2008 Wow, OK.
posted by on November 2 at 14:30 PM
I didn’t believe it when someone here told me, but apparently I am required to grow a vagina in order to write about Hillary Clinton and gender. At least according to the Slog mob.
Anyway, Greg Sargent, who I’m guessing doesn’t have a vagina (so maybe he can’t be trusted), does a very good job of clarifying whether or not, despite it all (including this statement today), Hillary Clinton is indeed “playing the gender card,” or making moves that amount to the same thing:
Bottom line: As best as we can determine, Hillary never explicitly made the accusation that the men were piling up on her because she’s a woman. But you’d have to be very credulous indeed not to believe that the campaign is explicitly trying to emphasize, for various political reasons, the fact that she’s a woman getting hammered by a bunch of men. I don’t know if that constitutes “playing the gender card” or not — the exact meaning of the term is unclear, at least to me — but that’s obviously what’s going on.
UPDATE: The Chris Dodd campaign agrees. It just sent this email:
Apparently, the Clinton campaign can’t even get its story straight on “piling on.” As with everything else, they’re trying to have it both ways.“Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday her status as the Democratic presidential front-runner - not her gender - has led her male primary rivals to intensify their criticism of her.” [AP, 11/2/07]
“Hillary Rodham Clinton played the gender card Thursday after the worst stumble of her campaign, suggesting she’s being singled out as the lone woman in an all-male presidential field.” [Newsday, 11/1/07]
Hari Sevugan
Communications Director
Chris Dodd for President
i think the slog mob has come out pretty much behind hillary and will ignore her faults and magnify those of her opponents
You'd look cute with a vagina.
So defensive! Who's playing the victim now, Eli?
@2: And I'd be allowed to write more!
I think we can technically consider a formal response to a sock puppet comment a straw man attack... since you're basically attacking... well... a proverbial straw man.
IT'S A SOCK PUPPET, ELI.
@5: I agree the comment might very well be from a sock puppet, but it's not a sock puppet that I created. So it's not a response to a straw man. It's a response to a coward.
Eli-
For fuck's sake! When did she *ever* say it was about her gender? It was all the anti-HRCs who said that. And you fell for it!
Hillary's complaints about being attacked from all sides are not about her gender, but are about being attacked from all sides. Hillary isn't bringing gender into this.
The people who are talking about gender are her opponents. They are dismissing her responses as being gender-based rather than taking them seriously as valid responses to being attacked. That's sexist.
What was I reading yesterday that pointed out that media coverage of candidates' past experience and track records was in the distinct minority compared to bloviating about tactical maneuvers?
Oh, stop the presses! Chris Dodd agrees! And of course he has no possible personal interest in taking this position -- impartial arbiter all the way!
Don't you think all this stuff you're posting maybe actually proves Hillary's point, a little bit? Maybe you should run a Slog poll on this, Eli, I can see the results now...."96% of men agree, men not 'piling on' to Hillary." There you go, case closed!
Oh yeah, it was Journalism.org:
Keep up the good work!I thought the rule was:
If you're part of the Mainstream Media (MSM), you have to write about Sen Clinton.
If you're female, you have to vote for her.
And if you lust after Bill Clinton you have to write obsessively about Sen Clinton.
The correct answer is: Hillary is playing the gender card - but only if it will work. Otherwise, it's just you unfairly projecting or attacking her.
As is often the case with politicians, it is most advantageous for her to have it both ways.
Eli-
I didn't say that people had to grow a vagina in order to talk about gender issues. you just obviously need to in order to understand anything about women or their experience. Your silly liberal-brand of misogyny is sadly too common amongst privileged white gay boys. Or you are just too dumb and fell for the rhetoric from the other candidates. Next you'll be using terms like "flip/flop" and "cut and run"
Well, she's not doing it directly, of course. But political rhetoric is always about the negative space and subtext. She got the message through to the people who were receptive to it.
Dodd's campaign spin manager cites two completely different media sources, who have two different takes on the story, and uses them as evidence of Hillary's maneuvering? Dumb. Dumb dumb dumb.
tsm-
She got her message through using Obama's and Edward's staffers, the RNC, and Eli? Wow, she *is* good at this.
i'd never heard of the "politics of piling on" before this week.
I think they meant the MSM did the job for Sen Clinton, not the staffers for Obama and Edwards, Big Sven.
*mutters something recently posted about seattle women and their attitudes towards men*
It's a vast right wing conspirasy, the same one that put the stain on Monica's dress and HRC will nuke the day she gets elected.
Piling on? Sounds like HRC thinks she's being gangbanged. Who wants sloppy sevenths?
Hilarys complaining about being attacked from all sides? Lame! That's what it is to be the front runner.
I suppose we are going to be stuck wth a dynasty of corporate shills.
Re: defining 'playing the gender card'. I am also unclear as to the exact meaning, but I do know that I am accused of playing the gender card upon informing a man that his argument is based on the assumption that because I a woman, I am wrong.
@24, Yep, exactly.
And Eli, I think you're being a real pussy for focusing on the one comment that told you to grow a vagina instead of taking on all the reasonable arguments.
What do you call that card?
@24 huh? how can we even discuss some situation you had with some guy we don't know? maybe you encountered a sexist jerk who said, "you are wrong because you are a woman." or maybe he just said, "You are wrong" and you decided he thought that it was because you are a woman. there is a difference between the two.
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