
She added, "We weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it's got about 18 million cracks in it. And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time."
That path should be easier next time - if only because the next woman who comes along to contest a presidential nomination will be prepared for the sexism that pervades some political commentary.
For those who doubt that mainstream media commentators make outrageously sexist remarks on the air as though they were the most banal thing imaginable, the Media Women's Centre, a U.S. women's rights organization, has put together a video clip at: YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. watch ?v=g-IrhRSwF9U&eurl= http://www.salon.com/mwt/bro
On the video are some of the moments that prompted Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, to say recently to the New York Times, "The wounds of sexism need to be the subject of a national discussion ... Many of the most prominent people on TV behaved like middle schoolers" toward Clinton.
It took a long time and a lot of hateful commentary for Dean to react to the sexism Clinton's candidacy unleashed. To his party's shame, he still stands pretty much alone in his condemnation of it.
A lot of ideas filter across our border with the U.S. With luck, one of them will be that there is no longer anything abnormal about women running for highest office. Whatever strategic or other mistakes Clinton might have made, hers is an extraordinary legacy to the women of the world.
Hillary Clinton's legacy to the women of the world
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Last edited by Teri B.; 06-25-2008 at 12:23 PM.
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