U.S. Presidential Election 2008

[cacophony]

i know everyone is waiting on pins and needles to know whether i agree with her assertions of misogyny.

i do believe there are segments of the voting public who consciously or unconsciously have issues with the idea of a woman as commander in chief. i think for those who have unconscious problems, this bias manifests as a lot of nitpicking over issues that they let slide in other candidates.

however, at no point have i felt that the majority of voters, or even a significant enough percentage to swing the election, are of the above description. in fact, my honest feeling is that the longer this contest has gone on, the less the "woman" issue has come into play. i think it was much more of an issue back at the beginning when the national audience was still feeling out the field of candidates. now i don't believe for an instant that there is anything but a minute portion of the population left who really takes gender into consideration.

all of the candidates have their pigeonhole issues to overcome. she's a chick, obama is black, mccain is old. i think they're definitely issues for all of them, issues to be navigated carefully, but i don't think any of them is losing significant numbers of voters over these issues at this point in the game.

and this is coming from a chick who thinks home depot commercials are sexist.

[Strangelet]

^ agreed

[Deckard]

Originally Posted by Troy McClure

And in today's WTF?!? statement by Senator Clinton, she mentions the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in an interview with a South Dakota newspaper.

She was giving a coded assassination order.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by cacophony

and this is coming from a chick who thinks home depot commercials are sexist.

Brilliant.

And Hillary has already apologized for the assassination comment:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton quickly apologized Friday after citing the June 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as a reason to remain in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination despite increasingly long odds.

"I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever," the former first lady said.

And here's one other interesting little tidbit from the same article:

Recent reports suggested she may be discussing ways to end her campaign by being offered the vice presidential slot underneath Obama, but she rejected that and said she suspected the talk was coming from Obama aides.

"I would look to the camp of my opponent for the source of these stories," she said. "People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa."

Two of those recent reports, however, were attributed by CNN and The New York Times to supporters of Clinton.

It just increasingly seems to me that she's living in a dream world where she has no clue what's actually happening. I know she's intelligent, and that she must have some grasp of reality, but she's certainly not letting on that she does...

[Strangelet]

Originally Posted by Sean

"I would look to the camp of my opponent for the source of these stories," she said. "People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa."

yeah. they're called voters.

[cacophony]

CNN was reporting today that they were told that even bill was counseling hillary to consider the VP seat.

[Deckard]

If anyone's still interested/can be bothered, Peggy Noonan writing in the WSJ gives a spirited debunking of the notion that Hillary has been beaten by misogyny.

http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html

(Best line: "It comes up zero if you Google "Thatcher" and "You're just picking on me because I'm a woman." " )

[Deckard]

Originally Posted by cacophony

i know everyone is waiting on pins and needles to know whether i agree with her assertions of misogyny.

i do believe there are segments of the voting public who consciously or unconsciously have issues with the idea of a woman as commander in chief. i think for those who have unconscious problems, this bias manifests as a lot of nitpicking over issues that they let slide in other candidates.

however, at no point have i felt that the majority of voters, or even a significant enough percentage to swing the election, are of the above description. in fact, my honest feeling is that the longer this contest has gone on, the less the "woman" issue has come into play. i think it was much more of an issue back at the beginning when the national audience was still feeling out the field of candidates. now i don't believe for an instant that there is anything but a minute portion of the population left who really takes gender into consideration.

all of the candidates have their pigeonhole issues to overcome. she's a chick, obama is black, mccain is old. i think they're definitely issues for all of them, issues to be navigated carefully, but i don't think any of them is losing significant numbers of voters over these issues at this point in the game.

Yeah I'd agree with this too.

No idea what home depot commercials are though!

[cacophony]

Originally Posted by Deckard

No idea what home depot commercials are though!

hardware DIY store. here's your typical home depot commercial:

man is watching football. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT MEN DO! women is going shopping BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT WOMEN DO! woman informs man as she's leaving that she wants new floors in the living room. BECAUSE WOMEN ARE HOMEMAKERS! man absentmindedly says, "yes dear" BECAUSE MEN DON'T LISTEN! and oh no! it turns out the woman knew he wouldn't be paying attention so she tricked him into agreeing BECAUSE MEN ARE CLUELESS, RIGHT LADIES?!?!? derpy derp derp.

it's right up there with the commercials where mom leaves for the day and dad can't figure out how to use the right laundry soap because men are clueless, but it's okay because mom bought the fancy laundry soap that's foolproof. so dad feels all confident when the whites come out shining white, and mom smiles knowingly at the camera because he's just a stupid man who couldn't find his ass with both hands and a roadmap, and thank god women are better at housework.

[Deckard]

Haha, brilliant.

Yeah that's definitely a common theme in advertising isn't it?

Now there must be some way to transfer that to political ads......