Women of My Generation Have Clearly Lost Their Minds

[IndianaGreen]

Women of My Generation Have Clearly Lost Their Minds

Lynda Obst

Women of my generation have clearly lost their minds. Not that I can blame them, apparently being invisible and all. Now with Geraldine Ferraro making outrageous nut-jobber remarks she doesn't even seem to understand, and realizing our tragic generation was once proud of her as a "pioneer," you can see how deluded we are as well. Worse, only this week, a heroine of mine, Tina Brown, got it utterly wrong in Newsweek, saying all boomer women had to be for Hillary. Tina drank the victim Kool Aid.

So I want my peers to meet an original (begged for him to run) pro-Barack boomer 50-something careerist woman, who chose Barack above and beyond -- hear me, Geraldine, you utter moron -- from the best field of Democratic candidates we've had for years, many of whom I've been big fans of forever, for their various courageous stands on Central America (Dodd,) Iraq (Biden, Richardson and Kucinich.)

But Hillary? Never liked her. Many of my best friends and favorite women have always felt the same. Something unsettling about her. A feminist? Maybe. But a compromised one, having risen to fame as the victim of Monica and having been famously on bimbo eruptions in her White House patrol. She was the destroyer of Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers, the very blue collar ladies she is now being saved by. Kind of yucky, really. And hanging in there, through all the humiliation, and that making her a star. Left a bad taste in my mouth. Moving on.

What about my generation's desperation that there will never be another female candidate? Why? Is our gender about to die out? Do you all know something I don't? I can understand the 80-year-olds, I guess. But to me, Hillary Clinton is merely the first credible candidate, and the most flawed. And the only one not to rise on her own coattails, which is the real reason she doesn't appeal to both me and many young, yes, in their own way, feminists. And what about Claire McCaskill? She's great! And she just emerged this year! Why do we act like Hillary is our last great chance? How damaged and pathetic. I see fantastic women in their 30s all the time. To wit, Chelsea's undamaged generation. Not polarizing, like us ceiling crashers. I can sympathize, I am, too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lynda-obst/women-of-my-generation-ha_b_91468.html

[Genevieve]

1. k and r /nt

[roguevalley]

10. I agree with you, IndianaGreen. Well said.

[thunder rising]

2. Wow, you had me at, "Geraldine, you utter moron"

[grantcart]

3. well written - waiting for incoming

[K Gardner]

4. Bullseye. K&R

[Genevieve]

5. Bullseye, exactly!

[shraby]

6. I'm just before the boomers and I can see through

Hillary like she's a piece of gauze. She can't fool this old grandma and I'd really like to see a woman fill the top slot, but one that's clean and honest.

[Olney Blue]

7. Thanks for posting. I disagree with the author, but I understand her.

[Umbram]

8. Brillant. K&R (nt)

[rucky]

9. 15 years ago, my money was on Ann Richards

as the first La Presidenta

And if Boxer were running today, all bets would be off.

[Beregond2]

11. Minds...

Exactly. Hillary isn't the only woman who will ever run, and she is far from being the best who ever has. I give her props for making a woman as president seem just that much more acceptable; that is a contribution she will be remembered for. But she is NOT the best candidate at this time.

[Blondiegrrl]

12. Beautiful commentary! Thanks for the link. n/t

[ClayZ]

13. K and R

[noiretextatique]

14. dumest article...ever

clinton has a lot of flaws, but this article is just silly.

[rodeodance]

17. i really think Obamafans are in a contest to see who can post the stupidest article.

[goodgd_yall]

15. Oh, Great----more divisive talk from an Obama supporter

Just what women of "her" generation need to hear to get behind her candidate. :argh:

[LisaL]

16. Women of her generation have lost their minds?

She just insulted a whole bunch of people. Maybe she should step away from the computer for a while.

[LisaM]

20. What is so great about Claire McCaskill?

She voted twice not to redeploy troops home from Iraq, and (if I'm reading this correctly) she wants to give immunity to the telecom companies. She's not especially progressive.



http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/m001170/votes/against-party/

[Hepburn]

22. For starters....

...she is NOT Hillary Clinton. What else does one need to know?

[LisaM]

24. Well, I happen to like Hillary Clinton

But you hardly answered my question. I think Claire McCaskill is not as liberal as Hillary. So aside from the general snottiness of the original article, just throwing out the name of some other woman politician shows a pettiness on the part of the writer. The only possible appeal Claire McCaskill would have in the context of this race is that she's from a red state, but we would also probably lose a Senate seat and she's certainly no more (and probably less) progressive than Hillary.

[goodgd_yall]

23. In her favor---She's working with Carl Levin to regulate credit card companies

That's pretty progressive.

[redqueen]

18. "nut-jobber remarks she doesn't even seem to understand"

Nor do many, it seems.

Nice contrast to the "We are Hillary" piece from the other day.

:thumbsup:

[knixphan]

19. that was a good one -

and my fave quote for today comes from Greg Craig:


"The point that I am making is that her claims of the nature of that experience are overstated. The fact is she did not sit in on national security meetings. She did not have a security clearance. She did not attend meetings in the situation room. She conducted no negotiations. She did not manage any part of the national security bureaucracy. She did not have her own national security staff. That's the fact. Now the experience that she did have -- watching and sometimes sitting in the room..."

http://nationaljournal.com/onair/transcripts/080314_craig_greg.htm

[Hepburn]

21. HUGE K&R to this thread!

Yes, fucking, yes!!!!!!!!!! :applause:

I wish I could rec this at least 10 times! Thanks for posting this. :hi:

[roseBudd]

25. I am a get em elected pragmatist, we lost with 2 bland personality deprived candidates in a row &

now we want to choose an annoying one who lectures? Who is forever associated with a semen stained dress,a cigar & a blow job under a desk. Not her fault you say? Doesn't make the visual go away.

Ew & yuck.

And that is just one of her unfavorables. Maybe if she had divorced him she wouldn't have such high negatives.

So we finally have this rare thing, that people genuinely gravitate to. He is Tiger Woods & Michael Jordan. He has that thing that white people like. He is light skinned enough, he doesn't wear his hair like Aunt Ester on Sanford & Son, he doesn't rhyme.

I'm supposed to believe white women deserve this because life is so unbearably hard for boomer white women. Show me the data that would support that contrasted for data on African Americans.

America & the world need Barcak Obama more than boomer white women need Hillary

[The River]

26. Excellent Story

I just posted and self deleted the link in GDP once I saw
it was up and rising...fast.

The post is spot on. I think her supporters need to reevaluate
just why they are so pro Hillary but can never explain just
why she is so qualified, so ready from "Day 1"?
She can't even manage a decent campaign. Will she play the
victim of bad campaign managers when she looses?

We "Boomers" of both genders need to get out of the way
and let a newer generation take the lead. We've had our
turn and we let george bush happen on our watch. 'Nuf said.

K&R

[pnwmom]

27. Most of your generation is not suffering from "desperation that there will

be another female candidate." But many of us have been dispirited to see how much of the Hillary hate is related to sexism and misogyny (rather than sticking to issues). We've come a long way, yes, but we still have a long way to go.

This isn't just a problem with Hillary, by the way. Barbara Boxer, who is lauded by most DUers, has also spoken about how this has affected her. It's no accident that there are only 16 women of the 100 people in the Senate.

[dmr]

28. Been wondering that myself

I'm a 1952 boomer myself; and I've been wondering where are all those Hillary-supporting booming women the media has been talking about. I personally don't know any. I'm not one. Obama wasn't my first, second, or even third choice. Hillary was barely a consideration for me.

Until I moved away, she was my Senator. It was curious to me that she was able to swoon into NY on her husband's coat-tails and run for the Senate. Through the years, I have written numerous letters to my lawmakers; but never once did I receive a response from her office. Schumer, King, Silver and others all responded to my letters or calls. Not Hillary.

There was a time, way back in the 90s, I had tremendous respect for Hillary. In fact, I used Hillary as one of several women for my niece to emulate. As the years have gone by, as I have watched, read, and learned more, my admiration waned. Waned to the point where I have little trust in her ability to place my best interests above big business and her own.

I've been watching Obama and Hillary, willing to give them both a fair shake. I know that Hillary has a life-time of experience, but when you get to be our age, haven't we all? But let's be totally honest, here, Hillary would not have been elected Senator if it weren't for her name, and the fact that her husband was a popular president among us Democrats.

The "Not that I know of.." statement, the belittling of Obama, supportive of McCain at the expense of a fellow Democrat, and the reluctance to show her tax returns have only fueled me away from her, and if there is to be a primary again in Michigan, she will not get my vote. And, as I said earlier, I know of no one from within my old lady generation who has spoken in support of her either.

[Raine]

29. Exactly on target!

:thumbsup:

[merh]

30. I wish I could recommend this.

thanks for posting it.

[IndianaGreen]

31. Thanks!

Hillary is a defender of the patriarchy, as Jane Fonda has said.

[merh]

32. Just think of all those women that stay married to their man

"because they love him" and put up with the emotional abuse and disrespect and contempt for the marriage. They don't divorce because they don't want to give up the creature comforts or the social position or just the simple security that the "marriage" provides them. HRC is one of them when she didn't have to be. Had she severed the ties, had she realized that love is so much more than what she has settled for, that being an independent person in her own right would have been so much more empowering for women than her run for office using him, claiming his experience as her own, then she surely could have claimed the title of champion and I would have been in her corner. Instead, she continues the patterns and has set a very bad example for all women.

Someone has it in their sig line "Hillary claiming executive experience is like Yoko Ono claiming to be a Beattle."

She is part of the problem that is our political and social system, the system that oppresses at will, that creates divides that many will never be able to bridge, that compromises values for position and confuses power for respect.

[progdog]

34. Yes!

:applause:

[VotesForWomen]

33. whatever. if she thinks O was the most qualified candidate, she has judgement issues of her own.