Iowa, New Hampshire and Sexism

For those of you who, like me, find themselves forced to pay attention to politics by some unknown and unseen hand (Curse you Adam Smith! Keep your invisible hands to yourself!), the arc of events from the Iowa Caucuses to the New Hampshire Primary was simply remarkable.

First, let me say up front that I like all of the major Democratic candidates, and would be happy as a clam with either Clinton, Edwards or Obama as the nominee. Obama rocketed out of Iowa with an amazing speech and a huge margin, and I thought, as did many others, that the whole shebang might in fact be over.

But then the piling on began. And something strange occurred to me, and, as the blogs and opinionists and New Hampshire results showed, to a bunch of other folk as well. The media almost seemed to relish Hillary Clinton’s defeat. Now, I would expect that from Fox Noise, but not so much from actual reporters. There was this glee, which was kind of sickening.

The debate last Saturday night showed exactly what was happening. The moderator, perhaps picking up on an unnoticed bias already creeping into political reporting nationwide, referred to the candidates as Senator Edwards, Senator Obama, Governor Richardson and ... that’s right ... "Mrs. Clinton." WTF? That’s like a slap in the face – "sexism is happening here."
And she did quite well in that debate – probably the best I have ever seen her do. She was poised, calm, off the cuff, and genuine. Wonderful. Edwards and Obama kept up their monotonous attacks of "status quo," which I think hurt Edwards in particular.

But the clincher for me came when the guest moderator asked Clinton about her "likeability," or rather, lack thereof. Now we all know that there is a certain portion of the public that fears and dislikes smart, assertive, competent women. They feel threatened by such women, its pure inferiority complex. Time and time again women in positions of authority get branded the "bitch" or the "witch" or the "dragon" or whathaveyou. But that has nothing to do with whether that particular woman is right for the job or not.

And I realized that much of the piling on was in fact just sexism. Beer-swigging blowhards like Chris Matthews and Tim Russert top the list of supposedly genuine newsmen who are unquestionably sexist. Matthews was going ape-shit on Tuesday night as the New Hampshire results rolled in, and there was a genuine tension between the MSNBC panel members who got the sexism and those who did not. The whole likeability question is a crock, in this context. It’s a substitute for sexism, pure and simple.

Now, that doesn’t mean that all of the complaints about Clinton are sexist. She really was coming off as contrived, overrehearsed, painfully on point and unable to show the person behind the facade. But all of that changed between Iowa and New Hampshire. I much prefer the current Hillary to the pre-Iowa one. And I would be quite pleased if she ends up being the nominee.

And I do have genuine concerns about Obama’s experience. But can you imagine an Obama who had been Vice President for eight years? Now there would be an unstoppable candidate! I hope Clinton and Obama can remain positive enough toward each other to make this dream team a possibility!