IM BLACK. I AM A WOMAN. I CAMPAIGNED ACTIVELY FOR HILLARY CLINTON. I supported her because I just god damn like the woman, despite any of her flaws. (And YES, candidates are flawed and a segment of supporters of BOTH Obama and Hillary are equally cultish.) And I also supported her because I interned for 2 years in her DC office. So my support is insanely loyal and genuine.
Anyhow, here is my experience campaigning for Hillary08:
I would be in a campaign office, or at a town hall and I had a few instances where I would walk into a room and sometimes fellow hillary campaigners would hush up or pretend they were talking about something else, because they thought I would hear what they were saying about the racial aspects of the primaries, or when they were saying racially insensitive things about Obama. I once had some old guy in a car stick his finger at me and say FUCK OBAMA. People I would approach when I campaigned assumed I was from the Obama camp just because I was black, and sometimes reacted with glares or outright hostility to me.
This is just to tell you where im coming from.
When i campaigned, there were A LOT of racist comments made regularly in the campaign offices where I worked (Indiana and Pennsylvania) and at the rallys and town halls she did. I would hear "nigger" or "uppity" thrown around about Obama. Did it deter my loyalty or support for her? NO.
Sexism is a LOT harder to detect and people can be mysoginistic without knowing it. Frankly I thought it was mysoginistic when the men in the MSM praised Hillary for having "testicular fortitude" as if she needed to have aspects of masculinity to be a good president. Like Bernie Mac, it was a JOKE right?
But like you feel about the Bernie Mac joke, I thought the mere implications quotes like that are seriously more damaging to the idea that a WOMAN could be a strong leader in the US. No one here said anything about that, in fact I saw people here praising that. Same with the idea that being an intellectual is being "effete" as the media calls Obama. Or the idea that for the white male dominated media, he's not black enough for them but sometimes too black! It smacks of white paternalism, most people here however didnt see that. Both Hillary and Obama had to tip-toe around this messy and obscure lines of race and gender, and both sometimes had some missteps.
So onto Bernie Mac's sexist and racist jokes, I dont think Obama realized the sexist extent of the joke as he realized the racial aspect of it. A slip up. I forgive him. But while Obama made none of the comments himself, it seemed that he was giving tacit approval. He wasnt, at least not intentionally.
Out of all the racial slip ups i've had to endure while working for the Clintons, and seeing some of the tactics which came from above which I do think were racially divisive and disappointing to me, I still was intensely loyal to her. In NO WAY do i think the Clintons are in any way shape or form, racist! The "southern strategy" can be used without one being a racist. Another example: Karl Rove's father is gay and he has a very close relationship with him, so obviously he is not homophobic. But he created a religious right backlash against gays, using gay marriage as a wedge issue. One can use these divisive tactics because they work, not because thats their hidden homophobia, racism, or mysoginy. I stood silent when I saw Clinton using racially divisive tactics. I know the code words. Dont tell me i didnt hear them.
But trying to push the idea that Obama is a sexist is just false and wrong. He is a little absentminded when it comes to gender issues, and of course he doesnt see the line as clearly as women do. He's a man. But that fact doesnt excuse anything. But I can understand it. I also understand that Obama is probably better at seeing the faultlines on race better than Clinton. Does it mean Clinton was a racist and doesnt care about issues regarding racial disparities economically just because she said something divisive, at times, unknowingly? Absolutely not.
I dont expect pure political correctness from him as I didnt with the many instances of political incorrectness coming from Hillary's campaign with regards to race was foregone by the Hillary herself, the Clinton campaign, its surrogates, supporters, and the media. I only supported Hillary because I once worked for her and liked her all my life, and oh yeah, I actually care about keeping her legacy intact and getting healthcare passed, and getting my 3 brothers out of Iraq (they're on their 3rd deployment), and my aunt lost her house from the mortgage crisis...so I think I kinda want that solved...
So now onto John McCain who obviously has the least regard for women or minorities out of either Clinton or Obama:
I dont think John McCain is mysoginist or racist, I think he just doesnt care. I dont think Bush is a racist or mysoginist, but look what we got in Katrina with a president who didnt really care.
McCain voted against equal pay for women because he said the lawsuits would be a hassle. He voted for healthcare insurance companies to cover Viagra for men, but voted AGAINST allowing coverage of prescription birth control for women.
John McCain sued his 1st wife (whom he had 3 children with) for divorce RIGHT after he came home from Vietnam because she gained a little weight and was 5 inches shorter after having 12 surgeries due to a serious car accident that crippled her temporarily. He did not support her after their divorce. While McCain was a POW, his first wife became close friends with Nancy Reagan. The Reagans had to support her monetarily and looked after her and never forgave John McCain for abandoning her after he came back from Vietnam.
Cindy McCain on Jay Leno described how they met. They were at a fancy party and he was chasing her around a table of orderves (s/p?) and she thought "he was a little weird". Want to know what's weirder? She was 24, he was 42! What's worse is that in the recent LA Times story, he lied about how they were married. He claimed he separated his first wife before he went after beer-fortune heiress Cindy McCain. Turns out, he was still cohabitating with his 1st wife, and was dating Cindy McCain while married to his 1st wife. Of course, now there are allegations that his staff had to "protect him from himself" with another new and younger blonde lobbyist whom he had a close friendship, Vicky Iseman. And the right wingers have the audacity to preach about family values and the homophobic "sanctity of marriage" when their presumptive standard-bearer cant even live up to those standards.
But forgetting McCain's record or marital infidelity, lets talk about crude jokes and comments:
John McCain made extremely ugly remarks about his wife Cindy McCain during a tirade directly witnessed by three reporters and two aides. "At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, 'You're getting a little thin up there,'" Schechter writes. "McCain's face reddened, and he responded, 'At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.' McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days."
No one in the MSM covered it.
John McCain made possibly one of the CRUDEST, SEXIST jokes about Chelsea Clinton in the midst of the Clinton's lewisnky scandal, and she was only still in her teenage years at the time:
"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."
No one in the MSM covered it. Partly because it was so crude, but partly because the media has been McCain's lapdog since his POW days.
MotherJones's David Corn wrote for Salon.com:
McCain's two-liner conveys some interesting insights into what he considers humorous (lesbianism, a young woman's physical appearance), particularly since it was delivered to a Republican crowd. Remember, this is the party that champions pro-family values.
McCain's lapse in judgment may be a significant clue into aspects of his "character," and thus relevant to the voting public. But many voters have been spared this insight, thanks to the censors in the press.
Accordingly, McCain is well-positioned to ride out this messy little episode. Ever since he started championing the anti-tobacco bill (which was torpedoed by his GOP comrades), McCain has been the White House's pet Republican on the Hill. Consequently, the White House played down his Chelsea remarks. McCain is also unusually popular with the media. He gives good quotes; he is outspoken. He takes positions that contradict the Republican leadership. When you talk to McCain, he converses in the manner of a real person, seemingly telling you what he thinks. That is rare among elected officials. Ask him a question and he does not shift into automatic-politician mode, as do most members of Congress.
The former Vietnam POW should escape this matter without serious political harm. In the inevitable magazine profiles of McCain that will be written, there will no doubt be the perfunctory line: "McCain's tendency to speak too freely was proven when he made a distasteful joke at a fund-raiser about the first family and then had to apologize to the president."
But the joke revealed more than a mean streak in a man who would be president. It also exposed how the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times play favorites when reporting the foibles of our leading politicians.
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