Women push back in support of Clinton

[antigop]

http://www.star-telegram.com/466/story/552810.html

Debra Starks has heard the calls for Hillary Rodham Clinton to quit the presidential race, and she's not happy about it.

The 53-year old Wal-Mart clerk, so bedecked with Clinton campaign buttons most days that friends call her "Button Lady," thinks sexism is playing a role in efforts to push the New York senator from the race. Starks wants Clinton to push back.

"The way I look at it, she's a strong woman and she needs to stay in there. She needs to fight," Starks said at a Clinton campaign rally. "If you want to be president, you have to fight for what you want. If she stays in there and does what she's supposed to do, I think she'll be on her way."

Amid mounting calls from top Democrats for Clinton to step aside and clear the path for rival Barack Obama, strategists are warning of damage to the party's chances in November if women - who make up the majority of Democratic voters nationwide, but especially the older, white working-class women who've long formed the former first lady's base - sense a mostly male party establishment is unfairly muscling Clinton out of the race.

[JeanGrey]

1. Nonsense. She has already lost.

[Diane R]

2. Not all women are Walmart Clerks...nothing wrong with that, but we're diverse and many support Obama

[Captain Hilts]

3. Women don't vote as a bloc. Never have. Other groups and subsets do. nt

[Mags]

5. There is always a first time for everything.

I personally don't know one Woman that is voting for Barry.

[elixir]

9. Same here.

[fedupinBushcountry]

21. Not one woman

I know is supporting Hillary in this red state, they are all for Obama and we proved it when 58% of women went for Obama in our primary. I could care less if it is a woman or man or the color of their skin. I vote my heart and gut and for the future of this country for my kids and grandkids to come.

[Captain Hilts]

26. Our personal relations are very self-selecting and do not accurately reflect overall reality.

I had eight years in polling.

[niyad]

34. if 58% of women went for obama, who did the other 42% of women

go for? how many other candidates were running, and what was the breakdown?

[fedupinBushcountry]

23. Not one woman

I know is supporting Hillary in this red state, they are all for Obama and we proved it when 58% of women went for Obama in our primary. I could care less if it is a woman or man or the color of their skin. I vote my heart and gut and for the future of this country for my kids and grandkids to come.

[Captain Hilts]

10. I certainly do, but the important thing is he's getting as much as 90% of the black vote in some...

states. That's really stunning. And in some states like Mississippi, SC, NC and GA, that's 90% of nearly 50%.

Hillary, conversely, is getting 60% of 60%. So, it's not as strong among her own phylum.

Now, checking out the op-ed columnists in the two major papers I read - the WP and NYT: Bob Herbert, Colbert King, Eugene Robinson - black men - are all strong Obama supporters. Gail Collins and MoDo split, and Anne Applebaum leans Hillary on FP issues and Ruth Marcus slightly leans toward her. Yes boys and girls, of 16 columnists in the WP only TWO are women.

[bain_sidhe]

28. Yeah, but 90 % of how many vs 60% of how many?

I don't know the numbers, but it seems to me that would be important.

Anybody know what numbers we're talking about for each "group"?

[Mags]

38. Did you ;expect Bob Herbert, Colbert King and Eugene to be

for Hillary?

[nancyr]

47. I am.

I know several women who are voting like me.

[roguevalley]

49. first of all, he prefers Barack. If calling names of candidates to

demean them, then there are numerous descriptors that could be used on your gal. As for the idea that women vote as a herd, that is laughable. We are individual and we vote that way. Fuck the idea that somehow we are a group acting in concert together.

[Vinca]

4. Woman here - not supporting Clinton.

She can drop out now while she's behind and keep her self respect, drop out later when she's behind and try to salvage her self respect or take it to the convention and tarnish her image and Bill's legacy. At this point I don't care what she does because she won't be the nominee.

[Mags]

39. so scared of a hard driving , fight woman? Drop out

give it to Barry, get over it, that is typical of the Barry supporters, we don't want to fight for this, just give it to him. He is the Man , get out of the way. How weak.

[roguevalley]

50. you can polish Hillary until she grows in the dark but you can't seem

to get it that we have a FREE CHOICE here and MILLIONS OF PEOPLE are making it. We don't give a fuck about 'hard-driving. Some of us have come to the conclusion that a better descriptor is self-deluding and as for the 'fighting', since you brought it up, that myth exploded in Bosnia. How pathetic it is to not use his name. WHat is the deal here with you? Do you just hate men having power or is it black men? He is running a campaign that is winning and he is defeating your gal. He is doing it on the votes of MILLIONS OF MEN AND WOMEN. Are you saying those MILLIONS OF MEN AND WOMEN are unamerican or sexist or some of the other shit people say? Since when is a black man in this country EVER the Man. How weak your own arguments are. You making cutting remarks of the popular candidate rather than tell people why they should change their votes and minds. You harp about hillary when SHE DID IT TO HERSELF! Clue: there is no great conspiracy here. People PREFER obama. They prefer him. Get over it.

[mrJJ]

6. The Nation

Hillary's Nasty Pastorate

There's a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.

snip

Furthermore, The Family takes credit for some of Clinton's rightward legislative tendencies, including her support for a law guaranteeing "religious freedom" in the workplace, such as for pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions and police officers who refuse to guard abortion clinics.

snip

Sharlet generously attributes Clinton's involvement to the under-appreciated depth of her religiosity, but he himself struggles to define The Family's theological underpinnings. The Family avoids the word Christian but worships Jesus, though not the Jesus who promised the earth to the "meek." They believe that, in mass societies, it's only the elites who matter, the political leaders who can build God's "dominion" on earth. Insofar as The Family has a consistent philosophy, it's all about power--cultivating it, building it and networking it together into ever-stronger units, or "cells." "We work with power where we can," Doug Coe has said, and "build new power where we can't."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/ehrenreich

[Cha]

33. hilary's been pastorbating way past

it's been prime. I say hilary stays in and drags her and that "fairy tale" spinnin' husband of her's down so far their names will be persona non grata for decades.

[LisaM]

7. OK, this is what's bugging people

Someone posts a piece on how some women feel about Clinton, and the first two responses are snarky.

The feelings expressed by Ms. Starks are legitimate. Yet, rather than trying to understand her resentment, the first two people to respond are just dismissive.

This dismissiveness is helping to fuel this divide. It's not constructive. The first person says, oh, Hillary has already lost. The second demeans Ms. Starks' job (oh, not blatantly - but it starts out sniffing, well, we're not all Walmart clerks, then grudges that there's "nothing wrong with that".)

[Captain Hilts]

13. Thanks so much for your comment, LisaM. Good luck to Verlander and the Tigers! nt

[LisaM]

18. Thanks! The buzz is tremendous!

My sister said she saw a picture on the news of St. John's Episcopal Church in Detroit where the whole congregation came dressed in Tigers' gear, and they prayed for a good season!

[totodeinhere]

40. Why is Hillary's gender relevant to whether or not she should drop out?

She should drop out if she can't win the nomination. It has nothing to do with her gender. A man in the same position she is in now should have also dropped out.

[bunnies]

8. Not this woman.

Thanks for the broad brush though. Screw that.

[elixir]

11. Thanks. The Obama mantra for Hillary to drop out is backfiring...all the way to Denver.

[anonymous171]

29. "She can stay in as long as she wants" Hillary faux victimhood is ridiculous.

[burythehatchet]

48. I fully expect her to squirt out a few tears, she's low on cash.

[thereismore]

12. There are many people who are unaware of the math. That's all. nt

[antigop]

17. but MATH is hard... and women aren't good at math,right?

:sarcasm:

[thereismore]

36. Did I say that? No. Did you insinuate that I did? Yes. Bye bye. nt

[antigop]

43. Did you miss the sarcasm tag? n/t

[DJ13]

14. I feel sorry for people like that lady

(And no, this has nothing to do with sexism.)

She is a victim of a MSM that refuses to highlight Clinton's untennable situation in the race, and as a result she probably believes with all her heart that Clinton remains a viable candidate who is being unjustly picked on for being a woman.

Had the MSM told the truth about how small Clinton's chances were after losing those 11 straight primaries, this sad situation (one that many Clinton supporters will eventually face) would already be behind us and we would be solidified in our support to beat McCain in the GE.

[Captain Hilts]

16. How refreshing to hear a man say that there is no sexism involved here. What a relief! Whew!

In the views toward this woman or the issue, in general.

Would the media have covered it if someone has shouted "shine my shoes!" at Obama?

[DJ13]

22. How refreshing to hear a man say that there is no sexism involved here

I said my post wasnt based on the sex of the candidates.

It was based on the way the MSM has misled people (of either sex) to still consider Clinton a viable candidate.

Its a shame that point went right over your head in your zeal to continue the sexism BS....

:eyes:

[Captain Hilts]

25. The MSM has been very sexist vis a vis Clinton. The sexism issue isn't "bullshit." nt

[DJ13]

27. The MSM has been very sexist vis a vis Clinton.

The MSM's support of her is the ONLY reason she is still considered a viable candidate.

If they really "hate" her, she would have been forced out weeks ago.

:eyes:

[niyad]

35. amazing how the sexism ir so repeatedly denied-- we can talk

about obama and race, but there is NO sexism when it comes to sen. clinton. yeah, right.

[LisaM]

19. Well they were not all primaries, for one thing.

The difference between a primary and a caucus is huge (I know - I attended a caucus).

[roguevalley]

51. If she weren't a clinton, they would have kicked her to the curb by

now. since she is, you can credit her continuing in the mudfest because of her husband and his own achievements. A buncha senators have tried and dropped out. Women have tried and dropped out. She's only there because her name is Clinton.

[SwampG8r]

15. oh my god

this is the second time i looked at this title line and thought it was about bill and the interns

[niyad]

20. another article in NYT on this subject

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/us/politics/30clinton.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

caught a snippet on c=span last night. sen. leahy saying something to the effect that sen. clinton had every right to stay in the race, but no reason. nice and snarky, I thought.

[NeedleCast]

24. I don't care if she stays in or not

She still going to lose unless a "back room" deal is cut at the convention. If Obama is leading the delegate and popular vote come covention time and anyone else gets the nomination we can pretty much count on President McCain.

[roguevalley]

52. if there is a backroom deal, I'm on the first plane to Denver. i will

check my pitchfork in the hold however.

[Erin Elizabeth]

30. I'm a woman supporting Obama.

So I guess I'm not part of this huge "women's vote" I keep hearing about that is apparently 100% for Hillary.

:shrug:

[pansypoo53219]

31. oi'm not voting my crotch.

hill is my last choice. LAST. not mcinsain.

[Cha]

32. I bet the walmart women love them

some hilary clinton. I won't even darken that door.

[olkaz]

37. This is actually pretty funny. "Let's ask the batshit-crazy button lady!"

Let's be honest here. If there was some person covered from head-to-toe in Obama buttons, we shouldn't take their opinion too seriously either.

Also, OP's title is misleading. The opinion of one crazy person does not represent the entire female population.

[antigop]

44. The OP's title is the title of the article. And nowhere does it say that all women feel the same.

n/t

[Captain Hilts]

46. Correct! It's says the opposite. Clinton doesn't command the women's vote as Obama...

commands the black vote.

He is consistently getting over 80% of the black vote and often higher than 90%.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

41. Another woman for Obama

and heck I am an 'older' one, so really out of my catagory I guess

[mimitabby]

42. i can understand the walmart woman

I really can. Finally, a woman has a real chance at becoming president! Finally,
after all these years and think; less than 100 years ago, women couldn't even vote. But unfortunately,
it isn't that simple. This woman is erring because she is attaching too much weight upon the fact that Hillary
is a woman and neglecting the other simple facts; that a/ she is not winning, b/ there is someone else
who can do the job better.
I also suspect with these desperation voters that something else is at play here; perhaps they are too
racist to see that the best person for the job isn't a woman this time, but someone belonging to an even smaller minority?

[Captain Hilts]

45. Interesting use of the 'racism' card! Some Obama voters aren't being racist?

In fact, we tend to be heightists. The taller candidate always wins, except for 2004. We associate height with maturity and it's one of those traits associated more often with men than with women.

Smart people don't act on their 'ists', but most of us have them.

[Lord Helmet]

53. yep keep backing that loser ladies, you should hold your support for a decent female candidate