Chris Matthews, always good for regurgitated stupid, proclaimed with his usual high pitched squawking, some of the worst Washington groupthink I've ever heard:
In California, women are the favorites in the Republican primary for both Governor and U.S. Senator. Meg Whitman made her name and money as head of eBay. Carly Fiorina is known for being CEO of Hewlett Packard. In Nevada, two women, Sharron Angle and Sue Lowden are in a battle with Danny Tarkanian for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
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All these women are newcomers at this level. It's hard not to notice, that they're running in the very first election after the 2008 election. One that included a precedent setting campaign by Hillary Clinton for President, and another precedent setter for Vice President by Sarah Palin.
First, let's get the facts back into this things. Sarah Palin didn't set precedent. Democrat Geraldine Ferraro did that in 1984. Hillary Clinton's campaign most certainly moved the ball forward on breaking another glass ceiling, but it isn't broken yet and none of the women Matthews listed here is talking about breaking it, save Palin, who can't.
Second, Matthews seems to have missed the fact that Democrats have been running women for office for a long time now. He cites Fiorina as if her opponent is a man and she's breaking through barriers in the male dominated California Congressional delegation. 20 of the 55 members of the California congressional delegation are women, including both senators and an actual precedent-setting Speaker of the House. All but one is a Democrat. Democrats have already been setting precedents for women.
Johnathan Alter picks up on this theme as well listing all the wealthy, white, conservative Republican women running for office these days as some sort of breakthrough. At least he points out that California already has two Democratic Senators who happen to be women. Nikki Haley wouldn't be the first woman or Indian-American governor from the South. There is a Democratic woman governing in the state just north of hers right now.
Matthews also apparently forgot about Kay Bailey Hutchison, who lost. Dede Scozzafava, who lost. These were Republican women who didn't fit the mold of ultra Conservative zealot and they both were tea partied right out. None of the women running for Republicans this year are fighting for pay equality for women. None of those women are working for more equitable healthcare, which is what real women care about. Sue Lowden says you should bring a chicken to your doctor, for crissake! This is no year of the woman. This is the year of conservative, right-wing woman.
Billionaire Meg Whitman, so far, has spent $71 million of her own money running for Governor. Carly Fiorina has put $3.6 million of her golden parachute into her race. Sue Lowden is a wealthy casino owner. Nikki Haley stands to inherit a multimillion dollar retail apparel business. Sharron Angle comes from modest, middle class folk, but she is insane. There are more Republican women running for office this year, for sure. Most of them fit the mold of what you should come to expect from conservative, predominantly white, almost exclusively upper income people. Noting that many of them are women the way Matthews does is like saying Arizona set precedent for creating a Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday.
Trailblazers for women? Puh-leeze.