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The Sexism Continues…

By Bud White on November 19, 2008 at 1:21 PM in Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Chris Matthews, Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton, MSNBC, Media Bias, Misogyny, Morning Joe, Sexism

The headline on the MSN homepage (via MSNBC) declares, “Dem sources: Clinton to help wife get State job.”

This headline refers to the fact that President Clinton is disclosing his financial records and those of his charitable work. But the sexist opportunity was too good for MSNBC to pass up. President Clinton is not helping his wife “get a job,” he’s merely presenting financial documents to Obama’s transition team. Ostensibly, all potential cabinet members and their spouses are also going through this process now. The big difference, however, is that the Obama team made Clinton’s financial records a campaign issue.

Can you imagine the headline turned the other way? I don’t recall seeing, “Liddy Dole to help husband get job” or “Mary Matalin to help James Carville get job.”

There are major problems with the MSNBC headline. First, of course, it presupposes that Senator Clinton wants the job. There’s a report today in the New York Times that she’s “hesitant” to give up the independence of her senate seat. But of course independence is what it’s all about.

A key element of Obama Sexism in this recent campaign was the constantly pushed narrative that Hillary was dependent on President Clinton for her senate seat and her presidential campaign. Chris Matthews infamously said “on ‘Morning Joe’ [that] the reason Hillary Clinton won her New York Senate seat and is a front-runner in the presidential race is because Bill Clinton ‘messed around.’”

And who can forget Greg Craig of the Obama campaign? A former Clinton classmate and friend, when discussing Hillary’s important role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland, claimed that Hillary Clinton was an appendage to her husband and only met with “the women”:

She traveled to Ireland with her husband and met with the women, and the women, of course, were heroic in their work for peace. But she can’t take credit for bringing the women together. They were the courageous ones that did it themselves. What she said was, “It’s a good thing you’re doing it. We’re all for you. I hope you’re successful.” That’s not instrumental. That’s not bringing peace to Ireland.

Of course Hillary never claimed to have brought peace to Northern Ireland. The Obama Sexism trope from Craig is even more glaring when you ask, What foreign policy credentials did Obama have? Hillary was President Clinton’s closest adviser and she was assigned many important tasks in his administration. But Craig, like MSNBC now, perpetuates Obama Sexism in order to diminish Hillary Clinton.