One of the things that bothers me is that I get email from people that think I am part of some network of boys that are unfairly trying to push Clinton out of the race and that there is some kind of misogyny involved in this conspiracy. I know some people make obnoxious, even misogynistic, comments in the blogosphere. Whenever I have noticed them on this site I have asked people to stop. To be truthful, there have been very few examples here. Certainly no one has posted anything even remotely critical of Clinton’s gender on the front-page of this site. I can’t say I have the time to read every diary, so I can’t vouch for them.
Throughout this campaign I have always said that Clinton’s gender was, for me, her most attractive feature as a candidate. I have argued that she is so talented that she might well have become a senator and run for president even without being married to Bill Clinton. I have never argued that being First Lady isn’t excellent experience for a would-be president. I haven’t nitpicked her on every little negative story that comes down the pike. I have generally (but not always) ignored stories that might hurt her in the general, but not in the primary. Today there are two stories that are perfect examples of what I have not criticized Clinton on.
It turns out that the little girl that read a poem to Hillary on the tarmac in Tuzla is shocked that Clinton would lie about her trip there. And it turns out that Clinton isn’t paying the health insurance premiums for her employees. Both stories make Clinton look terrible (and less electable in the general), but I don’t really give a crap about stories like that. I would oppose any serious DLC candidate for the presidency with the same vigor as I oppose Clinton. If Lieberman or Roemer or Carper or Vilsack or Bayh were the last candidate in the race against Obama, I would fight the same way. It is possible to oppose a faction within the Democratic Party without it being personal.
I am aware, even if I have trouble understanding, that some women are personally invested in the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. It seems to me that there is a certain lack of the ‘personal’ involved in this, too. The investment seems to be less in Hillary Clinton as an individual and more in her as a symbol. I get reactions from friends as if I have insulted them personally by being dismissive of Clinton’s campaign. They tell me that I am acting as if they are stupid, or that I set up moral absolutes that they can’t live up to, or that cut only one way.
It’s baffling, although I am trying to listen to these objections rather than simply dismiss them. But that effort isn’t helped when I get lumped in with misogynists or told that I am just trying to push the woman out.
It’s my political analysis that Clinton can’t win the nomination without going really negative and splintering the party. Obama is an acceptable nominee to me. I do not want to see him damaged by Democrats; I want to see him defended. It’s true that I oppose Clinton politically, but I also want what is best for the party. And at this point, I think the interests of Obama and the interests of the party dovetail.
I do know that some people are feeling a sense of loss and sadness or even frustration with the failure of Clinton’s campaign, and I do not mean to disrespect those feelings. I find them odd in people that otherwise agree with me politically. They have fought against the DLC appeaseniks, railed against the Peter Beinerts and Michael O’Hanlons, blasted the anti-50 staters Emanuel, Carville, and Begala, etc. They would normally cry foul at race-baiting or wedge politics. Yet, they don’t see Clinton as the leader of a pro-war, pro-corporate, pro-triangulation, anti-progressive, anti-netroots faction. They seem disconcertingly incapable of seeing (or, in some cases, able to rationalize) racial attacks. Instead, they see her as a woman, and a woman whose success or failure is somehow a success or failure for them personally.
I hear you. But I am so far from thinking that way that any offense is purely inadvertent. I want Obama because I oppose Clintonism, not women. I am being harsh in my criticisms because I am extremely sensitive to racial politics. I’d love to see a woman president, or vice-president. I just want one that I agree with politically. And I want to get behind our nominee now and start the fight. I don’t want our nominee weakened and I don’t want his time and resources diverted from the main event.
It’s not personal. It never was.
