--- In [email protected], "Rick Archer" <r...@...> wrote:
> Good interview. Here's a quote they replayed from her concession speech:
> "Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to
> dwell on what might have been." No hint in the interview of Hillary having
> sour grapes. No indication that he regards Obama as a "stuffed suit." She
> clearly gave the impression that she is very impressed with Obama and enjoys
> working with him. Could it possibly be, Raunchy, that her perspective is a
> little bit better informed than yours?
>

My opinion that Obama is an emptysuit has nothing to do with Hillary's private 
or public opinion of him. Does anyone know what anyone REALLY thinks?  What 
Hillary thinks of Obama`s polices at any point in time depends on the issues at 
hand.  What does it matter anyway?  Whether Hillary agrees or disagrees with 
Obama, she clearly understands her role as SOS and the importance of supporting 
his policies in the interest of national security.  Hillary takes her job 
seriously and has a strong sense of patriotic duty that impels her to her best 
for Obama and for our country. 

Once again, Rick, I don't care that Hillary lost. I care how she lost. The DNC 
and Obama's complicity in allowing blatant sexism to run wild in the primary 
will always be a sore spot for me whether it is for Hillary or not.  

For the Record  
by Melissa McEwan | Tuesday, June 03, 2008

I'm not sad because Obama's the nominee.

I'm sad because there are women at this blog, in my personal life, across this 
nation, and—if my inbox is any indication—across the globe, women of all races 
and sexualities and socio-economic classes, many of whom weren't even Hillary 
Clinton supporters, many of whom voted for Obama in the primary, who have 
watched with horror the seething hatred directed at Hillary Clinton just 
because she is a woman.

(I'm not talking about legitimate criticisms of her campaign, which I have made 
myself. I'm not saying any criticism of Clinton is de facto sexist; it isn't. 
I'm talking specifically and only about misogynist attacks, which are always 
unjustified and smear not just the woman at whom they are directed, but all 
women.)

And these women have witnessed this despicable but spectacular marriage of 
aggressive misogyny and their long-presumed allies' casual indifference to it, 
and wondered what fucking planet they were on that dehumanizing eliminationist 
rhetoric, to which lefty bloggers used to object once upon a time, was now 
considered a legitimate campaign strategy, as long as it was aimed at a 
candidate those lefty bloggers didn't like.

And these women felt, quite rightly, like feminist principles were being thrown 
to the wolves in a fit of political expedience.

And these women felt personally abandoned. By people they had considered allies.

And while they struggled to understand just what was happening, while they were 
losing their way along well-traveled paths that no longer felt familiar or 
welcoming, they were admonished like children to stop taking things personally. 
They were sneered at for playing identity politics. They were demeaned as 
ridiculous, overwrought, hysterics. They were called bitches and cunts. They 
were bullied off blogs they'd called home for years.

(But don't take that personally.)

And now, at long last, even now, when Clinton cannot win, she is being pushed 
out, carelessly, rudely, with little regard for the implicit message in 
hustling a historic candidate off the stage and demanding her graciousness in 
defeat, despite offering her no graciousness in victory. Right to the end, 
there is a lack of respect that hurts to watch.

And I'm sad because I know there are women who are hurting. Not because their 
candidate lost. Clinton may not have even been their candidate. They're hurting 
because misogyny hurts all women, and because they have fewer allies than they 
once thought.

And unlike the people (including many of these women) who are feeling the same 
way with regard to racism in this campaign, who are licking wounds of racist 
attacks even as preparations begin for the breathtakingly awesome celebration 
of the first ever presumptive nominee of color, ZOMG, these women do not have 
an equivalent wonder to celebrate. They don't have a "despite it all." They 
don't have a step forward to point to, to say the pain was worth it.

They just have the pain.

And I'm sad because I see so little evidence of people who are willing to 
understand that.


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