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Geraldine Ferraro is at it again. She wrote a Boston Globe op-ed piece accusing the media of being sexist and treating Hillary unfairly during the primary season. Ferraro proclaims “. . . neither the Barack Obama campaign nor the media seem to understand what is at the heart of the anger on the part of women who feel that Hillary Clinton was treated unfairly because she is a woman . . .” and a few sentences later, “. . . tens of thousands of women have watched how Clinton has been treated and are not happy.”
Maybe the Boston Globe did a horrible job of editing. But otherwise, despite all her innuendo, Ferraro provides absolutely zero evidence, examples or proof of such unfair treatment in her nine paragraphs that were published in the paper. Read it yourself. Are readers supposed to just accept such outrageous claims with zero substance behind it?
It’s the ultimate irony that Ferraro cries unfair treatment of Hillary when more than half of Americans are female, while previously claiming that Obama – representing a minority that makes up only 13% of the population – has actually benefited from his race. What’s even more curious about Ferraro’s allegations is that television anchors, analysts, and reporters covering the primary campaigns are not uniformly male. Far from it.
Ferraro would have us believe that Donna Brazile, Campbell Brown, Katie Couric, Candy Crowley, Gwen Ifill, Monica Novotny, Soledad O’Brien, Kelly O’Donnell, Norah O’Donnell, Kyra Phillips, Judy Woodruff and Jessica Yellin – just to name a dozen of the most prominent female talking heads – are part of this sexist conspiracy against Hillary? I’m not buying it.
Sexism didn’t cause Hillary to bet the farm on Super Tuesday with no Plan B. Sexism didn’t cause Hillary to lie about sniper fire in Bosnia. Sexism didn’t cause Hillary to over rely on big donors at the expense of small donors. Sexism didn’t cause Hillary to fail miserably at organizing caucus states.
Sexism didn’t cause Hillary to offend African-American voters in South Carolina – her male husband’s big mouth did.
Sexism didn’t cause Hillary to transparently pander on the gas tax holiday. Sexism didn’t cause Clinton/Bush fatigue – 15+ years of non-stop partisan bickering did.
Sexism didn’t cause Hillary to hype her “experience” in an election year where yearning for “change” was obviously in the air.
These are all major reasons why Hillary will not be the Democratic nominee. Ferraro and her ilk don’t want to talk about them because it feels better to blame the “sexist media.”
The problem with this whiny losing attitude, besides being dead wrong and giving McCain free ammo, is that it gives no credit to Barack Obama. Win or lose in November, Obama’s underdog primary campaign strategy will be followed by other campaigns for decades to come.
–Theo Chen
