When I posted this yesterday, Hillary Clinton’s Kitten Heels Not Necessarily A Shoo-In, it triggered a few emails from folks apparently not willing to post publicly in a comment thread all of which took the same tone. As if talking to a six-year-old afraid of the thunder, these presumably younger, less bitter and burnt voices assured Gen-Hillary, bitter, old Boomer me that no-no-no-no-no! If she runs in 2016, Hillary will not experience the same nasty treatment she received in 2008, not at all! Not with those high approval ratings! Bill’s wife will not be treated as appendage of his now that she has blazed her own path (as if she had not already done that in the Senate before her presidential campaign). It will be kinder, gentler campaign coverage. Yeah, right. And as if on cue, this. I will let the video speak for itself.
Vodpod videos no longer available.“Rebecca, author of “big girls don’t cry.” she is the Hillary fan I like to bring to balance out the Hillary hate that will emerge from me if i am not careful.” – Melissa Harris Perry, MSNBC, 02-03-2013
Noooooooo, of course they won’t trash Hillary again. Of course not.
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At the time I originally posted this, I did not know about this article. I have no idea how this flew below my radar in 2008.
Hillary’s Scarlett O’Hara Act
Why some of us aren’t falling for it.
| Posted: February 8, 2008
Here is Jezebel’s excellent and concise rebuttal.
Princeton Professor: Hillary Clinton Is A Racist Scarlett O’Hara
A prime example of why I don’t watch MSNBC.
Note how this is all about identity politics to them. Typical media elitists. I want Hillary 2016 because our country is in bad shape and I don’t see anyone else out there who can fix this mess. If my only concern was electing a woman president, I would have campaigned for Michele Bachmann last year.
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I am neither a boomer nor am I embittered by an election that’s over four years in the past, but to expect that one of the most polarizing national figures in recent memory will cease to be just that seems to me a bit naive. Yes, she will be attacked and scrutinized should she decide to run and she would have to campaign hard and, more importantly, campaign effectively. If it looks for one moment as if she feels entitled to the nomination or that a victory is inevitable, they will tear her apart for it. Nothing is going to be handed to her in a gift wrapped box no matter how high she’s polling.
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Yes, that was pretty much my point yesterday.
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she made some mistakes in the 2008 campaign that will not be repeated should she decide to run in 2016. that i can guarantee. i’m also certain she can handle the scrutiny and negativity that will inevitably accompany her run.
btw, i tend to disagree about the characterization of hillary as “polarizing.” as a person she is not that way at all. the polarization comes from the media portrayal of her.
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Great point, that last one. Polarization is a media invention.
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It doesn’t matter whether it’s correct or not or who started it. The view of her as this chilly, devisive shrew is by now part of the popular consciousness. Plenty of voters will believe a well crafted lie when it suits them.
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Hillary never felt that she was entitled to the nomination. She knew she had to earn it. It was the media who kept repeating that she was a shoo-in, just like they are doing now.
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Once again, it doesn’t matter where the idea of her inevitability came from – the media, her campaign, her supporters, the candidate herself, wherever – the point is that she has to been seen not to believe that is the case should she choose to run again and her people need to do the same.
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As always you are correct! We are still minimized and ostracized as women leaders in particular….and she will now get the blame for all that may or may not have gone wrong!
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Hillary HAS A WEBSITE http://www.hillaryclintonoffice/ if you go to the campaign site, it redirects you there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can’t believe it!!!!
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Have it up in the sidebar.
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I can’t stand that woman. It was all I could do to watch the segment. I refuse to watch MSNBC. I would watch FOX before I would watch that so called news network.
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I don’t think she’s a shoo-in and I don’t think SHE feels entitled. (Truth be known, I feel it is WE who have earned her presidency–again and again.)
Still, I do think the media will try to F this up for her, but she is smarter about them than last time, and more importantly, WE are smarter than last time.
Whatever she chooses to do, I support her without reservation!
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They already are. MHP and the NYT swipes are premature since HRC has not tossed her headband in the ring, but they are an indication that the antipathy is out there. The MHP remark is very strong. The word “hatred” is so loaded, and I am sure we can all think of many contexts in which the same statement would have gotten someone fired. That no one calls her on this and she keeps her show indicates that nothing has changed and speaks volumes. Smarter, more educated by 2008 or not, we need to admit the power of the media. Look how they twisted her 2008 message – and it DOES matter who started the “inevitability” theme. Her message was “If you hire me….” She never expressed entitlement.
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Yup. and we’ve got to be there in the comments, cool and rational, calling out their CDS, inviting them to do some fact-checking.
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Damn–hit Post too soon!
Even if she doesn’t run, I’ll be damned if I’ll stand by and let them smear her lifetime of public service.
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That’s right. (I know. I sometimes hit post too soon when I am typing agitated, and it is very easy for me to get agitated when people diss Hillary.)
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MHP is always taking swipes at Hillary…..talking about her age and making it sound like she doesn’t work as hard as others with all the doors that were open to her. There are outliers for every successful person. With women like MHP….who needs sexist men.
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Typical of one who doesn’t know a time when women could not attend Ivy League schools and to get into the Seven Sisters it was best you came from an upper class family with alumnae in your family. There is something to be said for knowing women’s history. Hillary’s dad did save up so that she could go wherever she wanted, but she also worked hard to earn her tuition and fees and had a Defense loan like many of us. Yale Law was all on her. No help from dad. Right so many open doors. Thank you for pointing that out.
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Also sure MHP will not leave her emotions about Hiilary aside when she goes into the voting booth…….her emotions of hatred that is.
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Which is fine as far as her personal vote goes, but to express that hatred so openly – nakedly – as an influence peddler … I don’t know – makes her like a female version of Rush.
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This is what she tweeted the morning of that show.
Melissa Harris-Perry @MHarrisPerry
Tune into @MHPShow this morning. We are talking football, guns and Hillary Clinton. This is gonna be quite a show.
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One thing that REALLY irked me was her statement that Hilary only came into politics and notoriety through her husband. This is patently NOT true. Before she ever met Bill she was on the cover of LIFE magazine for her political activism. People were pushing her to run for office before she moved to Arkansas and decided to marry Bill. She was a figure in her own right before he ever became President, which is precisely why she was so polarizing.
And then, MHP has the nerve to mention her age? REALLY? Has anyone ever questioned any other male candidate’s age?
Really, the only thing MHP cares about in terms of women’s issues is how they affect African Americans in particular and from many interviews I’ve read and watched, she seems to have an active prejudice and hatred toward white women liberals whom she perceives as mostly middle/upper middle class. I am a white, single woman liberal who is a first-gen immigrant and don’t consider myself in that group. However, when I watch her show, I feel increasingly alienated and stereotyped by the mere fact that I am a white female.
I can see her point about being bothered that she, as a woman of color, was somehow expected to vote for Hilary simply because of her gender. However, her anger is misdirected. She should be more upset with the media’s statements toward that end and not at Hilary specifically.
Also, she is the first to defend whatever Obama does in cult-like fashion, but accuses Hilary supporters of the very same thing. Hypocrisy.
Obama has enacted policies and behaved in ways that seem to violate her stated values, yet she applies the double-standard and refuses to critique anything he does and militantly defends it.
I’m going off on tangents here, but so many things about MHP are maddening! And like one other commenter said, she is in a position of influence. Ugh!
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[…] Legendary Hillary-hater, Melissa Harris-Perry has yet to suit up for the event, but can it be long before she, too, is tapped by MSNBC to play her role advancing the team’s anti-Hillary agenda? Slate‘s Dave Weigel will not be surprised if she does. […]
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[…] Hillary Clinton has ever indicated that she is aware of MHP’s existence, her show, or of the many negative remarks from MHP about her over the years. But MHP has gone after HRC enough to have made me quit watching her […]
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[…] entirely comfortable with Rebecca Traister portrayed as a “pro-Hillary” commentator (as Melissa Harris Perry cast her). My instinct was correct according to her New York Magazine article. She once was, she admits […]
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