The women we love in popular culture are the good girls.
Cinderella. Sleeping Beauty. Girls who don’t rock the boat. Pretty, demure and corseted. These are the models we let our little girls believe are the ideal.
And that’s Hillary Clinton’s problem. She’s not the “good girl” in that fairy tale princess sort of way. That makes a lot of us a little uncomfortable.
Hillary is more Princess Smartypants than Princess Aurora.
For some reason, we can’t get past our lingering, underlying obsession with the idea that girls are for rescuing, not ones to be cast in the role of smart problem solver.
In addition to not voting for her or supporting her candidacy, many have started to call for Hillary Clinton to gracefully bow out of the presidential race for the sake of Democratic party unity. I’m the last one who wants to see a nasty fight between her and Barack Obama, and I really do want the Democrats to get focused on how to beat John McCain.
But why is Hillary the one people are calling on to step aside? Yes, she is behind in the delegate count, but not by that much. It’s not like she’s the Democratic version of Ron Paul.
The current delegate tally looks like this:
Obama — 1515, Hillary — 1424.
That’s only a spread of 91 delegates. One of them needs 2025 to get the nomination and there are still plenty of delegates out there to put either one over the top.
If the political shoe was on the other foot, no one would be calling on Obama to step out of the race for the benefit of the woman who was ahead and possibly more qualified. Have you ever seen something like that happen in any workplace setting?
“Say, Joe, I know you’re considering me to be the next CEO of ABC Corp., but you know, we’ve never had a woman running our corporation and Jane is just as qualified as I am and more people on the Board of Directors think she should have the job, so I say she should take that CEO slot! You know, I think it would be in the shareholders’ interest for me to step aside so Jane can just get on with the work of leading us to bigger profits. “
Yeah, in my dreams.
No one has a crystal ball. Sure, some things might be more likely to happen than others in this crazy political atmosphere, but, in all honesty, can we really expect someone who is a viable contender for the White House to willingly and gracefully step aside if there is still a realistic chance of victory? No one called on Mike Huckabee to step aside in the GOP race, and he wasn’t anywhere close to catching McCain.
You can also bet that if the pundits started calling for Obama to withdraw, no one would ask him to do it “gracefully.”
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thanks, i have been so busy i havent been paying attention. my feathers are ruffled now! i just dont know why any of it has to have ANYTHING to do with gender or race! ARG!
Kate | March 6th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Will do my best not to hijack the comments here, but…I disagree wholeheartedly. And I feel like you’re yelling fire in a crowded theater. Just substitute “WAAA I”M A GIRL” for fire.
Huckabee was asked to step aside by Texas Gov. Perry, and really that one wasn’t even close so Im not sure it’s comparable, but here’s the factbuster for you anyway http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/02/09/politics/fromtheroad/entry3812334.shtml
Obama has been asked to step aside by Ohio ’s Gov Strickland http://blog.dispatch.com/primary/2008/03/for_days_pundits_have_been.shtml and Hillary supporters
http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/2/21/163040/612
And to be clear, I’m not asking the ‘girl’ to step aside, I’m asking the candidate who went negative and only netted 4 delegates on Tuesday. The one who is dividing this party with fear, not dividing it on ‘issues.’
The one who has Rush, Rove, Mary Katharine Ham, and Coulter rooting for her.
Yeah, you’re damn right I want her to drop out.
And let’s not pretend race is not an issue in this post either. We can talk gender all day, but where is all the outrage when Obama is (and as I pointed out has) been asked to step down?
Should I be looking for a woman or man of color to be blogging about Why Should the Black Man Step Aside?
No. Because it’s not about being a girl and it’s not about being black. It’s about who unites and who divides and who makes us whole again.
Queen of Spain | March 7th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Calls for Obama to step aside have not gotten the press that those for Hillary have.
For me this is not about race or gender, but I certainly find that the media coverage has been much more focused on gender in their attacks on Hillary, which is what I wanted to point out.
And who is to say that Hillary can’t unite us? Obama may be able to make a good speech that helps us feel like maybe he could, but know one will know until one of the current candidates is in the White House.
I wish I felt like someone could make us whole — I think that’s putting a lot on any candidate’s shoulders. It’s enough for me if we can get a president who can get us out of the war and get the economy back on track.
PunditMom | March 7th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I do think that whatever the reason is, the SUPPORTERS of Clinton are more militant because she is female than the supporters of Obama because he’s black.
I’m not sure why this is, but I am completely offended by it. I refuse to vote for a candidate purely because we are “one as women” together. I also really relate more to Obama as a candidate and as a person (if that means more than the issues do to you) than I do to Clinton.
I do think it would be nice if we could just decide on one candidate and move forward - mainly because of the sheer quantity of money being dumped on fighting amongst ourselves. Then this can turn into a real race….and one that hopefully is about the issues.
Mary-Frances Main | March 7th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Clinton can’t bring people together…she just can’t. She and her husband are polarizing figures. They always have been and always will be. Monica-gate in the 1990s was all about Clinton-haters stopping at nothing to tear them down. I just don’t want to go there again and I’m so surprised that so many others do.
Clinton’s being asked to step aside more loudly because she is technically behind (whether its 91 or 191 delegates) and I do think people would be doing the same with Obama if the shoe were on the other foot.
Amy@UWM | March 8th, 2008 at 4:36 am