WHY I’M NOT WRITING THAT CHECK TO OBAMA TODAY

By Gloria Feldt | July 8, 2008 |

Explanatory note: While the debate continues over at my previous post about Obama for Women, and I still wouldn’t vote for McCain under any circumstance, I’ve had to take a step back as I realized just how seriously damaging Obama’s comments about abortion and sex education could be. This situation is all the more reason he must give the sexism speech as I have suggested. He needs to do more than merely “clarify” his position on these issues; he needs to take a much bigger look at his own thinking about women’s rights and rightful place in the world. Here goes:

I was planning to attend Barack Obama’s big fundraising reception in New York Wednesday night and make the maximum contribution to his campaign, but I have torn up the invitation.

My decision isn’t about the money, though the thought of writing a check for $4600 takes my breath away. It seemed that important to do my part to prevent the 100% anti-choice John McCain’s election and a de facto third Bush term.

I supported Hillary Clinton in the primary because I believe she’s the most capable of meeting the enormous challenges the next president will face undoing the damage to women’s rights, health, and justice caused by Bush. Still, I’ve admired Obama since I met him at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Later, in Washington after he was elected to the Senate, I sensed he was genuine in his commitment to women’s equality. So, despite my still-raw feelings about Hillary’s concession, I was prepared to go forward this week and commit full support to Obama.

Then the danger signals started.

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Which Greek Tragedy are Hillary and Bill Enacting?

By Gloria Feldt | January 28, 2008 |

I posted this on Huffington Post this morning in a fit of pique about how unfairly I think the public and the press judge Hillary Clinton while giving other candidates a free pass. For example, they criticized her concession speech after the South Carolina primary as not being gracious enough, yet uttered not a peep when Barack Obama left Nevada without giving any concession speech at all. Nevertheles, especially in politics, what is perceived is what is, and that she has to deal with that reality. Herewith, the column; check out the HuffPo version here if you want to have your breath taken away by some hostile comments:

Help me please: Which Greek tragedy would be the proper metaphor for the political narrative playing itself out before our eyes? If Hillary Clinton loses her presidential bid because Bill’s help has become so destructive to her campaign that it is alienating the press and offending African Americans (yes, he who was formerly dubbed “the first Black president”), that would be a tragedy of epic proportions. This is especially poignant, considering how strongly people expected his presence to be positive for her, not to mention a redemption for him.

Perhaps the specter of losing the nomination after being dubbed the putative front runner, or of gaining the nomination in a bitterly divisive nomination contest then losing the presidency, might be likened to a Pyrrhic victory.

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