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Let's start with the title:
Hillary is from Mars, Obama is from Venus
In the Democratic presidential pack, the leading man is a woman and the leading woman is a man.
By Michael Scherer
Apparently Ann Coulter got a gig writing for Salon.
OSKALOOSA, Iowa -- At first listen, the Indigo Girls don't make any sense, not for the hyper-macho world of a presidential campaign, much less a summertime rally for a superstar like Barack Obama. But his sound people are piping in the feminist folk duo's music anyway to pump up a crowd of hundreds at this small-town coffee shop on the Fourth of July. They play "Hammer and a Nail," a 1990 declaration of female empowerment and emancipation. "You've got to tend the earth," the Girls sing, "if you want a rose."
Dear god, not the INDIGO GIRLS. Why can't he play something from Metallica?
Throughout history, American presidents have been men's men who puff their out chests against evil. Think Teddy Roosevelt on safari, Jack Kennedy in PT-109, Ronald Reagan on his horse, or George W. Bush with a chain saw clearing brush. If leaders show any slackening of testosterone, especially in wartime, they are quickly derided as wimps (George H.W. Bush), a Frenchman (John Kerry) or weaklings (Jimmy Carter). But on the Democratic campaign trail these days, where the first woman in U.S. history is making a serious run at the White House, gender roles are being swapped.
John Kerry showed a lack of testosterone during wartime? I must have imagined his war medals then.
But, what's this about gender roles?
When Obama travels the country, he does not appear to worry much about posing with guns or wearing those khaki workman jackets that made Kerry look so silly in 2004. Instead, he sings an empowerment ballad on the stump that would make most lady folk singers proud. "The decision to go to war is not a sport," he tells crowds, rejecting the male metaphor. "We can discover the better part of ourselves as a nation," he says. "We can dream big dreams."
No guns? Not a sport? Well, gee, why not just put him in a skirt?
In contrast, Hillary Clinton has run her campaign with all the muscular vision and authority of the macho candidates of yesteryear. "I've seen her stand up to bullies," announced Christine Vilsack, the former first lady of Iowa, when she introduced Clinton at a rally in Des Moines last week. On the stump, Clinton repeatedly tells people that they should let her take control of the country, eschewing Obama's more abstract calls for national soul-searching. "If you are ready for change, I am ready to lead," she says. "I want to be the president who sets goals again."
So, we've gone from saying that tough women who want to lead are 'bitches' to now saying they're really men.
Because, of course, there have never been any feminists who stood up to bullies and were ready to lead and set goals.
Clara Oleson, an Iowa Democrat and former labor lawyer, explained all these distinctions on a riverbank in Iowa City last week, while waiting to hear Clinton speak to a crowd of about 1,000. "Obama is the female candidate. Obama is the woman," she said, after admitting that she was one of his supporters. "He is the warm candidate, self-deprecating, soft, tender, sad eyes, great smile."
So what does that make Hillary Clinton? "She is the male candidate -- in your face, authoritative, know-it-all." To be clear, Oleson was not doubting the symbolic power that Clinton retains as a woman. But she was calling it as she saw it, using the language of Iowa City, a university town. "It's what the academes would call the difference between sex and gender," Oleson explained.
Sorry, I should have posted an advisory to all of those who are allergic to rancid stupidity.
Clinton deals with this dilemma in the classic Clintonian fashion, effectively forging her own third way. "We have the chance to make history together and elect the first woman president of the United States," she said to wild cheers in Iowa City on July 3. But then Clinton immediately hedged herself, with a metaphor that calls to mind troops parachuting into battle or train jumpers hopping a freight. "I am not running because I am a woman," she continued. "I am running because I think I am the best qualified and experienced person to hit the ground running in January 2009."
Oh Christ.
Obama, who currently trails Clinton in the polls, especially among working-class women, has run a campaign that is virtually free of macho symbolism. He is, instead, a self-consciously inspirational candidate, who is always talking about things like coming "together for a common purpose." While the Indigo Girls are not part of the standard song list at Obama events, the official tunes, which include Aretha Franklin's "Think" and the disco anthem "Ain't No Stopping Us Now," fail to exude any overt appeal to manliness.
Right on cue, after Obama finishes speaking at the coffee shop here, Franklin's 1968 anthem for independent women begins blaring from the speakers. "Think about what you're trying to do to me," she sings. Obama dives into the crowd with his trademark touchy style, shaking each voter with his right hand while laying his left hand compassionately on their shoulder. "I am really impressed with his ability to articulate issues and just his sheer graciousness," says Julie Hansen, a local librarian who was waiting to meet the candidate. "He'll try to put people at ease. He has a grace. He has a warmth."
Grace? Warmth? No macho symbolism? He is disgracing men everywhere!
Of course, Aretha Franklin once filled in for Luciano Pavarotti at an event because he lost his voice. I guess she's a man too. Except that her songs are used by women like Barack Obama.
May the best woman win.
May the worst columnist get fired.
If you have an account at Salon, you may want to provide them with some feedback. Such as on why it's wrong to indulge in lazy gender stereotyping and run trash pieces like this.
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