It wasn’t a happy ending for some who were watching the full-length film that was this year’s Democratic primary.
As Sen. Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination yesterday (we’re pretty sure this time), there was no shortage of Sen. Hillary Clinton supporters crying “sexism!”
Many are now vowing to vote for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain in November.
For these women, Clinton is a symbol of their struggles against the glass ceiling, and Tuesday’s events only served to intensify that image. Her presumed loss to Obama now reinforces the idea for them that there’s only so far a woman can go in a male-dominated world.
I’d venture to say that the younger generation is perhaps not taking it so personally. I greatly admire Clinton. But when sizing her up as a candidate for president, the mere fact that she is female doesn’t occupy so much space on my Positive Qualities pie chart as it might for, say, someone who lived through the women’s rights movement. I relate to her, but I do not feel that her success is my success; her bitter defeat is my bitter defeat. Having seen how women my age can succeed in the workplace, I’m more optimistic.
As Jonathan Chait, 36, wrote in an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times two weeks ago: “People of my generation tend to have a less personal view of Clinton. She’s not us, she’s not our ex-wife, she’s just a politician.”
At the same time, I also agree with Chait when he writes: “If I spent years being disrespected and discriminated against in my household chores and my workplace, though, maybe I’d see it differently.”
Whether or not her campaign was ultimately done in in by sexism, strategy, media coverage or simply a very formidable opponent, Clinton had a very difficult line to walk during the primary. Whereas Obama has had to find that balance between being too black and too white, Clinton struggled between expressing femininity and showing that she can play hardball with the guys.
What I find upsetting is the millions of Americans, many of them men, who were turned off at the outset simply by the idea of a “strong woman,” a female who exhibits qualities traditionally thought of as masculine traits: aggressiveness, assertiveness, a fighting spirit.
That’s opposed to feminine qualities: emotional, intuitive, nurturing. But God knows how much criticism and ridicule Clinton drew for BOTH that beer chugging AND those tears. You can’t win.
It will be a great day when a White Woman running for president and a Half-Black Man running for president will simply be Two Candidates running for president.
The bigger question will be how the Democratic Party plans to reconcile hard feelings lingering after the protracted primary battle, and whether it can regain a hold on its ideals, including overcoming both sexism and racism, when all is said and done.
I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather the last few days, so going to bed by midnight is my attempt at getting to sleep early. Here are a few things that caught my eye today:
Mark Bowden’s ‘The Point’. I had the opportunity to meet Black Hawk Down author and journalist Mark Bowden and interview him for an article while working at my college newspaper five years ago. Black Hawk Down is one of my favorite books and a masterpiece of journalistic work, which Bowden researched partially in Mogadishu (he flew there in 1997 with a photographer sitting on sacks of khat). A national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, he also has a column that appears in The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Currents section and has written about US policies at Guantanamo, gangs in Columbia and a shield law for journalists.
His June 2007 column about the future of print journalism is particularly interesting … he predicts about newspaper web sites:
I suspect news sites will open with a bang, displaying the most powerful video image of the day in the way editors have long chosen the day’s most dramatic or informative still images to anchor Page One. In that sense, they will look more like TV news than a newspaper - with this difference: All these production values will lead into detailed written stories.
Unlike with TV and radio, which are stuck with people reading out loud, customers of digital journalism will get the best of all media forms. They can wade into any story that attracts them as deeply as they wish. Readers will gravitate toward prose, while those who prefer sounds and images can simply watch and listen.
But do they vote? Young people are among four groups of voters The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib believes will be key to the election in November. Although this election has generated amounts of interest among the 18 to 30 crowd not seen in years, the question remains: will young voters show up on Election Day?
Seib writes:
The rise in both registrations and primary-election turnout by young voters certainly suggests the possibility of a big showing this year. In a sign of that potential, turnout by voters under age 30 four years ago rose faster than among any other voting group, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan group Rock the Vote.
Yet even with that uptick, young voters turned out in lower proportions than any other age group. Turnout among those under 30 was 49%, compared with 73% of those age 60 to 74, the Rock the Vote data show.
The Quinnipiac survey of Pennsylvania shows Sen. Obama leading among Democratic voters under the age of 45 by a 57%-to-41% margin. But the real turnout test will come in November.
The other three groups that matter? Working-class white males, rural voters and Hispanics.
A measure of racism in America? Roger Simon of Politico writes about an issue that’s been on my mind about the general election: How much will race count in November if it comes down to Sen. Barack Obama vs. Sen. John McCain? Simon tries to quantify just how much the race vote will matter:
There is a percentage of the American electorate who will simply not vote for a black person no matter what his qualities or qualifications.
How big is that percentage? An AP-Yahoo poll conducted April 2-14 found that “about 8 percent of whites would be uncomfortable voting for a black for president.”
I don’t know if 8 percent sounds high or low to you, but I was amazed that 8 percent of respondents were willing to admit this to a pollster. And I figure that the true figure is much higher.
The same poll also found that 15 percent of voters believe Hawaii-born Obama is a Muslim (he’s actually a Christian). I am not sure how that matched up with the people who said they would not vote for him because he is black, but I’m sure whatever rumors are circulating about Obama being a Muslim are not working in his favor.
Yes, she can! Sen. Hillary Clinton emerged victorious in the important Pennsylvania primary today, besting Obama by 10 percentage points (55-45). Good news if you can’t get enough of the excitement swirling around this primary race. Bad news if November is six months away and you already feel like you’re getting sick of election coverage.
With 68 percent of precincts reporting, Barack Obama appears to have won Hawaii by a landslide. Obama had 20,974 votes, or 76 percent, to Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 6,529 votes, or 24 percent, as of 11:39 p.m.
The turn-out was incredible — far more than maybe anyone had expected.
“I don’t think we could have prepared for this,” one of the caucus organizers at Jefferson Elementary told me mid-way through the evening.
I’m sure there will be much debate in the days to come about the process. With the overwhelming number of people, many sites ran out of materials or even took good faith pledges from people that they would register as Democrats afterwards if they were allowed to cast ballots tonight.
The site I was at ran out of both printed ballots (they had to handwrite them) and name cards (which they used to write down the precinct in which each person was voting). One person compared it to “choosing your high school prom king and queen.” That was less than an hour into the voting.
As soon as I finished talking with people in line at Jefferson Elementary, I grabbed a seat at a table where ballots for one of the smaller precincts were being collected and watched the action from there.
It was chaos. The only organized elements appeared to be the tables, arranged by precinct, and the line. There were hundreds of people crammed in the cafeteria and thousands outside. People stood on tables. Every 10 minutes, someone would go to the microphone and assure people that Everything was fine, No, the rules had not been changed, we’ve just run out of ballots.
Some people who arrived around 7 p.m. saw the line, which was at that point wrapped around several school buildings, and turned away. Others probably just couldn’t find parking in cramped Waikiki and gave up. I parked at the Waikiki Shell and walk over to the school.
But the mood among those who stuck around were surprisingly upbeat. Les Among, a member of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board, likened it to “neighbors who haven’t seen each other in a while.”
It was this great, big crazy mass of people who knew they were taking part in something big, even though they may not have known exactly what to do, how the caucus worked or even if they were registered Democrats.
It will be interesting to see if this momentum holds up till the general election.
Just walking onto the site and catching sight of that never-ending line was a personal thrill. I realized tonight that I’ve never actually gone to a polling place to vote in an election, since I left Hawaii at 18 for school and so have since been an absentee voter by default. Checking the little box and sending the ballot in the mail is definitely not the same thing. Here were people who had taken the time to come to the site, and waited in line for probably over an hour just to make a little mark on a piece of paper that was then shoved unceremoniously into a manila envelope.
They say democracy is messy, and tonight most certainly proved it.
A couple of things in the aftermath of Super Tuesday:
The Hawaii Democratic caucus on Feb. 19 will play a large role in deciding how Hawaii’s 29 delegates to the Democratic National Convention will vote. Of the 29, 20 will be pledged based on the results of the caucuses.
The local Republican Party, which has 20 delegates to the Republican National Convention in September, finished its caucuses on Tuesday. Hawaii Republicans do not have a presidential preference poll. Instead they are selecting delegates to the state convention in May.
With Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama still vying for the Democratic nomination, the Advertiser editorial today is about how our local Democratic caucus has suddenly become a much bigger deal.
The New York Times’ editorial board blog, called simply “The Board,” talks about the excitement the close race is giving “voters at the edges of America”:
It’s easy on the mainland to be snarky about voting from the hinterlands. But it’s undeniably a bad thing that people in small, farflung states and territories have their value and power as voters undermined by daunting travel distances — it’s hardly a hop-skip-and-a-jump to do an American Samoa meet-and-greet — disadvantageous time zones, and exit polling, which can spoil the suspense for people way out west, especially if their candidate concedes before they can get to the polls.
Participatory democracy is no fun if you have trouble participating, which may help to explain why Hawaii’s voting rate is so low.
The entry goes on to mention (ouch) Hawaii’s voting participation compared to other states’ in 2004. (We’re at the very bottom.)
Both Congressman Neil Abercrombie and Congresswoman Mazie Hirono are quoted in this story from The Hill about the impact Asian American voters, who have been somewhat overlooked during the campaign, had on Clinton’s success in California.
Asian Americans, who made up 8 percent of the Democratic vote, supported Clinton by a 3-1 margin in the California primary.
Various theories are circulating as to why this was the case. Among them, that Clinton captured the support of prominent leaders in the Asian community and that Asian Americans may be more familiar with Clinton because she has been on the national stage longer than Obama.
All of this means Hawaii might be watched a little more closely come Feb. 19. Although Obama is a local boy, Clinton did do well among Asian American voters in California. How will that play out in Hawaii, which is predominantly Asian?
And the big question: is ANY of this enough to get more voters in Hawaii excited about the race?
Have you ever been in a certain mood, heard a song on your car’s radio, turned it up and thought, “Hey, this song is EXACTLY about my life!”
Well, it seems the 2008 presidential candidates are having some issues finding that perfect song.
Given, their lives are a little more complicated right now than yours or mine. They’re probably not driving along thinking about how their boss is giving them grief or about a recent break-up.
The Washington Post this morning takes a closer look at exactly what message the presidential hopefuls are sending through their campaign theme songs.
Candidates have traditionally chosen songs that sound inspirational, ones their campaigns hope will be a fine match to the candidate bursting out onto the stage, vigorously shaking hands, kissing babies and preparing to make that victory speech.
Except, as the Post points out, “Takin’ Care of Business” is actually sung from the point of view of a slacker, and “American Girl” seems to be, well, ultimately about heartbreak, as most songs are anyway.
Barack Obama’s campaign plays Aretha Franklin’s “Think.”
But, the Post says, while the song does cry for freedom (”Oh, freedom . . . yeah, freedom!”), it’s actually (again) about a difficult relationship with a lover: “You better think (think) think about what you’re trying to do to me.”
I don’t know about you, but when I see Obama, the YouTube smash hit “I Got a Crush on Obama” is the first “theme song” that pops into my head. It may not be the image Obama wants to project, but hey, the tune is super catchy!
Mitt Romney, the Post says, may not have wanted to convey this exact message with Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation:” “A little less conversation, a little more action please/ All this aggravation ain’t satisfactioning me…Close your mouth and open up your heart and baby satisfy me.”
I guess “less talk, more action” works for a campaign theme. But I’m not sure if we’re talking about the same kind of action.
I don’t think “satisfactioning” is a real word, either. Perhaps it refers to being able to satisfy the needs of different political factions. Hey, I’m good at this.
Rudy Giuliani’s campaign, on the other hand, seems to have more varied musical tastes: Alan Jackson, Rascal Flatts, a little opera…
Sometimes my view of music is: if the song sounds good, who CARES what the lyrics are, anyway.
Ok, music buffs. Maybe we can help them out.
What tunes would you suggest for the presidential candidates?
