Hillary Shows Emotion and Unleashes a Torrent of Sexism

Posted by Amanda Marcotte, Pandagon at 5:50 AM on January 8, 2008.

What the hell?

ABC News' David Muir, Raelyn Johnson and Sunlen Miller Report: Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., on the tail end of his 36-hour campaigning marathon in New Hampshire on day before the primary vote, reacted to rival Sen. Hillary Clinton's emotional moment Monday.

Edwards offered little sympathy and pounced on the opportunity to question Clinton's ability to endure the stresses of the presidency.

"I think what we need in a commander-in-chief is strength and resolve, and presidential campaigns are tough business, but being president of the United States is also tough business," Edwards told reporters Laconia, New Hampshire.

Earlier in the day, Clinton became emotional when speaking to a group of voters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Completely unacceptable amounts of sexism. It's bad enough that the media plays the game with Clinton where if she shows any emotion, she's too feminine or too scary, but if she's more stoic, she's a scary ballbuster, but to have her own party members (if political rivals) play that cheap sexist card is too much. I've been reconsidering moving my Edwards support to Obama, and unless someone can show me evidence that Obama is just as likely to take cheap, sexist shots like this, I think that's what I'll be doing in light of this. We need someone at the top of the ticket who can know when to hold 'em. And Obama does on this issue--when baited with the opportunity to be sexist to Clinton, he declined. Edwards appears to have taken it back, so it's hard to say that it wasn't just base opportunism on his part. Still, it should be immediately evident to any candidate that playing the "Hillarygirlieweak" game with the media is a bad idea.

On that note, here's another WTF blog post at ABC's blog.

It won't come across on the transcript, but Sen. Hillary Clinton got angry during the debate tonight.

She was bickering with Sen. Barack Obama about their differences on health insurance, and whether Obama's plan leaves millions of Americans uninsured.

And then she ... well ... she got angry.

Frankly, I don't even really understand what she was saying. What I was getting was how angry she is. Not about an issue, so much, as about the fact that Obama is beating her.

The clip, I predict, will be played again and again and again.

Pundits will say that her tone made male voters recoil. And led some female voters to sneer.

I can't bring myself to vote for the hawk in the campaign during the primaries, but dammit, this makes me sort of wish she'd win so that I can vote for her in the general election in good conscience. You don't get much closer to saying outright, "We simply will not allow a woman to win if we can help it," than that quote there. When male candidates show a modicum of controlled anger, they get credit for their passion and their big, brass balls. Hell, the former President Bush was coached to act angrier so that people didn't think he was a wimp. But no one will cut Clinton a break.

UPDATE via Jane Hamsher @ FireDogLake: Feel the Misogyny

Matt Stoller and Echidne are right. Male candidates can cry and it shows their humanity; Hillary Clinton cries and she's weak and hysterical. And why shouldn't she be emotional at this point? Her male fellow candidates don't have to put up with leering, chortling, oily creeps like Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough laughing at them and disrespecting them when they're trying to run a fucking political campaign.

She is not your private bawdy joke, lads.

Oh and John Edwards? Please stop being a patronizing, sexist jerk.

And I'm sorry. Planned Parenthood and NARAL lost the right to put the "pro-choice stamp of approval" on anything when they sent out those mailers telling their members to thank Joe Lieberman for his vote to put Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court. To grant them that authority is positively ahistoric.

There is definitely a double standard going on here. If Hillary Clinton tried that old "the dog ate my Senate schedule" excuse for missing Kyl-Lieberman (when there was evidence to the contrary), there would be spew alerts everywhere.

You may disagree with her on substance. She may not be your candidate of choice. But for chrissakes, treat the woman with respect.

UPDATE II: Sen. Clinton has been harassed by sexists on the campaign trail who scream "iron my shirt" at her at various events and rallies.

Tagged as: sexism, obama, hillary clinton, edwards, new hampshire, medi

Amanda Marcotte co-writes the popular blog Pandagon.