Dear Maureen Dowd, please stop effeminizing Obama and criticizing Clinton’s maternal instincts.
Her column today is not worth reading, so I won’t link to it, however it does put Dowd in the running with Bill Kristol for least deserving Times columnist. I know I keep harping on this, but somebody’s gotta do it. That Dowd is using superficial, sexist arguments to make the case Republicans will be trying to make in the fall is inexcusable. With friends like the Times, who needs Republicans.
Are all tough women bitchy dykes? Are all men who don’t want to bomb, bomb, bomb Iran sans testicles? We need to stop boxing candidates into an impossibly unimaginative range of acceptable emotions, mannerisms and ideas. Unless of course, we are ok with the notion of angry old white men deciding the way of things. Because they have done an absolutely fabulous job so far. I just said fabulous. Does that make me a John Edwards Barack Obama? Do I have to pee sitting down now?
–Hat tip to Family Guy for the “sans testicles” line.
March 2nd, 2008
There are only a couple charges against Obama that I feel have any real merit. The one I’m most afraid of is the criticism he’s taken from prominent left-wing guys like Krugman and Stoller that he isn’t willing to embrace progressivism and would govern as a distinctly more centrist president than his supporters believe. Along those lines, his choice for VP could be an important indicator of what he plans to do.
My main concern is that he’ll take some frustratingly moderate Democrat who won’t fit with his message of hope and a changing of the guard.
One of my top choices, Chris Dodd, may seem a little counterintuitive, since he’s an old white guy who’s been in the Senate forever. But he has very progressive positions on foreign policy, immigration, restoring the Constitution and global warming, echoing Obama’s promising stances on all of these issues, sometimes even more forcefully than the Illinois Senator. He’s old enough that he might not run for Prez after 8 years as VP, which is a plus, but I like him enough that I’d have no problem if he did.
I also think Wes Clark would be an excellent pick. He’s a compassionate military commander who, like Obama, opposed the war in Iraq. As Bob Shrum (who I hate) pointed out on Meet the Press today, Clark has become a much better campaigner since his failed run in 2004. Of course, Clark endorsed Clinton, so that might hurt his chances.
March 2nd, 2008