Despite telling myself that I should focus my attentions elsewhere, I find I’m repeatedly drawn to the U.S. presidential happenings. In particular, I have this freakish obsession with the race for the Democratic Party nomination. You see, I’m an ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton; always have been.
Way back in ’92, when Bill was first elected president, I remember feeling there was something different about her… and I liked it. Maybe it was partly due to the fact that this was the first U.S. presidential election that I actually remembered. Maybe it was because Bill and Hillary were young and vibrant. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it was but I was just starting high school (7th grade) and it was immediately evident to me that Hillary was no shrinking violet. I just knew she wasn’t going be like Barbara or Nancy, who always appeared so docile. Here was a woman who was really worth regarding.
One of my father’s younger brothers used to call my mother Hillary. We’re fairly certain he didn’t mean it in a good way but, to me (and I think to my mom as well) it was a compliment. Quite frankly, there were no other famous women that I really had much respect for on that level.
Even through the scandals with Bill, my support for her never waned. I know many women were outraged that she could, for all her feminism, stand by Bill’s side through the whole Lewinsky debacle and she probably forever lost some supporters because of it. However, having seen some of my friends’ parents deal with the issue of adultery, I took the position that you can’t judge until you’ve been there. Just because one partner cheats on the other does not necessarily mean that there is a lack of love or respect. (Here’s some food for thought on the subject or here.) To this day, I’m convinced that Bill and Hillary have a deep love and respect for each other. But, anyway, that was a side note.
For one of my master’s classes, we were assigned to read, “In the Company of Educated Women” (good book by the way) which as you can probably guess, details the change in the higher education landscape as women started pursuing undergraduate degrees and beyond. As to be expected, a significant portion of the book was devoted to all female colleges and in particular to Wellesley. Now, as an MIT woman, I’ll be the first to admit there isn’t a ton of love between the two female populations. But, what struck me was that even though Wellesley was an institution devoted to the advancement of women, the students were not allowed to have a student speaker at commencement. (Their male peers at neighboring schools had a student speaker for years at this point.) Further, the commencement speaker was always a man. Finally, the students came together and petitioned the administration to allow a student speaker at commencement and guess who that was? My friend Hillary, you can read the text of her speech here.
It was only a matter of time before Hillary threw her hat in the political arena. From what I could tell, New Yorkers were somewhat resistant the first go ‘round but she’s managed to win them over and secure subsequent election wins. To be honest, I’ve just been waiting for her to run for President. I’ve always believed she’d be fantastic. She is passionate about the country, cognizant of foreign policy issues and well aware of her perceived shortcomings. She knows her way around Washington, which can be valuable and has demonstrated that she can be fierce when needed. Sure, she’s not as charismatic as Obama but, let’s be honest, there’s no way in hell her campaign would have lasted a month if her initial platform was that of “hope”. Critics would have assaulted her and her girly fluff faster than you can say, I don’t know, insert something clever and short here. When push comes to shove, she and Obama are pretty much even on key issues and she’s been clear about her plans from day one.
Whereas, Obama’s speeches seem almost disingenuous to me; as though he’s just pandering what the American populace is just so desperate to hear although he doesn’t really have substance to back it up with. Of course, it can and should be argued that much of politics involves some amount of pandering but I’m someone who doesn’t just want to hear about “hope” and “change”. I want to know, how? I want to know that there is a plan. I want something I can actually envision. Words like “hope” and “change” are pretty but they don’t actually solve problems. It also bothers me that Obama literally took Deval’s speech and presented it as his own. I don’t care that Deval supposedly suggested that he use it, Obama could have at least acknowledged that the words were not his own as he spoke them. Deval’s not MLK Jr. so his words haven’t achieved such fame whereby a little disclaimer as to who the original owner is not warranted. For Obama to say that it didn’t occur to him, sits uncomfortably. What does that say about him? That he’s willing to take what sounds good and present it as his own even if it isn’t? Or maybe I’m making too much out of it but it does ring of immaturity and worries me. (This all probably sounds a lot harsher than I mean it to sound. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike Obama. I’m just afraid that he’s getting in way over his head and could do with more substantive experience under his belt.)
Anyway, as an “alien” (that’s their word, not mine) in the U.S., I have no say in the matter. So, as I mentioned before, I need to get past this and just accept whatever happens… although the feminist in me is praying, really, really hard.
(And just so you don’t think I’ve forgotten about the GOP… It’s seems fairly evident to me that McCain has it in the bag for the Republican nod. Or at least, I’m convinced that the GOP would need to seriously lose its collective mind to give the nom to Huckabee. I will not allow myself to believe that America would choose him over either of the Democratic options.)
A/N (added 12 Mar 08): An acquaintance of mine posted this story on facebook and I think it is particularly relevant to this blog post. As she mentioned, it may be two months late for me to notice the article but it doesn't change the point, with which I agree whole-heartedly.
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