Tag Archives: Clinton

Sexism?

I don’t watch enough TV to judge their coverage…I caught some CNN and I caught some CBC, and aside from that I mostly read the wire stories and the New York Times online.

I may be too post-feminist for my own good, but how is it sexist to compare Hillary Clinton to Glenn Close’s bunny-boiler in Fatal Attraction? She’s a woman, being compared to a woman. The analogy, while unflattering, was to the character’s “never say die” attitude. Would it somehow have been better to compare her to an Energizer bunny, as in an animatronic, battery-powered plush toy? I simply don’t see sexism in that instance. If she were a he they could have compared to some male character in a horror movie that won’t die, and keeps coming back, and that wouldn’t have been sexist either.

I think whoever talked about her cleavage stepped over the line, unless it was an article about her fashion in Vogue or something…which I don’t think it was. On the other hand, if she had been inappropriately dressed at some point, then it would have been fair game, IMO.

What so many HRC supporters don’t seem to grasp is that she is not well liked by any number of people. And expressing one’s dislike of someone isn’t inherently sexist. Was Samantha Power calling her a monster sexist? No. That was off the record, too, but there’s no honour among journalists anymore.

Even people (like me) who weren’t particularly pro or con Hillary at the start of the primaries are permitted to look at the candidates, and decide that they prefer one to the others. Like, that’s the whole point of the primaries, isn’t it? and lo and behold, many many many of these people decided they liked Obama and what he represents better than they liked HRC and what she represents, and the whole train of baggage and bad times behind her, not to mention that attitude of anointment.

The fact that when we talk about a woman we use pronouns to indicate gender (we don’t like her) doesn’t actually make it sexist, Geraldine. And we don’t really like you much, either. Give us a female candidate with the charisma, oratory and personality of an Obama, and I expect people will flock to her, too.

But politics is all one big popularity contest, and your chosen candidate just isn’t one of the cool kids anymore.

Battle of the Bands

OK, here’s where they stand, a small sampling:

Clinton
Merle Haggard
Elton John
Janet Jackson
Madonna
Barry Manilow
Ricky Martin
Barbra Streisand

Obama
Bruce Springsteen
Arcade Fire
Kim Gordon
Russell Simmons

Oh and non-musicians, she has Jack Nicholson, but he has Robert De Niro. She has Jerry Springer, and he has Oprah. Not that I’m not a fan of talk shows or Oprah, particularly, but Jerry Springer? I would be surprised to hear that most Jerry Springer watchers even vote.

There is just no contest, cool-wise.

What brought this on was the news of Ricky Martin’s endorsement. Last awesome presidential candidate that he spoke up for was GWB in 2000. Great company to keep, Hills.

How many more times…

Will Hillary Clinton mis-speak or blunder, and expect a free ride? She’s issued an apologia to the press to explain her tedious need to drag and drag and drag the race out, and rip and shred any pretense of dignity from the nominating race, and to say why mentioning RFK’s assassination didn’t mean anything.

Well, we’re supposed to believe that you mean what you say, lady (I use the term loosely), and if you merely meant to comment on the length of various nomination campaigns (which is misleading as they didn’t used to start as early as January, like they do now, even where they’re not supposed to, Florida and Michigan, but clearly your grasp of DNC rules is just a teeny bit shaky), well, all you need to say is that the WJC and RFK campaigns were still under weigh in June. Why bring up the word assassination at all?

TACKY. If not nefarious, simply tacky and classless, and RFK Jr. is a better person than you, HRC, for taking you at your word. Of course, IMO he has chosen the wrong candidate. And I don’t particularly believe your word, as you have evoked this before, in print. So either you mean to rub people’s faces in it, or your people are incompetent for not telling you to STFU about it, if you’re not smart enough to see that for yourself.

SOMEBODY over there must see that that was a stupid–at best–thing to say? No?

Oh, and now the spin is that it’s all Obama’s fault for inflaming the issue with the press. That’s right, he reached down your throat and dragged the word ASSASSINATION out of your face. And nobody is paying any attention to what you say unless Obama comments on it. Riiiiiiiiiiiight…….

“Gas tax holiday”

This is the biggest bullshit line ever. I spent more than $8 to fill Enzo just yesterday (a first), so I’m fully aware of the rising cost of gas (in Canada as it is in the US, forever and ever, Amen), but what kind of idiot voter is going to fall for this:

“All I hear about is gas prices. Gas and diesel, everywhere,” Clinton said in Kinston, N.C. “Some people say we don’t need to get a gas tax holiday at all, it’s a gimmick … I want the Congress to stand up and vote. Are they for the oil companies, or are they for you?”

Is there anyone out there of voting age who doesn’t understand that it’s the government that imposes and collects taxes, not the oil companies? And that if the government drops its < 20 cents a gallon on gas, and the decrease makes it to the pumps, the only change in the oil companies’ revenues is likely to be an increase, as people may buy a little more gas? How does this put the government any less on the side of the oil companies, exactly?

Conversely, of course, all those gas tax monies will no longer flow into government coffers, where they fund road work and other transporation infrastructure maintenance and improvements…and, coincidentally, jobs for the people who build and maintain roads and other transportation infrastructure.

Somebody better call her on this, as it’s ludicrous to think that anyone who may somehow believe her “logic” will vote for her on this issue.

OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

Another Clinton advisor–nay, Chief Strategist– is canned. Is anyone out there surprised? I’m not.

What surprises me really is that he personally took the meeting with a controversial client. Use a Chinese wall, so-called, people, that’s how it’s done. If even I know this, I confess I am a teeny bit surprised that the head of Burson Marsteller doesn’t.

Actually, what really surprises me is the fact that people seem so shocked that a PR firm hasn’t exhibited the kind of scruples in client-picking that they think appropriate. It’s a PR firm, people. They get paid to spin and lobby and influence opinion. It’s what they do. You expect them to be scrupulous? And Colombia, I would have fired their ass, too. If you can’t stand by the people who bought and paid for you, then you don’t deserve to be hired.

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In other news, I am really hating that my boy is 3,000 miles away from me for the foreseeable future. The Magic 8-Ball indicates that I may get a super-groovy birthday present though.