Hillary Clinton Plays ‘Sexism’ Card

March 30, 2008

By Toby Harnden

Hillary Clinton portrays calls to quit as chauvinism

Faced with a growing chorus to abandon the uphill battle against Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton is falling back on what she sees as her trump card - her gender.

At other perilous junctures like the eve of the New Hampshire primary and the eve of Super Tuesday, the former First Lady highlighted her femininity during televised tearful moments. Now she is portraying the calls for her to quit as male chauvinism.

In comments leaked to the New York Times, Mrs Clinton is said to have told aides that she would not be "bullied out" of the White House race and in a conversation with two allies compared her plight to "big boys" trying to bully a woman.

During a weekend interview with the Washington Post - arranged at her request - she was asked whether Mr Obama could beat John McCain, the Republican nominee.

She responded: "I'm saying I have a better chance. You cannot as a Democrat win the White House without a very big women's vote. What I believe is that women will turn out for me."

In the past 10 days, Senators Chris Dodd and Pat Leahy and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico - all key Obama allies - have urged Mrs Clinton to abandon her presidential bid so her party can unite around the young Illinois senator.

Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, called for the nomination to be decided by July 1 at the latest and counselled "super-delegates" - the 796 party officials who will have the final say - to make their choice known before then.

Mrs Clinton flatly rejected this, vowing to take her battle all the way to the party convention, which begins in Denver on August 25.

Once again, she highlighted her case that delegates from Florida and Michigan - which the candidates agreed would not be seated - should be given a vote.

"I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong," she told the Washington Post.

"I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next ten contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention."

Mrs Clinton's options, however, are narrowing and not all her staff support her win-at-all-costs strategy. Two senior advisers and one close ally told the New York Times that they would recommend she pull out if she loses in Indiana on May 6.

The former First Lady is heavily favoured to win in Pennsylvania, where she has a double-digit poll lead, on April 22 while Mr Obama has a big advantage in North Carolina on May 6.

But Indiana, which neighbours Mr Obama's home state of Illinois, is widely viewed as a toss-up.

Her campaign is already using the drumbeat against her continuing to fight as a fundraising tool. Former president Bill Clinton signed off an email to supporters on Friday with: "My family isn't big on quitting. Hillary's in this race to win, and she's in it thanks to you."

The argument that opposition to her battling to the bitter end is motivated by sexism is, however, complicated by the fact that one of the leading voices advocating an early resolution is that of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who herself made history by becoming the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Mrs Clinton enjoys a 12-point advantage among female Democrats, who have rallied behind her when she has been in dire straits.

Just before the New Hampshire primary, she received sympathy when two youths began chanting the 1960s anti-feminist slogan "Iron my shirt!" at one of her rallies.

Other supporters have noted that there is a strain of misogyny in some of the opposition to her. On the social networking site Facebook, among the anti-Clinton groups there are seven with names around the theme "Life's a Bitch - Don't vote for one."

Another is entitled "Hillary Clinton Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich". As of Sunday, it had 43,432 members.

Source: Telegraph UK

Posted by Hillary · Filed Under Hillary Clinton, News

Comments

2 Responses to “Hillary Clinton Plays ‘Sexism’ Card”

Gina on March 30th, 2008 9:23 pm

Hillary’s compulsive need to “fight” is what makes her an tiresome candidate and an ineffective leader. She uses the gender card as leverage to elicit sympathy, arouse outrage or justify a snarly, chaotic campaign. She has divided and almost dissolved Democratic strength with her unethical and misleading statements about the excluded Florida and Michigan delegates that she had readily agreed to and her bizarre fabrications about her experience. She has morphed into a sinister force determined to secure her entitled place in the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton dynasty. God help us if she succeeds.
Paul V on March 31st, 2008 1:03 am

Well as always the blog is wrong,,,, No matter what any media say The Democrats are split completely ,, There is now way that Barack Obama will win anymore even if he wins the primary,, Them media is wrong as always, about everything when it comes to barack obama , They say Obama will lose 1/3 of Hilary votes that mite cost him the election,, Those number are completely wrong other polls on Cnn and Fox show that Obama will lose Half to 2/3 thirds of Hilary Voter,, just for the fact,, Obama supporter will only vote for Obama and Hilary will only vote for Hilary ,, Obama supports say right out if Hilary wins the primary there voter will vote for McCain out of spite, Then on the news Micheal Obama said,, if her husband don’t win,, She don’t think she can support the democratic party,,, this race is lost,,, by there own hands,,, that is why the media is pushing to force Hilary out,even tho it going to cost Obama the presidency,,, LOL

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