I have never been a huge fan of the Hillary Clinton. I like her a lot more than I like Bill, but that does not say all that much when it comes to Democrats (sure beats John McCain though). Her Iraq War vote stank of political opportunism and she refused to apologize for it (in fairness, I never really accepted Edward's apology, so it may not have helped, but still). I despise the DLC. I tried to stay positive throughout the primaries and focus on why I liked Obama , but I might have told a few people that Clinton was on the corporate board of union busting Wal-Mart currently being sued by 1.6 million million for sexual discrimination (but Clinton was trying to improve things, yeah whatever!). I write all this by way of saying that there were plenty of legitimate reasons to like Obama and dislike Clinton. That said, Clinton took a ton of sexist bull**** from the media and Keith Olbermann should be ashamed for attacking Katie Couric and calling it all "nonsense."
In case your a normal person who does not live on either planet blogosphere or planet 24 hour news cycle here are the pertinent clips.
Keith Olbermann:
If you want a better copy of this check out Huffington Post.
I cannot find the speech to which Olbermann is referring, but here is what Couric had to say on the air:
Now I do not care about Olbermann's beef about some reporter. It really does not matter to me if the reporter in question was completely objective and Couric was completely wrong about the objectivity of his reporting. I have no way of figuring it out one way or another, so for the sake of argument I will concede the point.
What drives me crazy is that Olbermann had the hutzpuh to say that it was "nonsense that Senator Clinton was a victim of pronounced sexism" during the campaign. What planet has he been living on for the past 17 months? Is he insane? Has he lost it with his delusions of grandeur? I apologize if I am starting to sound like one of his monologues which I generally like, maybe I am about to lose it to, but I ask again: What planet has he been living on for the past 17 months? Is he insane?
First of all Keith, we all know you know Chris Matthews. Don't try and hide it, we've got the two of you on tape:
As you put it, you were "alongside Chris Matthews." Now, I do not believe in guilt by association so I am not going to jump to the conclusion that you are a pathetically sexist excuse for a thoughtful human being just because you know a pathetically sexist excuse for a thoughtful human being, but come on Keith, the real nonsense of sexism has been "alongside" you this whole campaign. If you need a summary of his Clinton related sexism, Media Matters has a nice little summary:
Does Chris Matthews have a problem with women?
Using overtly sexist language, he has referred to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) as a "she devil" and compared her to a "strip-teaser." He has called her "witchy" and likened her voice to "fingernails on a blackboard." He has referred to men who support her as "castratos in the eunuch chorus." He has suggested Clinton is not "a convincing mom" and said "modern women" like Clinton are unacceptable to "Midwest guys." He has called her "Madame Defarge" and "Nurse Ratched."
This is just the one person we know you know. There were countless others. The things Couric described were real. As Trapper John argued in Why Clinton Lost: The Nutcracker. these blatantly sexist assaults went unanswered both by her campaign, but to a larger degree by society (I am going to be in the airport tomorrow and might have to "accidentally" knock over the display if I see this). Some of you will point out that Obama faced racist attacks. I would agree, but that is beside the point. Racism against one candidate does not justify or trivialize sexism against another. Clinton took a ton of sexist bull**** during the campaign from the media that the Democratic Party as a group failed to challenge it. And it was not just the media. I heard Democrats call Clinton "the b**ch," figuring they could get away with it because I'm a male Obama supporter. I saw men and women with the phrase "bros before hoes." The Democratic Party, like society, has a problem with sexism.
If we are to unify this party we need to fight sexism head on. That starts with calling out our friends: Keith Olbermann you are officially on notice.
Update: Three things that keep resurfacing in the comments:
(1) the comparison between the racist attacks on Obama and the sexist attacks on Clinton. This misses the whole point. The Democratic Party should be opposed to both sexism and racism. It's not a contest.
(2) People argue that it did not heavily impact the campaign. This is beside the point. I do not think she lost because of sexism. I think she lost in Iowa because of the Iraq War and lost overall because Bill ran his mouth in South Carolina and she lost the black vote. That said, it does not matter what level of impact you think sexism had on the race: it was constantly present in the media.
(3) The 3rd line of argument goes something along the lines of, she used identity politics to get women voters/she used gender stereotypes with Obama, so she deserved the sexism she got. That is a bad justification for how the media treated her. It also ignores that a large reason why women identified with Clinton was because of the sexism she received. Recognizing that is a large part of winning over disappointed Clinton supporters.
Update 2:
Alright, I'm signing off. I am glad this helped some former Clinton supporters who are now supporting Obama. I would tell Obama supporters who are still mad as hell at Clinton that a week ago I was mad as hell as well. Someone in the comments brought up the "hard-working white Americans" comment from Clinton. Yeah, that still stings. I might never forgive Clinton for that. However, we did win. Clinton did drop out. Obama supporters have now officially taken over the Democratic Party. In that hard primary fight I think a lot of people in both camps lost sight of who the real enemy is. There is a point at which we have to bury the hatchet and welcome Clinton supporters into the fold. I don't know if I will ever forgive Clinton for some of the things she has said about Obama, but I am not going to hold that against former Clinton supporters. I am going to recognize that the things which made me despise Clinton were not the reasons her supporters supported her ( I know a lot of Clinton supporters who were really pissed by some of her comments on Obama). Doing justice to the reasons her supporters stuck with her, like addressing sexism and the health care crisis in this country, is a surefire way to unite the party. Yeah, there are a few die hard Clinton supporters who will vote McCain, but they were not really Democrats to begin. Clinton's supporters are already rallying to Obama.