DEMOCRATIC WOMEN (IN POLITICS) JUST CAN'T WIN WITH THE MEDIA

I have just read several posts in several blogs that reminded me of the furor (in '92) over whether or not Hillary Clinton was a traditional wife/mother or not. First, she said she wouldn't spend her life (just) baking cookies. Then, when she was forced to remake her image (not herself) to suit the MSM, she exposed that part of her life that took pleasure in mothering and hospitality, it was interpreted by the media as a false, calculated political move.

I just don't get the Hillary hatred. Libby Dole was a political wife who moved from the private sector to a Senatorial position. Why was her law degree and successes in the private sector so acceptable, but not Hillary's? Why is Margaret Thatcher, whose industrialist husband largely financed her political career, an icon to conservatives, but Hillary is thought of as a ball-breaker? Let me relate a personal incident. When The Sage and I, about six years ago, visited the UK and took tea with Lady Thatcher, we were supposed to also have dinner with her and Sir Dennis (her husband) at Parliament. It didn't happen (I won't go into our troubles that trip), but our traveling companion, the Thatcher's almost-adopted son, did sup with them that night. Our friend Chuck (a dyed-in-the-wool conservative Republican) related that the most memorable moment of the evening was when the Thatchers argued vigorously over the tip. My point is, married couples, political or NOT, are made up of individuals -- and when the female of the couple is a strong, independent woman, there are bound to be disagreements. These do not necessarily require a breakup of the marital, or family, unit. And one member of the unit does not necessarily define the other.

Hillary is not running as a surrogate for Bill. In fact, I think she might make a better president than he did. But the record of Democratic women is not good with the media. Former Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run on a presidential ticket (as running mate to Walter Mondale), was excoriated not for her own record but because the MSM portrayed her businessman husband as a mafioso. Since Nancy Pelosi ascended to the Speakership of the House, she has been attacked for her gender repeatedly, even demonized by the right-wing media. And the MSM hasn't been much better.

It's seemingly wonderful that the media appears to be so ready to accept and applaud the campaign of a multi-cultural (I think of it more that way than multi-racial) person such as Barack Obama ... but a media that is so demonstrably anti-Democratic-female (why us, I wonder?), I am convinced, is not to be trusted not to turn and blister someone like Barack, who is unconnected with the Washington party circuit. Just wait until the general election race begins. We won't hear race injected in an honest way in the media -- we'll hear the same kind of "is he ready?" arguments that while Clinton raised them were considered "race-based," but will get a pass in the MSM when the Republicans pose them.