Bitter, much?
The Washington Post columnist Marie Cocco shares the aftertaste some feminists (though not, apparently, Naral) are feeling about Hillary Clinton’s all-but-failed presidential bid (John Edwards turned up at the end of the party to turn out the lights; roundup of effects from the blogger who had the scoop hours early), including this choice tidbit:
I will not miss walking past airport concessions selling the Hillary Nutcracker, a device in which a pantsuit-clad Clinton doll opens her legs to reveal stainless-steel thighs that, well, bust nuts. I won’t miss television and newspaper stories that make light of the novelty item….
I won’t miss Citizens United Not Timid (no acronym, please), an anti-Clinton group founded by Republican guru Roger Stone.
Political discourse will at last be free of jokes like this one, told last week by magician Penn Jillette on MSNBC: “Obama did great in February, and that’s because that was Black History Month. And now Hillary’s doing much better ’cause it’s White Bitch Month, right?” Co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski rebuked Jillette.
I won’t miss political commentators (including National Public Radio political editor Ken Rudin and Andrew Sullivan, the columnist and blogger) who compare Clinton to the Glenn Close character in the movie “Fatal Attraction.” In the iconic 1987 film, Close played an independent New York woman who has an affair with a married man played by Michael Douglas. When the liaison ends, the jilted woman becomes a deranged, knife-wielding stalker who terrorizes the man’s blissful suburban family. Message: Psychopathic home-wrecker, begone.
Now hold on a minute. I heard Justine McCarthy tell Pat Kenny not last week that Hillary reminded her of Glenn Close’s Fatal Attraction character. In a good way. Bunny-boiler as positive role model. Ah well.
To Justine, Fiona Looney, Una, and especially Suzie, my sympathies. But Hillary was always a flawed vessel for the hope of the first female American president. The good news is that there’s a whole generation of women who’ve broken into the front rank of American politics - Gov Kathleen Sebelius, Gov Janet Napolitano, Speaker Pelosi - who are far worthier champions for the cause. And one of those first two, I’m betting, will lead a national ticket in the not-too-distant future.
UPDATE: pic moved to new post
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6 responses so far ↓
1 Suzy Byrne // May 15, 2008 at 9:55 am
Eh where did I ever say I was a Clinton supporter? I don’t like either of them, I just wanted a race (and to wind you up!) - what we got was torture - John Edwards would have been my choice probably.
2 Richard // May 15, 2008 at 10:09 am
Consider the winding-up favour returned. Off to listen to some Michael Lynn classics while writing!
3 Sinéad // May 15, 2008 at 10:51 am
Any pics of the Hillary nutcracker?
Isn’t it funny how people (and I don’t mean you Richard) assume that women with even an iota of interest in Feminism will automatically support a woman for President. I’ve always been on the Obama side of things for all sorts of reasons.
It’ll be interesting to see if she can swallow enough pride to run as his VP.
I was also listening to Justine make those comments and although I’m not a big Clinton fan, I was disappointed with the negative comparison.
4 Richard // May 15, 2008 at 11:26 am
Good points, Sinéad. And indeed, my own missus (under my benign propaganda influence) left the Hillary camp some time in January. Others with fem cred at least as solid, like Slate’s XX Factor bloggers including Dahlia Lithwick, exposed a generational/cultural faultline within feminism itself over it.
Dahlia’s quote from yesterday:
“…as my husband pointed out this morning, if the inability to concede error or defeat even in light of irrefutable, empirical evidence and in the face of spiraling support and tanking morale is feminism, George Bush must be the feminist icon of the ages,”
5 Hillary Nutcracker | Richard Delevan // May 15, 2008 at 11:40 am
[...] Comments Richard on It Starts to Sink InSinéad on It Starts to Sink InRichard on It Starts to Sink InSuzy Byrne on It Starts to Sink InDec on Take That, [...]
6 Dan Sullivan // May 15, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Suzy, Edwards was my pick too. His plans in many areas were more detailed and his interest in the divide in all its forms in the US more genuine. I think Obama is a very impressive speaker but when you try and look past the feeling and search for the substance Obama seems too wispy. And Clinton was running a very old democrat type of race, interesting piece on the contrast between the Clinton and Obama campaign styles in the Limerick Leader from someone on Peter Power’s staff who headed over to the US and did some work for Obama and Clinton in Texas. Clinton was all top down, hierarchical while Obama, flat organisational structure, use your initiative. It’s not a wonder she failed with the u40s so badly.
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