Posted on 01/14/2008 5:34:49 AM PST by Kaslin
In the Capitol rotunda, there’s a piece of marble etched with the faces of famous women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. But part of it will remain conspicuously untouched – bare until the image of the first female President is carved upon it. Given her victory last week in the New Hampshire primary, it’s entirely possible that Hillary Clinton’s will be the face that joins Anthony’s and Stanton’s on the sculpture.
For some time, Hillary has embraced (some would even say exploited) her status as the first female ever to be a serious contender for the presidency, presenting herself as a champion for all women. But just as Bill Clinton sold out almost every political or ideological ally at one time or another for his own political advantage, Hillary is poised to do the same thing -- by engaging in behavior that resurrects the worst stereotypes about female leaders, even as it advances her own quest for power.
Commentators far and wide have acknowledged the political benefits to Clinton of her emotional display during a meeting with New Hampshire voters after her third place finish in the Iowa caucuses. The New York Daily News’ Helen Kennedy observed that Hillary’s “smashing primary success Tuesday came after showing a little female vulnerability, emotion and weakness.” A member of the Obama team credits Hillary’s “choking up” for her come-from-behind victory in the nation’s first primary.
They may well be right. Hillary’s weepiness offered a glimpse at the inner life of a candidate who too often seems unattractive – almost inhuman – in her hectoring, rigidity and relentless pursuit of power. But although her tears helped Clinton as an individual candidate, they certainly make life more difficult for any woman who follows in her footsteps. After all, it's fair for voters to ask: If a tough old bird like Hillary dissolves into tears when the going gets tough, what woman wouldn't?
The behavior that some believe clinched Clinton's New Hampshire victory raised other serious questions: If Hillary is tearing up publicly over a single political defeat in the earliest phases of the presidential election process, how exactly would she (or any woman) handle the dispiriting setbacks that inevitably come with holding the most powerful office in the world? And is an image of “female vulnerability” – however politically advantageous to Hillary personally, now or in the future – really what Americans want to project to Islamofascists around the world?
Nor were her tears the only setback Hillary dealt the cause of women in politics last week. When two men – dolts, to be sure – disrupted a Clinton event by raising signs and chanting “Iron my shirt!” Hillary immediately responded with some bitterness, “"Oh, the remnants of sexism, alive and well tonight.” With that, she immediately lent credence to the all-too-widely held suspicion that lurking within even the most powerful professional woman is a humorless feminist, ready (even eager) to denounce men as sexist pigs.
For Hillary herself, it made good political sense to play the victim, and her gambit to elicit sympathy and fellow-feeling from women in the crowd seems to have worked. But how much more admirable would she have been if her reply had reflected a mature recognition that some people – men and women alike – are simply idiots, to be dismissed with grace and good humor? She could easily have demonstrated a particularly female kind of resilience had she joked, "Well, it certainly looks like someone needs to iron your shirts – just for starters – and, by the way, when’s the last time you guys showered?!”
Ultimately, no one can justly claim the mantle of a feminist pioneer if she ends up creating more, not fewer, barriers for the women who will one day seek to succeed her. After all, part of the reason that Anthony and Stanton have been immortalized in marble in the nation’s Capitol is because they actually succeeded in improving the quality of life not so much for themselves as for those who came after them.
As Hillary uses every sniffle and lecture to bring her one step closer to the job she’s yearned for so fiercely and so long, it would be good if she thought about the kind of trail she’s blazing for the next female presidential hopeful, Democrat or Republican. But then, thinking of others has never been the Clinton way.
What I'm far more sure of is that they were paid to do it by the Clintons.
If you don't vote for B. Hussein O., you're a bigot AND anti-muslem.
So.....if you don't vote for a white man, you're a bigot and a sexist.
"We are all equally different."
So, it's OK.
FICTION:
“As a young girl, I had the great privilege of hearing Dr. King speak in Chicago. The year was 1963. My youth minister from our church took a few of us down on a cold January night to hear someone that we had read about, we had watched on television, we had seen with our own eyes from a distance, this phenomenon known as Dr. King. He titled the sermon he gave that night “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.”
— Hillary Clinton, March 4, 2007, on the 42nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma.
...................................................
Fact:
This amazing brush with history has been featured prominently in Hillary’s ghostwritten autobiography and all of the other hagiographies written about her, where it is uniformly presented as a watershed moment in her young life.
However, despite her various recollections of the event, the young Diane Rodham (as she called herself then) went to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 15, 1962.
But far more importantly, it would appear that Mr. King didn’t make much of an impression on herself at all. Since after having had that supposedly life-changing moment, young Diane went on to become a “Goldwater Girl” and to campaign door to door for her candidate throughout the fall of 1964.
Unfortunately for the Hillary mythos, as I have mentioned elsewhere, her hero Mr. Goldwater was adamantly opposed to the passage of the Civil Right Act of 1964, which of course was Mr. King’s primary cause at the time.
just imagine if one drop were to have hit the floor - just remember the movie "The China Syndrome".
She is no self-made personality.
Black, white, man, woman...The decision is so hard...Baby killing, Auto Tax increases, An illegal living next door, State imposed Euthansia via Universal Health Care...
Got ahold of myself...Voting Republican!! Thompson is my first choice...
What I find fascinating is that society is just fine with womanly women, and doesn’t really like manly women. Hillery acting like a pre-feminist woman gains her the kind of power feminists want, but acting like a feminazi robs her of it.
When she is president, there will be no tears because she will have the power to make people do what she wants. She will have everything she needs to get her way. She wasn't crying about the rigours of campainging, but the BS she has to take to get the stupid people to vote for her.
 |
 |
. . . . “it’s entirely possible that Hillary Clinton’s will be the face that joins Anthony’s and Stanton’s on the sculpture.”
Should this ever, (God forbid) become a possibility, I suggest they carve the back of her head in the stone, since she has always turned her back on everything except what would be good for hillary.
The Ballard of Hillaree
With apologies to Paul Henning
Come, listen to a story ‘bout a gal named Hill,
Hitched her star to a Bubba named Bill,
Then one day, tried to go it alone,
Only to find that she did not own.
Charm that is. Pol savvy. Schmoooze.
Well, the first thing you know ol Hill’s in trouble,
Staff kindly said, “your numbers need to double”,
Said, “buy some votes is what you oughta do”,
“For you and Bubba, that’s nothin’ new”.
Cemeteries. Soup kitchens. Buss em.
Well now it’s time for ol Hill and all her kin,
To thank all you dummies fer heppin her to win,
Ya’ll are invited to her next locality,
For another heap’n help’n of her treachery.
HillBilly magic. Cast a spell. Turn off your cell.
Don’t look back now! Y’hear?
If I’m not mistaken, Hillary did not shed tearS (plural). Her eyes welled up but I don’t remember seeing one tear drop. Did I miss that part of the video? I’m open for correction .
You are correct; I just needed a liquid tear for my quip about its corrosiveness.
Bump-a-roo
.
Slack Willie is not too slick anymore!
Thanks for the ping!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.