Charming, Take Two January 9, 2008 zuzu Well, so much for the Obama campaign being above it all on the Hillary is a Crybaby Issue. Have they been taking tips from MoDo? Plus, what she said.
Wow, zuzu, our brains are aligned. Posted it on the other HRC thread, but I’ll post it here too- that quote reaches near Jonah Goldberg levels of absurdity. Also, can we put a moratorium on the use of “in light of Katrina” for issues not remotely related to that particular hurricane…or, to be more lenient, issues not remotely related to the Gulf Coast or race relations in the United States? It’s nothing more than Pavlov-doggitry a la Rudy G.’s constant invocation of 9/11. At some point, you’ve completely ruined the impact of the event. In this case, “in light of Katrina” means nothing more than “hey! an excuse to be a jerk!” In light of Katrina, I’m going to go get a soda.
I’m dizzy from rolling my eyes now. Is he serious? Mr. Jackson, you can go to town on the idea that the Democratic party has shafted its black constituency all you like. There’s a shit ton of material there, and frankly, it’d be good to light a little bit of a fire under the candidates (if nothing else). But to cast this as Hillary being a faker and all those misguided women in New Hampshire being duped by a well-timed voice crack makes me want to vomit. Incidentally, I’d bet just about anything that if Hillary had cried over Katrina, that would also indicate she’s not fit to lead.
Someone should sit Jesse Jr. down and advise him, in a kindly, fatherly way, never, ever to try speaking off the top of his head again. A few more remarks like that, and Obama is going to have a serious problem.
Ok Mr Jackson, fine. Question Clinton’s record on Katrina. That’s fair game and an excellent point to bring to election deliberations. But SHE DIDN’T ACTUALLY CRY. THERE WERE NO TEARS. Watch the video. I can’t see how anyone can even verify that she teared up. The “tears that moved the granite state” DIDN’T ACTUALLY HAPPEN. THEY DIDN’T HAPPEN. If you can’t straighten out your problems with sexism, could you at least straighten out your problems with verifiable reality?
Interesting stats from the exit polls: The male/female split of those who voted yesterday: 43% male, 57% female. Of the women who voted, 46% voted for Clinton, 34% for Obama, and 15% for Edwards. Of the men who voted, 40% voted for Obama and 19% for Edwards, while only 29% voted for Clinton. The higher turnout of women made the difference, as Clinton got 39% of the total vote, Obama 37%, and Edwards 17%. There’s a lot of talk about what a high percentage of the women voted for Clinton, but not much talk about what a relatively low percentage of men voted for her. And it seemed that Obama was the beneficiary of that, since Edwards’ male/female split was more or less even.
It’s hard to believe that she set out to fake the emotion, as given her undoubted knowledge of what happened to Muskie in 1972 she would have known that the risk of such a display backfiring was enormous. And, of course, until the vote totals were known, most people thought it did backfire. But I do think it’s possible that the question was somewhat of a plant, that she intended to show a “softer” side of herself in response and got overcome by slightly more emotion than she intended. Whatever the case, she’s now milking for all its worth. Apart from characterizing the question as one about “appearance,” Jackson does have a point. The only real public emotion she’s ever shown relates to the (apparent) failure of her campaign, and in particular the fact that she’s not going to get the nomination she believed she was somehow entitled to — and it’s coupled with this insufferable hubris about how everything is going to go “backwards” if she isn’t the annointed one.
Actually I think on feministing they posted on some asshat saying that men didn’t vote for Clinton because she reminds them of their nagging wives. A commenter pointed out, though, that the amount of male voters who went for Obama over Clinton was significant among single men but pretty small among married men. I’m sure you’re shocked that his theory doesn’t hold water.
What really bugs me about the MoDo column is that she simultaneously maintains that Clinton is a helpless victim of her emotions and a conniving manipulator who cynically played the “female victim” for political points. Not only that, MoDo wants us to believe that the incident both hurt and helped Clinton. She says that Clinton’s misty-eyed moment forced her campaign to go into “damage control” mode, but she also claims that the episode helped her win voters over. What an incoherent pile of crap.
You know, I finally went and found the little clip of OMFG HILLARY CRIED LIKE A BIG OLD GIRL and watched it, and I feel cheated. That’s IT?! Shit, I’ve gotten more emotional than that sitting on the fucking freeway. (I drive LA freeways, believe me, it’s deserved.) Shit. She came within a few dozen degrees of almost shedding one fifteenth of a tear, and the world cracks in half. This is PATHETIC. We are pathetic. The United States of Pathetic. She should pick her nose and eat it next time, or hang a spoon off her chin, really give them something to freak out over.
You know, I finally went and found the little clip of OMFG HILLARY CRIED LIKE A BIG OLD GIRL and watched it, and I feel cheated. That’s IT?! Shit, I’ve gotten more emotional than that sitting on the fucking freeway. (I drive LA freeways, believe me, it’s deserved.) I know. I found the clip on YouTube for my dad, and he was all, “…Maybe I missed it.”
*thuds* I turned off NPR today because I could not listen to any more crap about “THE WEEPING OF HILLARY CLINTON!” I’m with Jon Stewart… if they think that’s crying they shouldn’t see me at Christmas time, when that song about the boy is who trying to buy shoes for his DYING MOTHER comes on and I weep like an itty bitty baby. MAN I am tearing up just thinking about it. The poor woman hasn’t slept well in probably months, she’s beyond tired. I would be randomly tearing up too! I’ve been known to just start crying over nothing when I haven’t slept in two days!
Have I missed something? I have been looking for mentions on this site of Hillary’s flyers, the ones that misrepresented Obama’s views on abortion rights. Between that and Bill’s misrepresenting Obama’s past views on Iraq, I can’t get over the idea that b.s. helped her win in NH as much as anything else.
Here’s a link explaining Clinton’s misrepresentation of Obama’s voting record on abortion. And if Obama on the war has been a fairy tale, than Hillary is a magical unicorn or something.
Raving Athiest, why is it significant when she shows public emotion? I mean, are you trying to say that you’d respect her more if she went around breaking down all the time? Since one little voice crack has been blown so far out of proportion I think it’s pretty obvious that if she’d ever shown one little tear over anything, even Katrina, we wouldn’t be talking about her right now, she wouldn’t have a career in politics. And frankly, I don’t see why she’s accused of feeling a larger sense of entitlement to the Presidency than a guy who’s been in office for three years and has a horrible attendance record. *shrugs* Everyone who runs for President seem to have a bit of an outsized sense of entitlement and a pretty prodigious ego, oh well.