Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Lots Of Anger Among Clinton's Female Supporters
The Hartford Courant ^ | June 1, 2008 | E.J. Dionne Jr.

Posted on 06/01/2008 1:31:48 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

How much anger is there among women about how Hillary Clinton has been treated during this campaign? Some of the nation's leading female politicians will tell you: quite a lot.

"From the beginning, she's been treated very badly," says Therese Murray, the president of the Massachusetts Senate. "No woman would have run with Obama's resume. She wouldn't have been considered." But Clinton has been "demonized by the press and the talking heads. How do you get away with that?"

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., says she is regularly approached "by women of all races, of all ages, of all faiths. They stop me, grab my hand and say, 'Look what they've done to her, we were so close.' They wanted this for their daughters and granddaughters. ... It's so heartbreaking."

For Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., the symbol that "sexism reigns supreme" was in the wide availability of offensive anti-Hillary paraphernalia in stores and on the Internet. For Barbara Johnson, president of the Minneapolis City Council, Clinton may have been the victim of "ageism" as much as sexism. The message, she said, was: "Your time is past, it's time for somebody new to take your place."

Many women, said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., "knew we had made many strides. They asked, 'Aren't we past this? What's going on?' They're not happy with what they see as sexism, permitted by the media and in some cases encouraged by the media."

If there is good news for Barack Obama in any of this, it is that the rage felt by Clinton's female supporters is directed in large part toward the media. "The anger is aimed much more at you all," said Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts of Rhode Island. Added Murray: "Obama wouldn't have gotten to where he got today if it weren't for the bias of the male media — no offense."

It's true that campaigns and political movements use anger as a bargaining chip. The message is: Appease us or we will cause trouble. The Clinton campaign is hoping that such rage will strengthen its hand in the battle to seat pro-Clinton Michigan and Florida delegations at the party's national convention, even though those states held early primaries in violation of party rules.

But the conversations I had this week with prominent female politicians from around the country who support Clinton suggest that the fury and disappointment is about more than short-term maneuvering. In many cases, it is rooted in the empathy of women who themselves broke gender barriers at various levels of politics.

Murray, for example, is the first woman to lead the Massachusetts Senate. Hooley was the first woman on the city council in West Linn, Ore., and the first woman elected as a commissioner of Clackamas County. Johnson says proudly that she is the second woman in her family to serve as president of the Minneapolis City Council. Her mother was the first.

"She (Clinton) is striking a chord among women who have been involved in politics for a long time and who have been waiting for a long time," said Nancy Kopp, Maryland's treasurer.

Female politicians feel for Clinton as someone who regularly faces questions male politicians would never be asked. When a reporter queried Roberts about "my brand of lipstick and what color was it," she revealed the vital information — "Revlon Number 235" — but noted that "some of my supporters were offended that she asked me."

These are professional politicians, so they know that Clinton is on the verge of defeat because of her campaign's organizational mistakes, its failure to take Obama seriously early on, and the difficulties created by her husband's presence. Roberts points to an age split among women, noting that her 19-year-old daughter Kathleen is a staunch Obama supporter. Obama, Kopp said, clearly has a strong appeal "among younger women, though that's true among many older women, too."

Indeed, Obama has the support of many prominent female elected officials. He won significant female support in the primaries, carrying a majority of the women's vote in 13 states and splitting it evenly with Clinton in Wisconsin.

Nonetheless, even these very pragmatic female politicians who very much want a Democrat to win the White House are looking for signs of "understanding and respect," said Kopp.

"It's a campaign, someone wins, someone doesn't win, that's life," she said. "But women don't want to be totally dissed."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; 2008dncconvention; democrats; election; elections; hillary; media; msm; obama; operationchaos; womensvote
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061 next last
To: Leftism is Mentally Deranged
Can't really call me sexist since I'm a woman....Tisk tisk. No more Clintons for President. Bill was a sexist for real and Hillary did absolutely nothing about it. Actions speak louder than words.
41 posted on 06/01/2008 6:29:57 AM PDT by Earthdweller (Look both ways when crossing the street son and don't throw Gramma under the bus!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Klingons have a phrase for what’s going on. I think it’s Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha ha ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha ....


42 posted on 06/01/2008 6:56:37 AM PDT by BigCinBigD (")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Lots Of Anger Among Clinton's Female Supporters"

I can see it now, thousands of suburban White women rioting and burning down their neighborhoods.

43 posted on 06/01/2008 7:00:37 AM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

That SNL routine last night was savage. Even the lib audience had trouble finding the humor in some of the bits. You could tell that some of the laughter was muted, uncertain or forced, as if they weren’t quite sure whether or not they should be laughing...


44 posted on 06/01/2008 7:24:24 AM PDT by Noumenon (Time for Atlas to shrug - and pick up a gun.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

These women have it all wrong. They didn’t turn on Hillzilla because she’s a woman, they turned on her because Obambi is black. To the MSM and hard-core leftists, black trumps gender anyday.


45 posted on 06/01/2008 7:28:06 AM PDT by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

It would have been helpful if the woman in question was not an unindicted felon, a neo-Stalinist, a shallow and manipulative liar, part of a crime syndicate, and did come here from the bowels of hell. Although the MSM never reported the story honestly and never asked Hillary one question about it, I hope HILLARY! UNCENSORED did some damage to her. It was leaked last October when her slide began. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7007109937779036019&pr=goog-sl


46 posted on 06/01/2008 7:31:06 AM PDT by doug from upland (Stopping Hillary should be a FreeRepublic Manhattan Project)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yorkie01

“restore states rights (federalism),”

As a concept, federalsim was supposed to support states’ rights. As a practical matter, though — at least in America — federalism as practiced by the “federalists” subordinated the states to the federal government, which was why so many of the founders (including Thomas Jefferson) became anti-federalists: They saw that the federalists were hell-bent on suppressing the states and making the federal government supreme. Abraham Lincoln would later become the quintessential federalist, who set in motion the gears that would essentially destroy the idea of America as envisioned by the founding fathers.


47 posted on 06/01/2008 7:49:27 AM PDT by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Earthdweller

“Can’t really call me sexist since I’m a woman.”

Say what? Those shrieking harridans are women, and they believe Hillzilla should be president based upon her plumbing. I’d say that’s sexist.


48 posted on 06/01/2008 7:53:27 AM PDT by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Does anyone have a list of web sites for angry, thus liberal, women?

Not that I’m suggesting anything, but if there happened to be a lot of gloating, demeaning, dismissive, pro-Obama posts, it could really send a lot of these gals right off the edge ;-)


49 posted on 06/01/2008 7:56:12 AM PDT by SampleMan (We are a free and industrious people, socialist nannies do not become us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BigCinBigD
"The Klingons have a phrase for what’s going on."

Meet the Klingons...


50 posted on 06/01/2008 8:01:24 AM PDT by Earthdweller (Look both ways when crossing the street son and don't throw Gramma under the bus!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
Photobucket
51 posted on 06/01/2008 8:01:53 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ought-six
Are you logged in to FR? Just checking...
52 posted on 06/01/2008 8:07:30 AM PDT by Earthdweller (Look both ways when crossing the street son and don't throw Gramma under the bus!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

"You will vote for me...and like it....."sweetie"

53 posted on 06/01/2008 8:07:33 AM PDT by RckyRaCoCo (LIBERAL MEDIA PICKS GOP CANDIDATE.... STORY AT 11 !)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Prole

I think Hill has a drinking problem. Every time she’s on the news, shes guzzling something: beer, whiskey, wine. I think she needs to drop in to rehab to dry out before the convention.


54 posted on 06/01/2008 8:20:08 AM PDT by y6162
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: RU88
By the way, great tagline.

Thanks, although 2 days ago it caused a McCaniac to accuse me of being a racist.

55 posted on 06/01/2008 9:34:31 AM PDT by highlander_UW (illegal alien is to an undocumented worker as a drug dealer is to an unlicensed pharmacist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
All liberal women see is that the Democratic Party just threw Hillary under the bus - to make way for for the cool and hip black guy.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

56 posted on 06/01/2008 9:39:42 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marron
"No woman would have run with Obama's resume. She wouldn't have been considered."

Hillary did. There is not much difference between the two resumes.

"From the beginning, she's been treated very badly," says Therese Murray, the president of the Massachusetts Senate.

RUBBISH. The press continues to give her a free pass. They could drown her with factual reports on her corruption. She is the ONLY candidate with TWO major donors convicted THIS year.

But Clinton has been "demonized by the press and the talking heads. How do you get away with that?"

How do these people say this stuff with a straight face?

57 posted on 06/01/2008 10:03:45 AM PDT by Pikachu_Dad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: no dems

348,106 hits so far.


58 posted on 06/01/2008 12:01:32 PM PDT by stbdside
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: y6162
If I were married to a horrible person like Bill Clinton, and were forced to fight with the lunatics like Daily Kos and George Soros on a daily basis, I might develop a drinking problem myself.

Hillary has to shoot in all directions, and she only has one turret.

12 O'clock is McCain's camp.

3 O'clock is George Soros, Daily Kos and MoveOn.

6 O'clock is Obama's camp.

9 O'clock is the MSM turning against her.

I almost feel sorry for her because fighting like that must leave her exhausted and itchin' for a drink!

The folks on her flanks and rear should be in support positions for her tactical movements, but instead she must fight all of them in addition to her primary target: Senator McCain.


59 posted on 06/01/2008 12:17:48 PM PDT by Prole (Pray for the families of Chris and Channon.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: Prole
"I almost feel sorry for her because fighting like that must leave her exhausted and itchin' for a drink!"

The sexist men and the racists in her own party took her out.

I wonder if she is feeling like a mugged liberal yet. It's sad really. Been there...done that, about twenty years ago.

What she fundamentally needed all along was a good faithful partner who loves her and supports her, and that she ain't got.

60 posted on 06/01/2008 4:27:02 PM PDT by Earthdweller (Look both ways when crossing the street son and don't throw Gramma under the bus!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson