Tuesday, January 15, 2008
‘Is Hillary Clinton a Closet Sexist?’
Elections piece by
Carey Roberts
Last week Hillary Clinton overcame a double-digit deficit in the New Hampshire primary to surprise opponent Barack Obama. How did she manage to pull off the near-miraculous upset?
Simple.
First, in a heart-warming display of female bonding, she indulged in a tearful moment at a Portsmouth, NH café. Then she traveled to Salem where two planted hecklers chanted “Iron My Shirt,” proving to the ladies the patriarchy is still plotting a return to the good-ol’ days of barefoot women.
So how do I know they were plants?
We know Hillary’s operatives worked this stunt twice before in Iowa. And think about it—does anyone believe that security would allow a couple of scruffy-looking guys to haul a 3-foot sign into the room?
Still, you have to admit the ruse was masterfully staged – the overweight baffoons who admitted to being Republicans, Hillary directing the lights be turned up so photographers could get a good angle, and the oh-so-slow response of the security detail.
Hillary’s come-back was as polished as a slab of New Hampshire marble: “Oh, the remnants of sexism are alive and well.” (Cue laughter and clapping.)
Columnist Mary K. Ham wrote the incident was “almost too perfect.” New York Times writer Maureen Dowd opined that Clinton was forced to “fend off calamity by playing the female victim.” And Michelle Malkin called it plain “B.S.”
But since Hillary has raised the ‘S’ word, maybe it’s time to inquire of HRC’s sexism. Isn’t turn-about considered fair play?
As far as I know, Hillary Clinton has never come out and said, “Girls Rule, Boys Drool.” But a lot of things lead me to believe she has a problem with men.
Over the years she has floated claims that range from half-baked cants to fantastic lies, all suggesting that men are oafish brutes. For example, Hillary’s campaign website features this chestnut: Women unfairly “earn only 77 cents for every dollar men earn.”
Hillary, you pay persons based on the number of hours they work and the skills they bring, not because of their genitalia.
There are the Chicken-Little allusions to the dreaded patriarchy. Informed that Iowa had never elected a female governor, senator, or congressman, Hillary warned darkly, “There has got to be something at work here.”
Hillary, there is more to life than working 18-hour days and pretending to enjoy rubber chicken dinners at campaign fund-raisers.
There are the endless men-not-welcome slogans and events: Mothers and Daughters Making History, Empowered Women for Hillary, Moms for Hillary, Nurses for Hillary, Abortionists for Hillary (just kidding), Women of Color luncheons, You Go Girl! buttons, house parties – the list goes on.
It’s the reliance on tired feminist clichés. Basking in her New Hampshire win, Clinton told her supporters that she had finally found her “voice.” Yes, imagine a grown woman, a national senator, a presidential aspirant, admitting she’s been too timid to speak out all these years.
And then there’s that irritating refrain, “it’s time to break the biggest glass ceiling in the land.”
Hillary, there is no glass ceiling – it’s your inability to run an ethical campaign and to not diss white men who represent the second largest electoral block in the nation.
She works the victim angle to a T. During her recent debate Mrs. Clinton was asked why voters didn’t see her as likeable. This was her I-am-woman-hear-my-roar answer: “Well, that hurts my feelings, but I’ll try to go on.”
As former Clinton advisor Dick Morris observed, “In her victimhood, Hillary has achieved the popularity that proved elusive in her previous incarnations.”
There’s her ironclad rule to never mention issues of concern to men, like the woeful underfunding of prostate cancer research, discrimination by divorce courts, and false allegations of domestic violence.
And if she believes in helping children, why doesn’t Hillary do something to rein in those nanny-government programs that shove fathers out of their kids’ lives?
It’s the nasty put-downs. Remember that quip she made in Iowa about “evil and bad men”? And Hillary once raved about a book she read called “Demonic Males.” Just imagine the political fall-out if Obama ever read a book called, “Big Bad Whitey”!
Once Mrs. Clinton recounted the time she received a sympathy note during her darkest days in the White House that read, “Whenever you have trouble coping, just think of Snow White. She had to live with seven men.”
Funny.
Worst of all, she displays no compunction in playing the estrogen supremacist card. Here’s the pick of the litter, from a 2005 lecture: “Research shows the presence of women raises the standards of ethical behavior and lowers corruption.”
Sexism with a smile, Hillary-style.
HowardWasRight 
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