Can Hillary Cry Her Way Back to the White House?
Hillary's welled up eyes, and restrained tears might have had a hand in flipping New Hampshire democratic primary this year. But the words she had uttered in that informal news conference, saying, "“I just don’t want to see us fall backwards", are words came from the deepest conviction and truth it seems. See the video below:
The debate in New Hampshire before the primary where Hillary was aggressive, and also at the same time had to defend herself from two prong attacks from Obama and Edwards while pointing out some hollowness in opponents' claims to be more "purified" from corruptions, or having no ties with powerful lobby groups, the questioning from the New Hampshire debate moderator and its subsequent answers from Obama were indeed demeaning as Maureen Dowd observes in her The New York Times article, "How humiliating to have a moderator of the New Hampshire debate ask her to explain why she was not as popular as the handsome young prince from Chicago. How demeaning to have Obama rather ungraciously chime in: “You’re likable enough.” And how exasperating to be pushed into an angry rebuttal when John Edwards played wingman, attacking her on Obama’s behalf."
After the last seven years of abandonment of liberal American ideologies by Bush and Cheney Inc., Americans perhaps have a few good candidates to choose from Democratic Primary, Hillary, Obama, Edwards, and the lone man with respectable integrity like Ron Paul in Republican Primary whose winning any primary is a long shot due to media's vehement denouncement of Dr. Paul's libertarian and anti-war ideologies. Some of these candidates, especially, Hillary, backed Bush's ill-conceived Iraq war, and even sang the same tune of ratcheting irrational fears, in somewhat subdued tones, however, comparing the unabashed criminality at the helm, any "changes" toward liberal democracy from the rigid and neo-conservative stranglehold of contemporary American politics is genuinely a welcome sign for many.
Gloria Stein who is the co-founder of the Women's Media Center, raises a troubling question: "So why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one? The reasons are as pervasive as the air we breathe: because sexism is still confused with nature as racism once was; because anything that affects males is seen as more serious than anything that affects “only” the female half of the human race; because children are still raised mostly by women (to put it mildly) so men especially tend to feel they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman; because racism stereotyped black men as more “masculine” for so long that some white men find their presence to be masculinity-affirming (as long as there aren’t too many of them); and because there is still no “right” way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what."
Ms. Stein observes correctly that the caste systems of sex and race are interdependent and can only be uprooted together. "That’s why Senators Clinton and Obama have to be careful not to let a healthy debate turn into the kind of hostility that the news media love. Both will need a coalition of outsiders to win a general election. The abolition and suffrage movements progressed when united and were damaged by division; we should remember that."
The debate in New Hampshire before the primary where Hillary was aggressive, and also at the same time had to defend herself from two prong attacks from Obama and Edwards while pointing out some hollowness in opponents' claims to be more "purified" from corruptions, or having no ties with powerful lobby groups, the questioning from the New Hampshire debate moderator and its subsequent answers from Obama were indeed demeaning as Maureen Dowd observes in her The New York Times article, "How humiliating to have a moderator of the New Hampshire debate ask her to explain why she was not as popular as the handsome young prince from Chicago. How demeaning to have Obama rather ungraciously chime in: “You’re likable enough.” And how exasperating to be pushed into an angry rebuttal when John Edwards played wingman, attacking her on Obama’s behalf."
After the last seven years of abandonment of liberal American ideologies by Bush and Cheney Inc., Americans perhaps have a few good candidates to choose from Democratic Primary, Hillary, Obama, Edwards, and the lone man with respectable integrity like Ron Paul in Republican Primary whose winning any primary is a long shot due to media's vehement denouncement of Dr. Paul's libertarian and anti-war ideologies. Some of these candidates, especially, Hillary, backed Bush's ill-conceived Iraq war, and even sang the same tune of ratcheting irrational fears, in somewhat subdued tones, however, comparing the unabashed criminality at the helm, any "changes" toward liberal democracy from the rigid and neo-conservative stranglehold of contemporary American politics is genuinely a welcome sign for many.
Gloria Stein who is the co-founder of the Women's Media Center, raises a troubling question: "So why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one? The reasons are as pervasive as the air we breathe: because sexism is still confused with nature as racism once was; because anything that affects males is seen as more serious than anything that affects “only” the female half of the human race; because children are still raised mostly by women (to put it mildly) so men especially tend to feel they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman; because racism stereotyped black men as more “masculine” for so long that some white men find their presence to be masculinity-affirming (as long as there aren’t too many of them); and because there is still no “right” way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what."
Ms. Stein observes correctly that the caste systems of sex and race are interdependent and can only be uprooted together. "That’s why Senators Clinton and Obama have to be careful not to let a healthy debate turn into the kind of hostility that the news media love. Both will need a coalition of outsiders to win a general election. The abolition and suffrage movements progressed when united and were damaged by division; we should remember that."
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