E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Straight Outta Berkeley: You're Sexist if You Don't Vote Obama!
Just another female Obama supporter, acting a lot like the battered women I used to see way back when...
Sen. Barack Obama is dealing with several key obstacles in his race for the presidency. He's black. He's young. And did I mention he's a dude? Why is the senator from Chicago facing so much heat for being a man?
(Smacks self on head.) So that's why he's running around wearing three piece suits! An' I thought it was all just some early Halloween costume!
After all, men have ruled the American presidency since 1789. And while the senator isn't another middle-aged rich white guy, he is a guy. But instead of being able to use this to his advantage (i.e. help persuade conservative voters that he's not bringing so much change in the gender aspect after all), Sen. Obama is ransacked for being a man. For not being a woman. For not being Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton lost the primaries. The end. I wish it was as simple as that. But unfortunately, Sen. Clinton's loss is slowly becoming Sen. Obama's loss. Again and again, I hear Sen. Clinton's supporters barraging the news saying, "We will not vote for Sen. Obama, and if we vote at all, we will do so for good ol' McCain." I must say, the last is one of the most ludicrous ideas I have ever heard. (And as a columnist, believe me when I say I've written heard a lot of ridiculous statements.)

If Sen. Hillary Clinton can support the guy, surely her supporters can too.
Well, if you stick a knife right up against someone's spine, you can get them to agree to a lot of things, Sugar. Trust me on this one.
During last week's Democratic convention, Sen. Clinton made it clear in unequivocal terms that she is behind Sen. Barack Obama, as is her husband. Former President Bill Clinton is "convinced Barack Obama is the man for this job." This is exactly why it is so disheartening to hear that according to a recent joint poll between NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, only half of Sen. Clinton's supporters are willing to support Sen. Obama.
Someone get this girl the Waaaaah-mbulance!
Granted, the Clintons have taken a long and winding road to get to the endorsement dais they're standing on today, but there's nothing to be accomplished by rehashing the past. The only thing we can do now is make a better future.

Sen. Obama should not lose this race just because he's a man. This is exactly the kind of underlying assumption that Senator Clinton has questioned and challenged in her historic campaign: the idea that one should be deprived of the presidency simply because of gender.
Of course, one could make that argument for Governor Palin's run for VP, but I don't want to cause this sweet young thing too much difficulty with her thought processes.
Continuously demonizing Sen. Obama because he is a man only employs a kind of reverse sexism.
If anyone would know about sexism during the 2008 campaign, it would be a Democrat, no?
And that's not something for which we, or Hillary Clinton, would chant "Yes, we will!" Sen. Obama is accomplishing in our country what until recently had remained a nightmare dream. And just because this dream is different from Hillary Clinton's, doesn't make it any less worthy.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields 2008-09-03
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=249012