KOK Edit: Your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM)
KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) Katharine O'Moore Klopf
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Saturday, May 24, 2008

Clinton's Character Flaws

There are some female diehard Hillary Clinton fans on an e-mail list that I frequent, and they cry sexism whenever anyone calls Clinton on mistakes, lies, or poor behavior:
There are folks just waiting to jump on anything about Clinton, no matter how small or innocuous. I don't see the same behavior toward [Barack Obama], and I don't think it's because he's any more touched or special or a genius or whatever.

Nope, Obama's not a genius or more special than anyone. Hell, he pissed me off recently because he called a woman whose question he was answering "sweetie." Sweetie?! What is this, the 1950s?! Get rid of that bit of sexism immediately, man.

But I see lots of faults in Clinton because I've endured having her as my senator. For years, I've seen her lie and change her stories and change her positions to suit the particular group she's speaking to. I've seen her be petty and get down in the mud. I've never seen her rise above crap; she just gets in there and slings it with everybody else. I've seen her be fake as all get-out. I've seen her backstab. I would love to have a female president. But when we do have one, I hope to heaven that she's someone with integrity and class. Clinton ain't got 'em. Never has, never will.

I don't even see her as really having had a right to be my senator. She wasn't from New York originally. She hadn't lived here for years, hadn't aspired to be of service to a state she loved. After her husband left the White House, she scouted out soon-to-be available Senate seats, and she wanted a big-name seat, not just any seat anywhere. One of New York's was soon to be open, so she moved here to gain the necessary residential status. And then she ran for the office that she saw as her due after her husband's stint on Pennsylvania Avenue. She used us New Yorkers to build up her résumé for a presidential run.

Sure, some folks are anti-Clinton just because she's a woman. And that's stupid and wrong. But plenty more have seen what I've seen, and that has nothing to do with sexism.



6 comments:

Betsy Davenport said...

I agree with almost everything you say. It is not sexism to criticize HRC, any more than it is racism to criticize Obama.

Character is everything. Hers is poor. There is an old saying which applies, and Obama seems to know its counsel: "Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it."

Anonymous said...

Hi Katharine - I'm clear on the other side of the continent and I can see everything you see about Hilary. I, too, want a woman in the white house, just not THAT woman.

~ Claire

Debby said...

I don't want a woman, black man, jew, muslim, christian, white man, or hispanic in the White House. I want an honorable and qualified person.

Identity politics baffle me.

Katharine O'Moore-Klopf said...

Well, ladies, I say that all four of us run the country by committee. Whaddya think?

Betsy Davenport said...

I, too, am on the far end of the continent, and Oregon is a mix of Democrats in the western part of the state and Republicans on the east. We usually outnumber them, but sometimes by just a hair's breadth.

In Portland, we just elected our first openly gay mayor but that isn't likely to occur in the statehouse.

As for "the four of us" running things, I have often said that if everyone would just do what I tell them, their lives would be so much easier.

Debby said...

I shouldn't be on the committee. No one ever listens to me :)

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