HRC on Palin
"While [the McCain-Palin] policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate." Thus speaks Senator Clinton.
If the recent mayor of Wasilla is "an important new voice," why would that be? Because what she says makes sense? Or because her creationism, radical anti-abortionism, drilling lust, and attachment to oil comanies come out treble?
I was in the hall when HRC delivered her deeply stirring speech Tuesday night. My eyes watered more than once. I was stirred, as I was meant to be, by her quotation from Harriet Tubman: "If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If they're shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going." I was standing in front of some TeamHillary members of the Ohio delegation. (For more on them and the Hillary marchers earlier their day, see this.) They soared. Their champion delivered the solidarity goods. I soared with them. I was not embarrassed to feel gratitude that she came through.
Three days later, she heralds a flagrantly insulting--to women, to men--nomination as an "important new voice." This is the barest, most unreflective style of identity politics. It does not hearten.
I think Hillary means that, by definition, the second woman ever nominated to to serve as Vice President is "an important new voice to the debate." Can't argue with that.
Anyone on a national ticket is, at least for a time, important.
August 29, 2008 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
But the cliche of "voice," used this way, reveals the utter foolishness of assuming that the sex or race of the maker of a statement is an automatic good!
August 29, 2008 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Got it
August 29, 2008 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks to you both for this exchange.
I think that Hillary's response was, yes, a little too nice, but what else could she say? Maybe she could have avoided praising Palin at all, but she really needed to say something along the lines of, "I think it's great that John McCain picked a woman. Hope they lose." And, in the end, that is what she said.
Professor Gitlin, I agree that the "voice" word is totally innacurate. As a pro-choice creationist who thinks that the solution to everything is in pork barrel Alasak oil drilling, Palin's voice is out of cadence with the voices of the women and men who supported Hillary in the primary. But... this is only day one and the appropriate response from Hillary today was "glad to see a woman on the ticket." Wait until day 2. Or day 10. Hillary will have a lot of chances to pounce on Palin now that she's got the formalities out of the way.
August 29, 2008 7:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to overlabor the point, she should simply have said, "I'm glad to see a woman on a national party ballot," and left it at that.
August 29, 2008 9:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
She could have said nothing, that's what she could have said.
The nomination of this woman is an insult to the nation. Now this is obviously something Hillary Clinton can't say. It's something Obama and Biden can't say and they have wisely refrained from offering comments that come anywhere close. They've been respectful, because in this godforsaken nation of idiots, you have to be respectful of idiocy or accused of -- mon dieu! -- having a BRAIN.
But MoveOn damn well better point out the idiocy here, and start soon. This kind of Rovian/ Republican cynicism is just too much. A self-described "hocky mom" who governs a state with a population that would fit in Central Park, and qualifies as a mental evolutionary throwback with her views on creation, global warming and peak oil should be our Vice President, one heartbeat away from being the leader of the free world?
It's an outrage. And if Hillary Clinton -- who, unlike Obama and Biden, really didn't have to comment at all -- couldn't have the intellectual honesty to say that (again the honesty question!), she should have said nothing at all.
August 29, 2008 10:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. When I heard this statement I gasped. It makes this pick look legit, and not at all strange. She should have said nothing.
August 30, 2008 2:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Anna,
I agree. Everytime I see a Democrat open their comment with ass kissing praise of the POW I'm tempted to throw the TV through the window.
Hillary should have kept quiet.
August 30, 2008 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hope you're hungry, you're gonna be eating a lot of hat in the days to come. The rightwing, and I quote, "wept and hugged one another" upon hearing the selection.
August 30, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anti-choice, destor, not pro-choice. Very, very, anti-choice.
August 30, 2008 2:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Whoops. We need an edit function.
August 30, 2008 9:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
You're living in the stone age if you think that in this race gender or race is not an automatic good. For Pete's sake, why do you think McCain chose her?
August 30, 2008 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
HRC's comment was very similar to the one issued jointly by Obama and Biden, right down to the phrase "new voice."
"We send our congratulations to Governor Sarah Palin and her family on her designation as the republican nominee for Vice President. It is yet another encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics. While we obviously have differences over how best to lead this country forward Governor Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign."
September 1, 2008 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
She's one of them, an upper class. She will destroy the democratic party from within. I'm sorry but our only loyalty should be to the principles for which we stand. As you can see, the uppers don't just know this, they live it. Loyal to the pack not the herd. They are not community builders folks but keepers of their own flame.
August 29, 2008 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gee, after opening their speeches with some seemingly obligatory McCain ass kissing they now have another ass to target for a big smoocheroo.
August 29, 2008 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Senator Clinton was being gracious, and it is indeed an historic moment when the Republican party has a woman on the ticket for the first time. Also, Palin seems to be smart, articulate and tough. Completely wrong on the issues, too inexperienced, but not a dud like Quayle.
Americans also like Frank Capra story lines-- someone who was only mayor of a small town a short time ago but had good values and common sense and was picked by McCain (played by Lionel Barrymore) to be the #2 leader of the free world. Not my sentiments, but Reagan got most of his stuff from old scripts at Warner Brothers, and Americans eat that up like pop corn-- or "Capracorn".
August 29, 2008 6:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
As they say, damned if you will, damned if you don't.
August 29, 2008 7:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
My take also. You're making too much out of her response. WHo the hell knows anything about Palin??
I think the response was appropriate and this article is fabricating an issue.
I think the Obama camp is tight in their message. And for now, keeping the powder dry until you know what kind of beast Palin is, is a perfectly wise move.
Let the press vet her and then stomp her like crunchy snow under the hoof of a moose!
August 30, 2008 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
The choice of Palin alters nothing about the damage that a McCain administration will do to America if given a chance...new voice but the same tired message. The song remains the same...
August 29, 2008 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not even a song.
Hell, it's not even "Whoop, There It Is."
August 29, 2008 7:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hehehe...yeah my bad Destor.
More like the sound of nails across a chalkboard.
August 30, 2008 12:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is Obama's election to win or lose but HRC could make the difference depending upon how she deals with Palin and how hard she works for Obama.
This was a very saavy pick because it will not be easy for Obama or Biden to expose the extremism behind her pretty smile. She has that small-town conservative populism that Bush faked so well except that she is authentic in that regard. She may or not be extreme in those views but movements that exploit those positions - anti-immigration, pro-gun militias, the Xtian right - will do their best to get McCain out of the way if he is elected.
Now what exactly is Hillary going to do to prevent that?
August 29, 2008 8:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obviously nothing.
August 29, 2008 10:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
First Panama-John McBush acquires a millionaire mistress for a trophy wife. Now, in his creepy, creeping dotage, he acquires a trophy travelling nurse to change his Depends diapers when he pisses all over himself trying to steal a few 24/7 news cycles over Labor Day weekend.
Yet, how incredible to observe Grandpa Simpson McBush making Deputy Dubya's pick of Harriet What's-Her-Name to the Supreme Court look like a genius move by comparison. And that Senator You-Know-Her -- the peerless glass ceiling cracker -- hears an "important new voice" in all this pathetic pandering simply compounds her own demonstrated credulity beyond measure.
August 29, 2008 9:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Because that aligns Hillary with Obama's position.
And in his case it's simply common courtesy to welcome this new participant to the campaign.
Thereafter he will be free to attack her positions but under no circumstances should he attack her character. At the very least that would be considered sexist.
More likely it would be seen as his bullying this mother of a four month old Downs child. I can think of nothng more likely to cement the switch to McCain of that 20% of Hillary supporters who tell the pollsters that they don't intend to vote for Obama but who are probably still willing to come home.
That's the trap McCain set with this cynical selection of someone so unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.Or at least that's how it seems now. She has a favorablity rating of 80% in Alaska.Maybe they're all wrong.
Or maybe she earned it with her performance as Governor. If so, that will become clear during the next 60 days. And if so, Obama is in trouble.
August 29, 2008 10:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
And with the price of oil so low, governing Alaska must be a real challenge...
The problem remains paleofeminists - they stood by Hillary and Iraq, and they are now forced to octuple down on the "Sarah, who knows nothing about Iraq". It's so stupid that there must be some form of tenure involved.
August 30, 2008 12:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I find it bizarre, to say the least, that so much nothing can generate even a two-minute conversation. On the other hand, seeing as how the United States has become an international laughing-stock for promoting utter incompetence and single-spook-animist zealotry to the highest levels of national "leadership," it should not have surprised me in the least that Americans continue to disappoint even when one expects nothing of them.
August 30, 2008 3:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Whether we like it or not, Palin does add an important new voice to the public debate, one that has never been visible before at such a high level and that's the "soccer mom".
For years she's been talked about, used as a litmus test, offered as an exemplar and said to hold the key to national elections. Now we have a real, live soccer mom on a national ticket and what she says is going to be taken seriously by quite a few people in this country. To pretend that this isn't important is foolish and dangerous - we have "every mom" here with a national platform.
Now you can paint her as dumb and naive and unimportant, but that's at your own peril - she seems fairly politically savvy to me - she took a small town mayoral's position and parlayed that into the number two spot on a national ticket. Palin does add an important new voice and we have a problem.
August 30, 2008 10:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's an insult to soccer and "hockey-moms." They are not mostly dingbat, creationist, gun freaks, bearing children DURING a political process for show. Try doing that while CEO.
This isn't an appropriate time for anthropological appreciation, least of all from Clinton, a political opponent. "Look, class, it's one of the native people engaging in the gun ceremony! Look at that huge box of ammunition she is working through!"
Hillary really has no idea of what will comes across as authentically working class. She has been insulated for too long.
The election is coming up soon. The Democrats need to stay on the attack.
August 30, 2008 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't say they were dingbats and creationists, don't be such an ass. The way to defuse a problem is to identify it and work out a counter defense.
Pretending that Palin isn't an "important new voice" is foolish. Anyone with a national platform is going to add an important new voice and whether you like it or not, she is representative of a voice that has been much talked about but not represented nationally.
August 31, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's an insult to soccer and "hockey-moms." They are not mostly dingbat, creationist, gun freaks, bearing children DURING a political process for show. Try doing that while CEO.
This isn't an appropriate time for anthropological appreciation, least of all from Clinton, a political opponent. "Look, class, it's one of the native people engaging in the gun ceremony! Look at that huge box of ammunition she is working through!"
Hillary really has no idea of what will comes across as authentically working class. She has been insulated for too long.
The election is coming up soon. The Democrats need to stay on the attack.
August 30, 2008 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's an insult to soccer and "hockey-moms." They are not mostly dingbat, creationist, gun freaks, bearing children DURING a political process for show. Try doing that while CEO.
This isn't an appropriate time for anthropological appreciation, least of all from Clinton, a political opponent. "Look, class, it's one of the native people engaging in the gun ceremony! Look at that huge box of ammunition she is working through!"
Hillary really has no idea of what will comes across as authentically working class. She has been insulated for too long.
The election is coming up soon. The Democrats need to stay on the attack.
August 30, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's an insult to soccer and "hockey-moms." They are not mostly dingbat, creationist, gun freaks, bearing children DURING a political process for show. Try doing that while CEO.
This isn't an appropriate time for anthropological appreciation, least of all from Clinton, a political opponent. "Look, class, it's one of the native people engaging in the gun ceremony! Look at that huge box of ammunition she is working through!"
Hillary really has no idea of what will comes across as authentically working class. She has been insulated for too long.
The election is coming up soon. The Democrats need to stay on the attack.
August 30, 2008 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's an insult to soccer and "hockey-moms." They are not mostly dingbat, creationist, gun freaks, bearing children DURING a political process for show. Try doing that while CEO.
This isn't an appropriate time for anthropological appreciation, least of all from Clinton, a political opponent. "Look, class, it's one of the native people engaging in the gun ceremony! Look at that huge box of ammunition she is working through!"
Hillary really has no idea of what will comes across as authentically working class. She has been insulated for too long.
The election is coming up soon. The Democrats need to stay on the attack.
August 30, 2008 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's an insult to soccer and "hockey-moms." They are not mostly dingbat, creationist, gun freaks, bearing children DURING a political process for show. Try doing that while CEO.
This isn't an appropriate time for anthropological appreciation, least of all from Clinton, a political opponent. "Look, class, it's one of the native people engaging in the gun ceremony! Look at that huge box of ammunition she is working through!"
Hillary really has no idea of what will comes across as authentically working class. She has been insulated for too long.
The election is coming up soon. The Democrats need to stay on the attack.
August 30, 2008 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
ummm...
refreshing the page in Firefox reposts one's comments another time for each refresh...
which was not my intention
August 30, 2008 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
The real sadness of it all is how much of screw-up Obama and his team are for not having the courage to take Hillary as VP. Can anyone not imagine the bump...the ride to the top that that ticket would have? There would have been no possible answer from Republicans. None. Game over. Instead of re-engerizing the party and thinking that now with Biden on the ticket that they have a shot at Michigan and Ohio and Florida...Having Hillary on the ticket would have closed the door.
Biden does nothing to help Obama in any area that he needs help in. His comments of praise for McCain over the years is going to limit his ability to speak out. Sad.
August 30, 2008 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Of course it's important, it's the voice of the uber-conservative woman. Do you know how many ultra-right women Palin is going to rein in? how many ultra-anti-choice? How many pro-oil, pro-military, pro-death penalty nut jobs she's appeal to???
What you are seeing is what is to come: don't fight too hard, don't use super harsh words, don't be mean... she's a girl.
This is a HUGE gamble for McCain but it shifts the rules of the debate no matter what you feel about her. If Biden is perceived as being "rough" on a woman, his anti-violence bill aside, his electability will evaporate. Palin is going to prove a much more formidable foe than any of us can imagine, Clinton is right, she just didn't say it with a baseball bat. Jeez, an Obama rep couldn't even say she was unfit to be "a heartbeat away from the presidency" This is going to go this good looking, walk-the-walk/talk-the-talk mom of five's way in a spades.
You mark my words.
August 30, 2008 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course it's important, it's the voice of the uber-conservative woman. Do you know how many ultra-right women Palin is going to rein in? how many ultra-anti-choice? How many pro-oil, pro-military, pro-death penalty nut jobs she's appeal to???
What you are seeing is what is to come: don't fight too hard, don't use super harsh words, don't be mean... she's a girl.
This is a HUGE gamble for McCain but it shifts the rules of the debate no matter what you feel about her. If Biden is perceived as being "rough" on a woman, his anti-violence bill aside, his electability will evaporate. Palin is going to prove a much more formidable foe than any of us can imagine, Clinton is right, she just didn't say it with a baseball bat. Jeez, an Obama rep couldn't even say she was unfit to be "a heartbeat away from the presidency" This is going to go this good looking, walk-the-walk/talk-the-talk mom of five's way in a spades.
You mark my words.
August 30, 2008 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink