Readers of this blog know that I’m a huge supporter of Hillary Clinton. I like her a lot. She invented smart. She keeps getting back up from the shitty things that life hands her and somehow goes on with a generous spirit bent on doing good. She digs down into the details and really learns what’s going on. She gave a world-changing speech equating women’s rights with human rights. She’s got great ideas about how to fix our energy mess and she’s always been a huge promoter of women. Whatever happens tomorrow, or at the Democratic convention, or in November, we haven’t seen the last of Hillary Clinton. She’s blazed a trail for future women to follow and she’s done it with grace and humor and strength.
I have been accused of everything from willful stupidity to “vaginal solidarity” over these last weeks. It’s insulting and demeaning, and intended to be so, as much as major opinion pieces on how dumb girls are and how Hillary should just climb on the Obandwagon.
Indeed, it seems that Senator Obama will be the candidate, not because of (or in spite of) my vagina, but because of his ground game. I respect that. But I also ask respect for my position, for my experiences. Win with grace, not with sneers at old ladies who have repeatedly been told that it wasn’t their turn yet, only to be told that sorry, their turn has passed by. That’s about as alienating as you can get. I don’t think his followers are shallow—at least not most of them—but many are rudely dismissive and do not seem to know whose framing they’re adopting.
I for one do not believe it’s a foregone conclusion that Hillary will be out of the race after tonight. But I also do not believe that if she is, it’ll be just dandy for all concerned the following day. Shit, I needed a week just to get over my HANGOVER when Kerry lost; it’s been four years later and still, I’m bitter and defensive about it. I make light of it a lot, I make jokes about him being the ex who won’t leave me alone, but honestly, there’s still a bruise there, gets hit now and again, four years later, because I took it seriously. That’s what we do here, a lot, we take these things deeply and personally and seriously. If we thought politics was a big ironic joke we’d all be working for Time magazine and doing Maher and laughing at our own biting wit, and going home at night secure in our belief that our world would never change, just the players in it. This is more than that to all of us.
It’s no secret that I, unlike the two women whose writing I quote above, had serious doubts about Hillary as president. I thought she was too conservative; then again, for me, who in the race isn’t? My preferences, after Dodd dropped out, came down more to tactics than platform; I liked the strength of Obama’s ground game and the national party implications of his organization’s red state strategy. I didn’t think I’d like Hillary more as the campaign went on; thought I’d be sick of her by the end of it, thought I’d be glad to see her go. If she does go, though, I won’t be glad to see it. I’ll be disappointed. I’ve enjoyed, more than I thought I would, hearing her voice on a regular basis telling me what she thought. I’ll miss that, if it goes away. And I’ll be glad that she made the run she did, when she did. I’ll be glad she fought a fight she thought needed fighting. I’ll be glad to have learned from her. And I’ll be grateful.
A.
I have been surprised & saddened by the vitriol I recently discovered concerning this race for the nomination. Sen. Clinton’s supporters seem to really “hate” Obama, & I do not use that term loosely. I certainly had my problems with him,re: his vote for Rice, among other things, but I sure didn’t see him as the antichrist. I agree with you that she is way too conservative for my tastes, plus there are probably going to be all those holdovers from Pres. Clinton’s time. I don’t need any more ReThug lite. If she gets the nomination I’ll probably vote for her, like I voted for Sen. Kohl. However, had the pencil broken in the voting booth when it came time to fill in his circle, I might just have folded the ballot, dropped it in the box, & told the ladies (yes, they were/are ladies who do the voting day stuff up here in northern Wisco) that I broke the pencil.
I have admired Senator Clinton for several years, and I continue to do so. I even donated to her PAC a few years ago. But, it is time to move on to a new generation of leaders. She may fool us and win both Texas and Ohio today, and these “obituaries” will be premature, but I doubt it.
I think she will remain an effective senator for New York. I hope she learned from the Iraq invasion vote, so she can be a more effective national leader in the senate.
Please, you people act like nobody has been rudely dismissive of OBama. you act like Clinton’s supporters have been nothing but passive in this process. Like they haven’t tried to tar OBama with everything they could find, and didn’t make shit up when they never found anything.
We’ve had to listen to Taylor Marsh simply make shit up in regards to Obama, from the songs he played at his victory rallies to the things he’s said on the stump. We’ve had to put with the obvious racism of Big Tent Democrat, constantly screaming that Obama is the ‘black’ candidate and that black voters don’t count. We’ve had Garance Frank Ruta declare that anyone who doesn’t vote for Clinton only refuses to do so out of sexism. We’ve heard plenty of Clinton supporters build up John McCain and declare that they would rather vote for him than Clinton.
That’s not even touching the things the Clinton campaign has done itself. I’m a little sick of Clinton supporters attacking Obama at every step and then complaining when Obama’s supporters fight back.
Uh, Soullite, you do realize that A was just quoting Molly and Hecate? And that nobody on this site (to my recollection) has attacked Obama, at the very least not at the level that I’ve seen on other blogs?
I don’t argue the point that there has been vitriol–on both sides. People have gotten passionate about this race, which is, in a weird way, reassuring. There were times in the not-too-distant past when all you’d have gotten out of a comment about a Democratic presidential candidate was “feh.”
I’m with A–I like Obama not necessarily because of his policy positions (he seems a bit too careful for my tastes) but because he looks like one hell of an adept campaigner. Good ground game, smart debating, good use of advertising, and some very good responses to attacks (both from the Clinton camp and the McCain camp).
But I won’t be celebrating when one of these two drops out of the race. I’m glad they were both in it. And I say this as one who was originally a strong Edwards supporter.
I WILL be celebrating when one of these two drops out of the race, because the sooner that happens, the sooner we can all turn our attentions to defeating McCain.
not with sneers at old ladies who have repeatedly been told that it wasn’t their turn yet, only to be told that sorry, their turn has passed by.
A., thank you for quoting that. I hear from women in their 20s all the time about how they don’t want to be branded as capital-F Feminists (TM). I’m in my 40s but pass for my early 30s, so people assume I’m younger and can’t quite understand why I’m so adamant. Wait until they’ve been told, “You’re not ready…you’re not ready…oh, it’s too late, would you go stuff some envelopes over there, please?”–and see how radical they become like us old broads.
I feel these ladies. I am still mourning a bit for Edwards.
sadly, hillary is a thatcher woman. and she is running the campaign of yesterday. obama is running in the 21st century. that place georgie was too scared of.
let’s have a do-over. clinton isn’t a do-over.
this ‘minority’ vs ‘minority’ is not good. poor sheeple don’t know how to vote!
Just read your prevous post, A. I owe you this: I know plenty of very cool women in their 20s who work not only for feminism, but overall social justice in their daily lives. They may not always use the word the same way, but they walk the talk. I just wish more would own any brand of feminism that doesn’t include a stripper’s pole instead of pretending the F-word is icky.
I’m closer in experience to Gen X than boomers, but I lived in a world controlled more by boomers’ action than the actions of the people who came after them. And let me tell you that boomers are just as freakin’ sexist as anyone else. In fact, whenever I’ve had a “go stuff some envelopes” kind of experience, it’s been at the hands of a boomer.
I wonder who else thinks that Hilary Clinton was being “rudely dismissive” of Barack Obama when she said, yesterday, that John McCain was more qualified to be president than Obama? Go look up her actual comments. They’re much sleazier than my paraphrase.
Her remarks have been beyond ugly. I’m not talking about surrogates, but what’s actually come out of her yap. She does us all great damage by endorsing John McCain over Barack Obama. In fact, her remarks sounded like if she lost the nomination to Obama that she would not endorse his candidacy. That puts her squarely in Zell Miller/Joe Lieberman territory. Hell, even an egomaniac like Mitt Romney was able to accept that there were some voters who didn’t want him, and he was able to endorse the person who had gotten more votes than him for the good of his party.
If she wants to be a “first”, she’s going to have to temper her tendency to act like a caricature of herself. No matter how much you think she’s a good candidate, and would make a good president, she’s decided to put herself above her party and her country. I’m about done with her. Fortunately, since I don’t live in New York, I won’t have to struggle with my disgust when she comes up for re-election to her senate seat. I’m not sure how I’d vote. Back when she announced her candidacy, I was hesistant to support her just because I expected that when push came to shove, she’d behave exactly as she’s been behaving – badly.
I’m a huge supporter of Obama, but I’ve always been an admirer of Clinton, and I had no qualms about either of them being the nominee. Hillary is one of my personal heroes, and I still see her as an elder of the party, an example of strength under extreme pressure, and a leading advocate for civil rights. She is an amazing woman, and I wish nothing more than to see her go on to bigger and better things.
But I saw in 2004 a man who foresaw the kind of country I want the United States to be, in a way that know one on the national stage has in my lifetime. I’m 28. I didn’t live through the 60s. Throughout my lifetime, I’ve lived in an America that looked upon me and my like with scorn, always feeling that the America I beleived and had read about was nothing but a dream. I want to feel that. I want to live through that. I want us all to be on the same side again.
What Emma Anne said.