OBMAM 08

THE woman in question became a lawyer after some years as a community organizer, married a corporate lawyer and is the mother of two little girls, ages 9 and 6. Herself the daughter of a white American mother and a black African father — in this race-conscious country, she is considered black — she served as a state legislator for eight years, and became an inspirational voice for national unity.

Be honest: Do you think this is the biography of someone who could be elected to the United States Senate? After less than one term there, do you believe she could be a viable candidate to head the most powerful nation on earth?

If you answered no to either question, you’re not alone. Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the question is who must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White House. This country is way down the list of countries electing women and, according to one study, it polarizes gender roles more than the average democracy.

That’s why the Iowa primary was following our historical pattern of making change. Black men were given the vote a half-century before women of any race were allowed to mark a ballot, and generally have ascended to positions of power, from the military to the boardroom, before any women (with the possible exception of obedient family members in the latter).

If the lawyer described above had been just as charismatic but named, say, Achola Obama instead of Barack Obama, her goose would have been cooked long ago. Indeed, neither she nor Hillary Clinton could have used Mr. Obama’s public style — or Bill Clinton’s either — without being considered too emotional by Washington pundits.

So why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one? The reasons are as pervasive as the air we breathe: because sexism is still confused with nature as racism once was; because anything that affects males is seen as more serious than anything that affects “only” the female half of the human race; because children are still raised mostly by women (to put it mildly) so men especially tend to feel they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman; because racism stereotyped black men as more “masculine” for so long that some white men find their presence to be masculinity-affirming (as long as there aren’t too many of them); and because there is still no “right” way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what.

I’m not advocating a competition for who has it toughest. The caste systems of sex and race are interdependent and can only be uprooted together. That’s why Senators Clinton and Obama have to be careful not to let a healthy debate turn into the kind of hostility that the news media love. Both will need a coalition of outsiders to win a general election. The abolition and suffrage movements progressed when united and were damaged by division; we should remember that.

I’m supporting Senator Clinton because like Senator Obama she has community organizing experience, but she also has more years in the Senate, an unprecedented eight years of on-the-job training in the White House, no masculinity to prove, the potential to tap a huge reservoir of this country’s talent by her example, and now even the courage to break the no-tears rule. I’m not opposing Mr. Obama; if he’s the nominee, I’ll volunteer. Indeed, if you look at votes during their two-year overlap in the Senate, they were the same more than 90 percent of the time. Besides, to clean up the mess left by President Bush, we may need two terms of President Clinton and two of President Obama.

But what worries me is that he is seen as unifying by his race while she is seen as divisive by her sex.

What worries me is that she is accused of “playing the gender card” when citing the old boys’ club, while he is seen as unifying by citing civil rights confrontations.

What worries me is that male Iowa voters were seen as gender-free when supporting their own, while female voters were seen as biased if they did and disloyal if they didn’t.

What worries me is that reporters ignore Mr. Obama’s dependence on the old — for instance, the frequent campaign comparisons to John F. Kennedy — while not challenging the slander that her progressive policies are part of the Washington status quo.

What worries me is that some women, perhaps especially younger ones, hope to deny or escape the sexual caste system; thus Iowa women over 50 and 60, who disproportionately supported Senator Clinton, proved once again that women are the one group that grows more radical with age.

This country can no longer afford to choose our leaders from a talent pool limited by sex, race, money, powerful fathers and paper degrees. It’s time to take equal pride in breaking all the barriers. We have to be able to say: “I’m supporting her because she’ll be a great president and because she’s a woman.”

Gloria Steinem is a co-founder of the Women’s Media Center.

We need good judgment at this critical time; not a crying lady, their are lot of strong ladies out their to offer the body change she is talking about.

Her list:

In 2000, Hillary was elected to the United States Senate from New York. As Senator, Hillary has continued her advocacy for children and families and has been a national leader on homeland security and national security issues.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Hillary worked with her colleagues to secure the funds New York needed to recover and rebuild. She fought to provide compensation to the families of the victims, grants for hard-hit small businesses, and health care for front line workers at Ground Zero. And she continues to work for resources that enable New York to grow, to improve homeland security for New York and other communities, and to protect all Americans from future attacks.

She is the first New Yorker ever to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee, working to see that America's military has the necessary resources to protect our national security. She has visited troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Fort Drum in New York, home of the 10th Mountain Division and other New York bases, as well as at Walter Reed Military Hospital. She has learned first-hand the challenges facing American combat forces. Hillary passed legislation to track the health status of our troops so that conditions like Gulf War Syndrome would no longer be misdiagnosed. She is an original sponsor of legislation that expanded health benefits to members of the National Guard and Reserves and has been a strong critic of the Administration's handling of Iraq.

But Hillary has recognized that we can't ignore our problems at home while we face challenges overseas. She has introduced legislation to tie Congressional salary increases to an increase in the minimum wage, because she believes if America's working people don't deserve a raise, neither does Congress. She has supported a variety of middle-class tax cuts, including marriage penalty relief, property tax relief, and reduction in the Alternative Minimum Tax, and supports fiscally responsible pay-as-you-go budget rules. She helped pass legislation that encouraged investment to create jobs in struggling communities through the Renewal Communities program. She has championed legislation to bring broadband Internet access, which is so important in today's information economy, to rural America.

In the Senate, Hillary has not wavered in her work to expand quality affordable health care to more Americans. She worked to strengthen the Children's Health Insurance Program, which increased coverage for children in low income and working families. She authored legislation that has been enacted to improve quality and lower the cost of prescription drugs and to protect our food supply from bioterrorism. She sponsored legislation to increase America's commitment to fighting the global HIV/AIDS crisis, and is now leading the fight for expanded use of information technology in the health care system to decrease administrative costs, lower premiums, and reduce medical errors.

Her strong advocacy for children continues in the Senate. Some of Hillary's proudest achievements have been her work to ensure the safety of prescription drugs for children, with legislation now included in the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act, and her legislation to help schools address environmental hazards. She has also proposed expanding access to child care. She has passed legislation that will bring more qualified teachers into classrooms and more outstanding principals to lead our schools.

Hillary has been a powerful advocate for women in the Senate. Her commitment to supporting the rights guaranteed in Roe v. Wade and to reducing the number of abortions by reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies was hailed by the New York Times as "frank talk...(and) a promising path." Hillary is one of the original cosponsors of the Prevention First Act to increase access to family planning. Her fight with the Bush Administration ensured that Plan B, an emergency contraceptive, will be available to millions of American women and will reduce the need for abortions.

Hillary is strongly committed to making sure that every American has the right to vote in fair, accessible, and credible elections. She introduced the Count Every Vote Act of 2005 to ensure better protection of votes and to ensure that every vote is counted.

In 2006, New Yorkers reelected Hillary to the Senate with 67 percent of the vote.

"Hillary passed legislation to track the health status of our troops"

I just witnessed the burial of my 22 year old active 82nd Airborne Army cousin, who was like a brother, at Arlington National this past weekend. He went through sickness after sickness until his final sickness over the holidays that resulted in his final passing. The first sickness occurred while fighting in Afghanistan and then kept coming back when he came home. When he got sick again and was training for Iraq, they told him to 'suck it up'. He got married last summer to his high school sweetheart and their whole marriage was him being sick from fighting overseas and not being taken care of properly over there and over here.

Thank you Hillary for caring, we need more care for our troops. Maybe if there was more care for our military personnel he would still be alive today.

What has Obama REALLY done!? Besides talk like a preacher in a church and act and compare himself to MLK & JFK (he isn't even close). I am just waiting for his next speech that starts with "I have a dream...." because he is oh so close.

He disgraced the White House once, I refuse to give him another chance.

It takes a super black man like Obama to see through what the Clintons are. Obama will unite the nation while the Clintons divide the nation to advance themselves financially and politically.

She has a long track record of working for children, families and for the American middle class – the heart of our country – to make us stronger and to make us better people. She has a good heart, good intentions and comes from a working middle-class family whose mother came from a dysfunctional family and was abandoned along with her sibling at the age of 8, yet was still able to raise her children with family values and a strong educations. Hillary knows what she was given by a mother that wasn't given much and she seems to want to give that back to our country. She doesn't sugar coat her speeches, they are from the heart and are true to what she believes in and what she has worked for her entire career. Take a look at her work, her life and what she stands for. You all talk about where Obama comes from and what he has gone through, Hillary's background wasn't spoonfed to her – she had to work for it and was taught to stand up for herself and that is what she did to win in NH.

GO HILLARY! Don't let these boys bully you around.

When Obama swept in Iowa it was on the front page of the World newspapers, more so than in our own papers! I couldn't believe it and neither could Europe. They are impressed, as well they should be. Obama is not the run-of-the-mill politician, he is the man to take us into our next era. We need a united country to solve he issues we're facing and he seems to have to tune of the real people.

Let's not forget that Bill's presidency, for all the good he did the US, was most famous for the embarrassment and public impeachment process that he put us through. I am so sick and tired of those kind of politicians. How many have been arrested for their various types of corruption and dissent!!

We all knew in the back of our minds that there was a reason why Hillary didn't leave Bill after that fiasco. Now we know!!

Think about it! No one would consider her if she was the divrocee of the ex-President?? She is nothing without Bill by her side, whereas Obama can one his own merits.

If Hillary wins the nominations, we will lose more Dems to the Republicans just not to have her as ouyr President!

Now, I would like to dispel the disillusionment of experience. What is experience? Is experience the idea of having done something similar or identical to something you plan to do or is experience success at endeavors of your past that are similar to obstacles you plan to face in your future. I have widened my vision to span the horizon of each presidential hopeful and I have yet to see any experience. Who says that being a governor makes you qualified to be the president. What diplomacy does a governor demonstrate? What foreign policy does a governor generate? This list of questioning goes on because the positions are vastly different. More importantly, there is little comparison between the job senator and president. So again I ask you where does this term, “experience,” come from when none of the candidates have been president. All of these candidates have failed to demonstrate certain abilities of the president simply because their current positions don’t allow them the opportunity to demonstrate certain skills. Therefore, there is an experience level deficiency for any candidate, who is not the incumbent, who runs for president. This is something we all know intuitively, but fail to address, because we would prefer to distinguish candidates by skill level instead of matters of merit. WAKE UP!!!!

and the reverse is what exactly? that one is negative and the other is positive? That's what i love about the Cllintons, the uncanny ability to say absolutely nothing and be quite passionate about it.

Media savvy is born out of experience...Say it like it is Bill..

Way to go!
I'd say you know a thing or two about the media, and your right..... the media knows exactly what they're doing.

The idea of impartial reporting and getting the facts is a thing of the past.
Now it's all about what sells copy. No matter what the truth is or who it hurts.
Sensationalism.

Someone in an other post said Obama Hussien has climbed in wealth and position and left his Keyan family in a mud hut.

Where will the American family be left should he reach the White House??
Any media anywhere asking these questions????
Guess not huh?

I was wrong.

No cake or frosting for us, folks. It's going to be person by person, bayonet to bayonet, even steven in the trenches. We've worked our butts off to have that opportunity and don't kid yourselves, its the most golden one we could ask for. We got lucky tonight instead of fat and lazy. Lucky.

I'll explain.

Only now, a few hours after losing New Hampsire by 2 points and probably still counting, I'm beginning to realize that this is the best possible senario we could have wished for. Just like how Bush needs terror and how Rudy needs Hillary, uh... we need our own Darth Vader too. We need a villian for our art house indie flick to become a blockbuster with legs. Without Hillary Clinton, there's no third act to our script. There's no Death Star. There's no sequel.

Without a close race, we wont continue to build the public interest and hone our muscles for a general election. If Hillary bowed out now Barack would still seem untested in the Republican showdown. There'd be no drama or sweat equity invested in the many States left to weigh in.

Maybe if he'd lost by ten points I'd say something different. But it was so close that all it did was keep eyes on us and keep it interesting. Get it?

He lost by a point and a half, maybe. He's going to win South Carolina and Nevada is going to be a razor's edge either way. It's wide open and ours to lose. If you're in the dumps wash the dirt out of your ears and eyes and look around.

Look at what a brilliant speaker Barack has evolved into and what a movement he's created. Why? It's because of the adversity he's faced, because of the passion adversity creates and not the ease of his candicacy. Never ease. Ease = ease up.

No doubt its the same in all our lives. We're defined not by our victories, but how we handle our tribulations. Our trials make us who we are. Whole.

Yes, The Empire Strikes Back. Now we must use the force and Darth Vader Must bite the dust if we are ever to restore the old Republic to its former glory.

Let it all come what may and let it all matter. Let each State have an equal voice in deciding the next leader of the free world as should be their right. New Hampshire might have deprived a majority of the country of their say in electing the first black man to the office of President. How unfair would that have been?

If Barack and through Barack we, all of us, cannot win anywhere the fight goes from here, then we don't deserve it because ultimately we NEED to win the general. The best person needs to win for the sake of this country. Thanks to Barack is all shaping up to be the most honest race to the White House in modern memory. There's a real choice to be had and we've provided it for the American public.

Earlier tonight, as results came in, preparing for my weekly meeting to phonebank, I said a prayer for Barack. I'm not overly religious, but this was a big deal for me. Melissa, my wife, corrected my prayer. She said, "Instead of asking God to help Barack win, say, 'help the best person to win. That's all you can hope for."

She was right. To me, it was saying the same thing, but the phrasing was everything, because I know in my very soul that Barack IS the best person. I have nothing to fear and nothing to hide in that regard. Let them vet him until the cows come home to Bill Clinton's farm.

Bill Clinton was right today when he suggested that Barack Obama needs to be vetted. Let it be played out across the entire American field until they've had a belly full. Let the entire country engage meaningfully in this discussion. Instead of an afterthought as we usually are in California, we will now be in the thick of the storm and our thoughts will count. People will be invested as they never have before.

It's truly in our hands now whether you've realized it yet or not.

I say let the rain come. Let it wash away everything but the truth. Barack Obama is by far the best candidate to run for President in modern political history AND THAT'S THE TRUTH.

The more people are exposed to him the more they'll see what we already see. Bring on the pundits, the naysayers, the well wishers, the flip-floppers, the arm chair quarterbacks, the good weather friends. I welcome them. I welcome the American public in every State to open their eyes and pay attention because if we're paying attention nobody can steal our democracy from us.

Mind me, we'll see Barack in the White House because of this loss tonight more than any win in New Hampshire could have assured, which might have given him the nod but not a free pass to the oval office. If anything it would have constricted him.

Expose Barack Obama to the harshest, strongest light imaginable and it will make him even more of a beacon, every hard night like this will make for a good one to follow and will make him and his case and us stronger.

Hone your political muscles against Darth Vader now because you'll need them in the general to fight with and trust me that's where we'll be. This is just a sparring session folks. It's just the beginning, and the more we can get people to pay attention to a close, dramatic race, the better we'll all be for the future of this country.

Never think that what we're doing doesn't matter, because it matters more than anything else we could possibly be doing. It's the most important thing we could be doing in fact. The result is secondary to the act of participating. We're changing the world as much as our own lives simply by thinking and being the change we want to see.

Believe it. Our enemies tremble at the thunder of our approach.

The most tragic thing tonight would have been a slip back into apathy and laziness or worse, a slip into hopelessness and negativity and the fear that is the dark side.

Anybody who's weary, who's fed up, who wants to give up, well, you're human, but you're also still here paying attention. You didn't give up. You hurt and the hurt makes you mad and then you use it. Your reaction defines you. Giving up is not an option.

That didn't happen. Not to him. Not to us.

I am more motivated. I am more fired up. I will not lie down and go quietly into the dark. I will stand up and I say let the rain come. Let the Death Star approach. Let the thunder roar and the clouds weep, because you can't wash away or drown out the truth, you can only make it clean.

Good morning.

Lance

"I was not very politically aware at the age of 8!"

Sorry

You are right Eric.

I have lived through 10 Presidents in my life, althought the first is mostly a memory of things my family said, I was born in 1952, and I was not very politically aware age of 8! .

In my memory, every one of them ran on a platform of change. How could it be otherwise? Toss them out I want in!

Now that Hillary has won in New Hampshire, the debate will move on to other states, and the race has not been decided by a long shot!

It comes down to this, do you want change for the sake of change, or change mitigated by experience?

Change as a slogan, or change lead by someone who has the wherewithall to effect it?

The choice is simple and over the next few months, Americans will make it.

I think they will choose correctly!

Don't hate...Hillary in '08!

It is too bad that so many people are being brainwashed by evangelists and socialist motivational speakers. We truly do need change, people have to change the way they see politicial figures. We need people to really THINK about what is behind the smoke and mirrors (huckaburgers? MKL speeches?) and not be fooled by what is on the outside.

Think of the general election, Independents, young people, and strong supporters of Obama who would have voted for the Democrats would not want her as their candidate and vote Republican just to not vote for her. She has been planning this for far to long, this White House run, and to be honest she wants to get elected at all costs even by selling out to corporate lobbyist to get campaign finances and using the most popular Democratic President in the last 46 years, to condemn Obama. He is the future of this party, she would be wise to put her pride away for the good of the Democratic nation and back Obama, instead of tear him down and think she derseves this nomination. Democrats need to unite, she is not the return of Bill Clinton and the 1990's, it is a new time and a new era. We need a president for 2009-2013. These years could be better than the 90's think about that.