Election Watch
Image Politics: Everybody Lies About Sex, But Who Knew They Lie About Food, Too?
For those exhausted with Clinton-Obama debates I thought I’d comment on the recent Cindy McCain “farfallegate” recipe scandal–you can scroll down to the end to see the evidence:
Cindy McCain was probably clueless that an intern on her pugnacious war hero husband’s campaign staff had rifled through recipes published on the Food Channel’s website and presented several as Cindy’s own on Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign website.
Dubbed “farfallegate” in honor of the recipe combining farfalle pasta with turkey sausage (of course in today’s health conscious world, a low cholesterol recipe gets extra points), mushrooms, and peas that busted Mrs. McCain and docked the non-pay of the unlucky intern tasked with selecting just the right recipes to position Cindy as happy homemaker, the food scandal was bound to come to the attention of the ever-voracious press.
It’s hardly surprising that the campaign wanted to soften the eerily unreal image projected by her Stepford Wife eyes and shellacked hair as she stands ramrod straight as though at perpetual attention beside the senator, whose political career was calculated and in no small part brought to us by her wealthy beer distributor daddy. And what better way to warm up a candidate’s wife than to conjure a vision of the little lady in her conservative Republican apron stirring up some dinner?
Read MoreDare to Compete
Have you been as mesmerized by the HBO series on John Adams as I have? The visual banquet of historical details is reason enough to watch the life and times of our second president, his family, and the men who were alternately his friends and his foes among the founding fathers. It is tempting for me to want to put the spotlight on his wife Abigail whose plea that he should “remember the ladies” in writing the new nation’s laws fell on deaf ears despite her place as Adams’ top and most erudite advisor. But I find most striking the sense of history. Adams was almost obsessed with defining the legacy that he knew he as a leader of a new nation would be creating for the generations to come.
Today, we also live in times that will define us as a nation. Watching John Adams spar with his nemesis, the calculating and complex Renaissance man Thomas Jefferson, it struck me that while technology has changed a great deal, critical elements of political leadership have changed little if at all. Nor have the challenges of cobbling together an electoral majority in our cantankerously diverse country become any easier.
This video look at the courage it takes to compete in a presidential election was sent to me by a reader of Heartfeldt Politics, KD. She or he noted the importance of this historic moment, and I thought it worth sharing.
Read MoreWhy Would a 14-Year-Old Feminist Support Hillary?
Thanks to Deborah Siegel who blogs at Girl With Pen for this inspiring article, written by Samantha French, age 14, and a student at Writopia Lab, a writing enrichment program located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It’s always intriguing to learn how political opinions are formed, and this young women clearly has a mind of her own–and better yet, she talks publicly about what she believes.
As we all know, the buzz around America’s college campuses is Barack Obama and how he represents change for America. According to the media, he has overwhelming appeal to the country’s so-called “youth.” And it’s true. The phrase “yes we can” is being inhaled faster than pot brownies and Jell-O shots at a frat party. However, what the media seems to be consistently ignoring is the opinions of the country’s real, good old-fashioned, disenfranchised youth: high school students. Who are almost unanimously pro-Hillary.
OK, so I’m dreaming.
As a female freshman in Bard High School Early College, one of New York’s more liberal high schools where nearly two-thirds of the student body are females, there is not huge support for Hillary, which makes me sad. Many people at Bard, both male and female, support Obama because they are “tired of the Clintons” (a notion which they have obviously been fed by their parents. Think about it: the last time a Clinton was in office they were eight at the very most).
At first, I agreed with them. My dad’s a die-hard Obama supporter and so are a lot of my friends. But the turning point came for me when I saw how upset and truly devoted Hillary was to the race after her defeat at the Iowa caucus. The moment that the cameras revealed her sad eyes, I realized that I was seeing in her something rarely seen in any presidential candidate: a human being. While my father continued to be very pro-Obama (re-recording Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock,” titled, I Want Barak,)—and put pressure on me to agree with him—I felt a connection with Hillary after that night.
Read MoreHillary’s Peen-Ultimate Leadership Mistake
The worst mistakes I’ve made in life and leadership have always involved waiting too long to fire someone.
Whether I’m hanging onto a relationship long after love is gone or hanging onto an employee long after positive value to the organization has diminished beyond the point of return, my loyalty tends to trump my better sense. And like most women, including it appears, Hillary Clinton, I always think I can fix the situation. That I can retrain, redo the job description, or refocus the person’s priorities so his or her performance will magically improve. After all, maybe it was my fault; I didn’t provide sufficient direction or support to tease out their talents. Surely if I did, Ms or Mr. X would shine again.
Women are particularly sensitive to the connective filaments in the web of relationships that make up our organizations, just as we’re sensitive to them within our families. We counsel our kids to eat Aunt Ida’s hideous orange jello, carrot, and horseradish salad because she’s such a good soul after all. Past contributions, we think, deserve to be recognized, good intent respected
These qualities serve women well, until they don’t, as has been the case with Clinton and her top advisors. Many said she kept Patti Solis Doyle as her campaign manager out of loyalty (and perhaps fear of what the firing would do to her relationships with Hispanics) long after Solis Doyle’s effectiveness had waned.
And then there’s Mark Penn.
Read MoreOBAMA IS RIGHT: WORDS MATTER WHEN YOU WANT YOUR OPPONENT TO LEAVE THE RACE
AOL News reports this:
Despite calls for his rival to drop out of their tight race for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama said Saturday, “My attitude is that Senator Clinton can run as long as she wants.”
Note the tepid and dismissive “Senator Clinton can run as long as she wants.” In one carefully chosen short phrase, Barack Obama uses a verb form that bestows his permission, as if she needs it, while at the same time subtly belittling her because she is staying in the race. Both of these rhetorical techniques aim to diminish one’s opponent while seeming to be gallant and awarding oneself the cloak of the putative front runner who can afford to be generous.
But is he the front runner?
Read MoreWILL THE GENERATIONS OF WOMEN COME TOGETHER IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?
Continuing the intergenerational conversation among women I jumped into on this blog below in “What’s That About a Sisterhood Split?“, two young writers who have already distinguished themselves as influential feminist thinkers, Courtney Martin and Deborah Siegel, have penned an op ed published in the Washington Post today. It’s entitled “Come Together? Yes We Can”, and definitely worth a read. Not just your “can’t we all get along?” plea, but rather a look at the generational divide revealed by the Democratic primary competition. An excerpt:
Read MoreWHAT’S THAT ABOUT A SISTERHOOD SPLIT?
In The Nation today, Jessica Valenti had an article called “The Sisterhood Split”. Much has been written about feminists dividing their votes between Clinton and Obama. Jessica, a fabulous young feminist and a founder of one of my favorite blogs, Feministing, made interesting points and certainly her passion for finding better ways to advance feminism and a feminist agenda shines through. But there were several statements in her piece that I thought begged for a response, especially since she quoted me in one of them. I’m sending my thoughts to Jessica also in hopes that we can dialogue more about this.
I didn’t have time to critique the entire article. What follows are excerpts (“J”) and my replies (“G”). Particular phrases of concern are in italics:
J: Gloria Feldt, former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, penned a piece for The Huffington Post [NOTE: also posted here on Heartfeldt] in which she warned women they would be missing out on a historic moment if they didn’t vote for Clinton . “Will women give this Moment away freely once again?” she pondered…
G: Actually, I warned about missing a strategic opportunity to achieve important feminist goals (electing a woman president, amassing political clout so we can influence the agenda) if we fail to mass the potential strength of women’s votes. To be sure, I gave historical precedents as examples, but personally I don’t give a fig about enshrining history; I just try to mine it for what it can teach us. And I stand by my warning, based on what I learned from several decades as an advocate from the lowliest grassroots to the highest halls of power.
Read MoreBarack’s Hubris
Oh honestly. At 9:53pm Barack Obama called John McCain to congratulate him on winning the Republican primary and tell him he looked forward to running against him in the fall. Now that’s hubris way beyond the confidence Clinton exuded in the famous Katie Couric interview when she said she’d be the Democratic nominee and was excoriated by the press. OK, Chris Matthews, are you going to notice and beat up on Obama?
Read MoreWHY WOMEN NEED TO LEARN HISTORY’S ELECTION POWER LESSON
Like many women who identify themselves as feminists, Kathleen Turner and I are divided in our presidential candidate pick. We spent 18 months collaborating on her just-released memoir, Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles.
During that time, we talked about politics quite a bit, because she sees herself as an activist as well as an actor. I rolled my eyes last summer when she announced to me that she’d decided to support Barack Obama and was going stumping for him in North Carolina’s August heat.
I thought it a naïve choice, but Obama had the good sense to invite her to a meeting with a few prominent women and had asked directly for her support. She’d been impressed, as I was when I first met him soon after his 2004 election to the U.S. Senate. And like many people, I was thrilled that the Democratic candidate lineup looked more like America, whereas Republicans were still mired in cookie-cutter white male political hegemony. Nevertheless, it seemed at the time that Hillary Clinton was surging to an unassailable lead for her party’s nomination, so I didn’t need to press too hard on Kathleen to join me in supporting her.
REALITY SHIFTS AND “TRUTH” WITH IT
Read MoreHOPE IS STILL NOT A METHOD
Americans seem to like the message of hope better than we like the message of experience these days. But you know, there used to be a popular sex education film called “Hope is not a Method.” And that’s true about running a country too.
Can anybody deny that Hillary Clinton, who speaks of experience and from experience, is judged more harshly than Barack Obama who speaks of hope? There are so many examples trivial and profound but here’s a trivial one that is symbolic of all of them: I noticed that in the New York Times today, there was an effusive compliment for Michelle’s “athletic build”. In the photo you see she has large thighs.
Now, Hillary’s large ankles have been excoriated in the most vicious manner more political pundits than MSNBC can shake a stick at.
What’s the difference? It’s simply that Barack Obama and everything about him, including his wife, represent the new new thing. Further, he lives in a cloud of good will because he has not had time or inclination to make enough tough decisions that would cause him to make enemies. Even though he’s from Chicago, my sense of him is that he hasn’t a clue what he’s in for during a general election and then governing. Hillary unquestionably does.
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