I'm female, an Obama supporter, and this kind of stuff gives me a headache. No matter what you think of Clinton, language like this is not helpful. Did people learn nothing from New Hampshire? Clinton gets sympathy when people say things like this--it makes her supporters dig in their heels. Hell, it even makes me more sympathetic towards her, and I can't think of a thing I like about the woman except perhaps that she's managed to be a needle under the toenails of Fox News types for fifteen years.

I know, it was all just good fun, just a comedy sketch. But I think if Randi Rhodes had called Obama anything like this, there would be similar outrage. And if she had called John McCain a warmongering old c**ksucker--just for instance-- the National Guard (what's left of it) would probably have marched on the Air America headquarters by now.

The left shouldn't quietly titter over and publically rationalize crap like this. We might hate Clinton as a candidate, but after the election she's still going to be a Senator and her vote will be needed. And when we laugh at this shit about Clinton, what can we say when Dowd starts calling Obama Obambi, and worse. Just a joke? All in fun?

Sometimes I think the only thing Democrats are really liberal with is friendly fire.

Posted at April 4, 2008 11:11 AM in response to randi rhodes calls hillary an f'ing whore

I would like to see Obama win. Decrying stupid voters and mean tactics and wishing Hillary would go away isn't going to work. Kerry thought that the attacks against him were beneath responding to, and he lost. He didn't fight. When is Obama going to go on the offensive? I know he's supposed to be running a different kind of campaign, but Jesus Pete. It's not like he's running against Mother Teresa.

Posted at April 2, 2008 7:51 PM in response to Obama's Lama Problem

These excerpts mirror an article that appeared in the NYTimes a few months ago, interviewing voters in Tennessee. In that article, half the people said the same stupid things about Obama, and the other half (many men) said sexist crap about Hillary. Welcome to smalltown America. It's not going away, and these people will not be disenfranchised before November. So I hope Obama will get out there, dispell the misinformation, and try to convince them that Hillary is a post-menopausal communist crack ho. Or something. Scrap for their votes, dammit! Just being the better candidate doesn't mean squat--if it did, we'd be trying to re-elect John Kerry right now. I would love to see a Dem nominee who will finally put up his dukes and fight.

Posted at April 2, 2008 2:00 PM in response to Obama's Lama Problem

I don't think anyone in his right mind would argue that any group has suffered discrimination in this country like blacks have. In my book, slavery trumps everything. But that does not deny the problems other groups had and still have. (Which, I believe, was part of the thrust of Obama's much-lauded speech.) But if "the conversation about race" is just about settling who has suffered the most, what IS the point? Where does that get us?

I support Obama for president, but I wince every time an Obama supporter tries to paint Democrats who don't support him as bigots. Or as the enemy. This is just a primary fight--people have differences and are entitled to their preferred candidate. I think a lot of people who support Hillary are wrong, but they are not evil. I know a lot of people who support Obama because they wouldn't vote for a woman (especially that Clinton c**t) to be president.

If Obama is going to win the general election, he needs all the Democrats he can get. Pissing off the more conservatively minded members of the party is self-defeating, and Obama knows this. I wish his supporters would take his lead and stop it with the breast-beating already.

Posted at March 31, 2008 12:20 PM in response to ALICE WALKER ON OBAMA Ignore the other post

Living in a foreign country, I get blistering reminders of American presumption almost daily. Try explaining the US's Cuba policy when China is practically the new Bank of the United States, for instance.

But part of the problem is the news. The newsmedia is entirely US-focussed. Other countries discuss what is happening the rest of the world; but the US rarely does. For instance, right now the campaign is practically all the national newspeople in the US talk about, even there is no primary for a month. But if you watch the Canadian news, or French news, it doesn't rate a mention. Africa and Tibet are the focus this week. People in the US live in a bubble. It's no wonder that they presume their viewpoint is the standard for the world.

Posted at March 28, 2008 8:35 AM in response to America "Presumes" Too Much

I don't know whose Messiah Harris would claim to be, but religious people seem to want to nail him up. Can anyone deny that it's sad the amount of time this country wastes parsing the idiotic statements of preachers? (Though, from my perspective, Wright is actually more on-target than Hagee, Robertson, et al). That we waste time at political debates with candidates talking about their favorite Bible verses?

If we kept religion out of the political sphere, none of this would have come up and we wouldn't have the sad spectacle of a candidate forced to denounce a person who has obviously meant a lot to him.

Posted at March 26, 2008 11:52 AM in response to Sam Harris, Atheist Messiah

Wright is a preacher, and if there's one thing most of the big three religions can agree on, save for a few denominational exceptions, it's that women are and always will be God's second-class citizens. (Hatred of gays would be the other thing they could all agree one.) So while I fumed a little when I heard his casual dismissal of what Hillary hasn't been up against, in the next second I remembered what we're dealing with here--a fundamentally irrational person. When looking for wisdom concerning women's issues, preachers (and rabbis and imams) aren't the people to turn to.

That said, Wright's opinions on race in this country are completely on-target to me, and really pretty tame considering all the fuss that's being made over him.

Posted at March 25, 2008 9:52 AM in response to Don't Forget Your Keys: Walking while Female

I like the fact that the press badgered her to release her White House records for the sake of "openness," and when she does release them, this is what they do with the information. Makes a great case for openness.

We live on planet sleaze.

Posted at March 20, 2008 5:06 PM in response to Defending Integrity (And Hillary)

I'm not sure I would say that Obama threw his granny under a bus. What he was saying was that all of us, even the most open hearted, have difficulties with race. I'm sure his grandmother and her cronies can live with that.

I will out my own family here and say that my 70-year-old southern mom, no stranger to the racial epithet, nearly caused me to faint when she told me she would be voting for Obama. She didn't even seem to think there was a real choice. So Obama might not have bridged the racial divide across the entire US, but in the minds of many people he definitely has. I call that progress.

Posted at March 20, 2008 12:47 PM in response to Obama was not a Unifier yesterday. He was a Pied Piper doing damage control.

Exactly. It gets us nowhere to say Clinton supporters are vile racists (on thin evidence). I'm glad Obama seemed to tackle this issue a little today, from all sides. I wish the Obamabots were as sharp as he is.

Posted at March 18, 2008 4:51 PM in response to I am an Obama Supporter