Obama's Sexism Strategy Rivals Nixon's Southern Strategy

According to an ABC News Report, earlier this month at Tulane University, Barack Obama made this sexist remark about Sen. Hillary Clinton:

"You challenge the status quo and suddenly the claws come out," Obama said. Barack's disrespect of Sen. Clinton sinks lower every day.

And then Friday there comes more. Sen. Clinton pointed out that Barack watered down a bill regulating the nuclear industry after being approached by lobbyists for the industry. A radio program verified the accusation. But Barack doesn't even bother answering the true charge - he just decides to paint Clinton as an emotional woman:

"I understand that Senator Clinton, periodically when she's feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal," he told reporters.

As I've written before, I was in law school for three years with young men like Barack. The sexist slurs rampant through Barack's language are taught and encouraged in young men in the elite law schools. Don't even bother responding to her claims; just mock and dismiss her as an emotional woman. I'm working on a memoir about the phenomenon now. He did the same thing during that contentious debate when Sen. Clinton merely repeated Economist Paul Krugman's challenge of Barack's praising Ronald Reagan. The Krugman column said,

the furor over Barack Obama’s praise for Ronald Reagan is not, as some think, overblown

Sen. Clinton repeated Krugman's words, referencing Obama's praise for Reagan and Barack just outright lied on public television and denied ever saying what he said. Sen. Clinton stared at him. She's a brilliant thinker ready to talk about issues and he responds with negative and personal attacks. He continues to dismiss her and condescend to her and then preach about how "negative" she is. Why are people falling for this? I had an opponent cheat like that in my law school moot court debates. I'd been an award-winning debater in high school and college and had him cornered; he just outright lied - made up a case out of whole cloth and was pronounced the winner. He went on to become editor of the law review. That's why this is all so familiar to me.

When will women - or men for that matter - say it's not okay for a man to be repeatedly rewarded for such base sexism? It's possible the tide may be turning. His latest attempts to refer to her as an emotional woman caused the normally non-confrontational female pundits to finally say enough. This is what the ABC reporter wrote:

According to this unofficial transcript, over at MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell and Norah O'Donnell seemed to suggest Obama may have been -- if not playing the gender card, then using language women voters might find offensive. Language such as "when she's feeling down" "periodically" she "launches attacks."

Nora O'Donnell: "He said, 'I understand when she's down, that she makes these kinds of attacks.' It's getting a little personal."

Andrea Mitchell: "It's getting a little personal and, very frankly, you know how deeply we interpreted every comment to look for some sort of racial motivation before South Carolina. A lot of people said it was there. But, you know, when you start describing a female candidate as being 'down' and 'striking back,' I don't know, that's a little edgy, don't you think?" Nora O'Donnell: "Yeah. And I think there's gonna be a lot more comments about that."*

Pro-Clinton blogger Taylor Marsh writes that words like this, in her view, indicate "a way of thinking about women. A way of demeaning women in power; even saying we're not up to the job. Seriously, Senator Hillary Clinton is a woman running for president. Not some emotional menopausal diva popping pills because she's depressed she broke a nail."

"Claws"…"feeling down"...I find it hard to envision Obama using the same language if he were facing, say, former Sen. John Edwards, D-NC.

I have to pause a little at the timid language of someone as accomplished as Andrea Mitchell - but these timid protests are a first in this campaign and may signal a shift.

Look up the definition of bigotry in the dictionary -- Barack's actions apply. He loves to discredit the good work and experience of Sen. Clinton while she was First Lady for eight years because she was "just a wife." People around the world still talk about Sen. Clinton's stirring speech to the Beijing Conference and her powerful declaration that "women's rights are human rights." But Barack is comfortable discrediting this accomplishment because she was merely a "wife" of a president at the time. Never mind that she graduated from a better law school than he did (Yale is far smaller and harder to get into than Harvard, one of the biggest of the Top 20 law schools). Hillary had an accomplished career of promoting social change long before that moment. He wipes away all of her accomplishments because she was a "wife."

This is how Barack dismisses Sen. Clinton's important efforts to reform health care back when no one else would take it on: "Hollering at Republicans and engaging in petty partisan politics didn't help health care get done."

Sen. Clinton took on health care reform in the 1990s with the same belief as Barack holds now, that it could be accomplished in a bi-partisan way. The history is clear that the special interests slaughtered the proposal with millions of dollars in scare-oriented TV ads, and even Democrats turned on the Clinton proposal because of their heavy connections to the special interests involved. By 1993 it was clear the Gingrich attack machine was in full bore and the Republicans would sweep the 1994 mid-term elections, so there was no longer motivation to support the Clinton proposal.

These events had nothing to do with Sen. Clinton personally - but Barack specializes in personal attacks on Clinton's character. That's how we cut powerful women to size. There's no "change" in that. That's old-fashioned sexism and disrespect for women. "Hollering," "petty" "just a wife," "claws come out"??? And this from the candidate whose campaign fires off four-page emails to the media trying to make everything Hillary and Bill Clinton say sound racist. The media loves it.

Tonight CNN reported that Sen. Clinton's negative statements about Barack are "confrontational." They made no comment about his sexist attacks. If she'd said the equivalent of what he'd said, it would've been the top story of the night. Instead, he attacks with impunity.

Just as Nixon knew there was racism to exploit, Barack seems invigorated by exploiting our fears of strong women. That's every bit as shameful as Nixon playing on racist fears to win the South.

Tonight Carl Bernstein criticized Sen. Clinton for "playing the gender card" by claiming misogyny which, according to him, is "nasty stuff." Blame the victim - attack her character. Last night, Newsweek's Howard Fineman, a supposedly neutral commentator for MSNBC, called Sen. Clinton an "inauthentic" "calculating" "ventriloquist for her husband." We're on a full-fledged witch hunt here.

See my new blog, "Obama's Sexism, Part II - It's about entitlement"

Comments

[yep]

I am earnestly trying to ready your criticism and understand them. You list several quotes:
"Hollering," "petty" "just a wife," "claws come out"
But with the exception of "just a wife" none of them are sexist. And Obama never said that!

Obama could complain about McCain Hollering petty complaints when his claws come out in anger, and this would not be sexist (or even attempting to feminize McCain). So I really think you are stretching here.

I do believe that Clinton has been the victim of (and has been amazingly triumphant over) sexism. But not by Obama. The sexism happened when she was first lady and was characterized as either a frigid, calculating, ice queen lesbian, or a manipulating Lady MacBeth who oversexed her husband and killed Vince Foster (with whom she was having an affair).

I really think that you are trivializing all of the calculated efforts to destroy her character that happened in the 90s that she has fought hard and overcome at the expense of rationalizing and making excuses for what has been a poorly run campaign.

She would have been a fantastic President. But we should not act like it was Obama that brought her down. The fact that she was the presumptive nominee until two months ago is an amazing accomplishment. Obama attacked her because she was the frontronner, not because she is a woman.

[yvonne saenger]

I think women really need to organize now and penalize the media for the horrible sexism that has permeated reporting on this election. (Just see Maureen Dowd's recent column, aptly titled "All about Eve which essentially states that Clinton must be a nasty, calculating person because she is female.) I have heard horrible comments on TV that she "has to be the smartest girl in the class," and has "mood swings." There are T shirts for men saying "Hillary, iron my shirt," and Hillary Clinton nut crackers. Why do we have to put up with this?

[dfb]

I tend to agree with the first comment. The evidence presented here is not proof of sexism on Obama's part. While Clinton certainly has been the victim of sexism, it has come mostly from pundits and the awful makers of the Hillary nutcracker. Just as it is a stretch to interpret Clinton's comments as racist, it is a stretch to say Obama's are sexist. For example, the "periodically" comment was made during a debate, and was clearly not a scripted statement. Obama was not able to choose his words as carefully as he would have liked to. Considering that fact, I doubt that Obama intended to say something sexist. For the most part, Obama has treated Hillary just as he would a male opponent. His negative attacks have been the result of politics, not sexism. While you are quite right about Obama's unfair portrayal of Hillary's healthcare failure, it is not necessarily sexist for him to question how much experience she can claim from her time as first lady. From a feminist standpoint, I believe that this primary season should be considered a victory. Clinton proved to be a very strong candidate, and clearly could have won the nomination. Polls show that she would be a strong general election candidate. It was poor strategy, not her gender, that cost her the nomination.

p.s.
"I was in law school for three years with young men like Barack." Is that not a gender stereotype? Certainly there are men in law school who aren't sexist and might be offended by that comment.

[tmn]

"p.s.
"I was in law school for three years with young men like Barack." Is that not a gender stereotype? Certainly there are men in law school who aren't sexist and might be offended by that comment."
-----
She did not say every young man in law school, she was referring to the one's she compares to Barak. I think it is pretty safe to assume there were at least a few sexist men in law school. Not all...but at least ONE! You would have to be exremely naive to believe otherwise. And yes, it does refer to gender doesn't it? We are talking about gender.

And regarding the "claws coming out" comment, this is not one used to describe a man going on the attack or defending himself. It is a typical turn of phrase used to indicate a cat fight, aka women fighting. Of course Obama would not use it to describe McCain. The bottom line is that he said some pretty offensive, sexist remarks. You can try to interpret them as harmless, but if you are a woman who has ever been subjected to a sexist male, the remarks are obviously sexist. It's not a stretch of the imagination.

[Eric]

The "periodically" issue is such a reach. No where is periodically defined in common or slang usage as sexist except on these fringe crazy people blogs. And that means, if it's not even mentioned anywhere as a slang or derogatory word, then the use of it is so incredibly obscure that few if any people could possibly get that intent. Now if would have said "menopausally" I would agree with you 6000%. But come on. Extend Sen. Obama the same courtesy that was given to "sniper-gate".

[Lisa Nuss]

Eric -
You miss the point. It wasn't the word "periodically," although Barack prides himself on his words so you have to believe it was an intentional choice. The point was he said "periodically, when she's down..." - he suggested she said something inappropriate because she was moody. That's a character attack. Her comments were traditional political comments in a campaign and instead of taking her seriously, he calls her moody. This is consistent with Barack's snipy below the belt personal and character attacks that marked his divisive and negative dirty politics campaign.

I have decided I can't ethically vote for Barack, because he lacks ethics and I don't trust him. I'm still debating leaving the democratic party and registering as an independent.

[Lisa Nuss]

Readers -

Over the years I have deleted very few comments. Two or three were from men, writing anonymously, using dehumanizing and sexually degrading expletives to describe Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Today I deleted one from a man calling a discussion of sexism in the campaign as "garbage." I won't spend my time and energy responding to comments that degrade like that. I leave most angry negative comments on because they speak for themselves. I leave comments on that raise disagreements with my points because they launch thoughtful discussion.

But as I said before, I stopped writing for most internet sites because the onslaught of angry male anonynmous commenters began to direct the nature of the commentary. Women started reacting to the male anger and letting that anger frame the discussion.

I won't let male anger frame the discussion on my blog. A male political candidate who degrades a female candidate in attempt to make her look less serious is a problem. To analyze that behavior is to confront the problem. Dismissing legitimate discussion as "garbage" isn't worth my time to respond to nor my readers' time, in my opinion.

[demwit]

I'm glad I discovered this blog by accident! The analysis is accurate and not emotional.

Yes, Obama was sexist in all the remarks quoted in the blog essay. He also has a general unconscious tendency to be condescending to women, calling them"Sweetie" or putting his hand on their shoulder without permission. One of the clearest examples of sexism was against Geraldine Ferraro in March. When Ferraro talked in an interview by an obscure newspaper about the intertwining of gender and race in 2008, Axelrod brought it out of obscurity -- and out of context -- and claimed Ferraro was making "sinister" racial remarks about Obama, which she wasn't at all, as the newspaper text makes clear. When she tried to defend herself, Axelrod claimed she was using the race card, although that was exactly what he himself had done. Then it was pointed out that Obama had made very similar remarks about himself a few years before, so the matter was dropped -- although the media treated Axelrod/Obama's claim as if it were simply a fact. Then Obama, knowing he'd said the same thing, nevertheless unfairly and inaccurately paired Ferraro with Rev. Wright as an extremist twice in his speech on race in America. Obama knew what he was doing, and he also surely realized that he could never get away with this double-talk and defamation if Ferraro were male.

I think there were two other forms of sexism by Obama and his campaign:
1. The wholesale use of misogynistic words and epithets recycled from Rush Limbaugh and the Repubicans. Typical was "B*****y," a sexist word that tries to shrink Hillary to nothing but the extension of her husband. Or "monster," spoken by a female Obama advisor. Obama never thought he needed to apologize to Hillary for this outrageous word, which will surely never be used against McCain, a male candidate. The blogs were filled with even worse language about Hillary, much of it gender-specific.
2. While Hillary used negative campaigning to attack Obama's job qualifications, the Obama campaign constantly made ad hominem attacks on Hillary's character. Millions of people now believe, incredibly, that Hillary is profoundly racist, amoral, ruthless, stupid, and incompetent. The fake charges of racism were probably never meant to be provable, since the press always treated them simply as fact. Neither Obama nor the press are willing to make similar false charges against the male candidate McCain, because they know there would be strong pushback. The Obama campaign has clearly not tried to demonize McCain in the way it did to Hillary. In America in 2008, it's all right to attack a female candidate's character and her whole being, while male candidates do not have their whole being or their right to exist as a candidate questioned.

There is an interesting article called "Hating Hillary" in New Statesman (5/22) by a Briton named Stephen. He seems to be more objective than most American male journalists, many of whom unconsciously male-bonded with Obama. A link to it might be helpful.

[John]

Obama is a total sexist. Remember how he called the female reporter in Michigan "sweetie?" She knew that she was being discriminated against when she signed off by saying, "Well, this sweetie never did get an answer to the question." He did it against Hillary and now he is calling Palin a pig with lipstick. Obama is as sexist as David Duke is racist.

[rice]

Hello! Nice topic. I think Obama is a vile sexist. Remeber the remark about his grandmother being a "typical white woman?" What the heck is that supposed to mean??? This woman raised him and helped him to the academic level he's reached. What if someone responded to Obama, "Oh? Was your father behaving as typical black male when he left your mother alone to raise you??" Or how abour this..., imagine if the reporter Obama called "sweetie" repsonded to him as "boy"..., hmmm, might have been interesting. BTW, before anyone tries to clobber me, allow me to share that I'm 1/2 black and white, born to WWII generation parents and worked my way up from mopping floors in hospitals to obtaining an ivy league MD. I can assure you that I've seen this militant, female intolerant attitude before in Obama types and find it repulsive.

[mary]

Just a belated reader from Canada. I read the statement from someone above who was apparently (as a male most likely) offended due to the fact that the writer mentions the sexism she encountered in her law school which was similar to the sexism allegedly employed by Baracck to diminish HIllary. Well, statistically, this offended politically correct female or indignant male may want to hear that up here, the same misogynist frat-boy mentality is prevalent at ALL our Law Schools. And we had to put up with such nonsense that denies Women's human rights. As for Barack Himself, well, what in Zeus' posterior does "PERIODICALLY" mean to you, Einstein of Pscychology of Gender 101? Obamarama was clearly putting a woman down cause she happens to haemorrhage on a monthly basis. Is this hormonally challenged by HIS testosterone macho-oratorical standards? Don't think so, buddy! And Hillary's "feeling down" so her "claws come out", eh?" How about telling them folk that "Baravck's just shucking and jivin' at the porch taking easy like always, not willing to lift his finger to do some serious work". The lovely Obamarama media would jump on Hillary and label her "racist". And what about Barrack's playing the RACE CARD shamelessly throughout?

"I don't look like any of these Presidents on the dollar bills..." Well, what do we have here, boys? A crying chicken boy from Hawaii who can't take defeat unless he has to attribute his loss to "racist" proclivities? What a crybaby from Honolulu! A real lulu!