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You’re Just Figuring This out NOW?

By LisaB on November 16, 2008 at 2:15 AM in Barack Obama, Campaign promises, Hillary Clinton, Misogyny

Politico has a piece about women’s groups wondering about BO’s cabinet picks.

Early indications that men might dominate the hierarchy of Obama administration have women’s groups worried, even as a growing chorus of advisers reportedly pushes Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of state.   “There’s definitely been a reaction to the few groups that have been named so far,” said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. “I agree with those who are concerned that it would have been nice to see more women.”   Women’s rights advocates acknowledge it’s still early in the transition process, but they say early staff picks and the lists of rumored Cabinet nominees send the wrong signal.

Will men dominate BOs administration? Does a bear, er, do his business in the woods?

Every Psych 101 class teaches “the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” But for some reason, women’s groups, bypassing HRC in favor of BO, decided that BO was a closet feminist who merely had to push aside a “bad woman” so that he could bring a new even more fair world to all.

I’d like to get angry about this. But I can’t. BO has never shown a sensitivity to women or “women’s issues.” Heck, he practically went out of his way to alienate women, feeling secure they’d come back to him anyway – which they largely did. Here at NQ, we’ve talked about misogyny FOR MONTHS! MONTHS! MONTHS! And now we’re supposed to be concerned? Go away. Go away and don’t bother me with your sudden concern.

Bridgette

“Here at NQ, we’ve talked about misogyny FOR MONTHS! MONTHS! MONTHS! And now we’re supposed to be concerned? Go away. Go away and don’t bother me with your sudden concern.”

So true, I don’t wanna hear people effing complaining now…it’s too late. Where was your brain 10 months ago?

/www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsP6XN2dIo&eurl trixta

After showing their support for their Bros- b4-HOs candidate, NOW should be called NOT NOW.

Apparently, they’d love to have a women as president but NOT NOW.

Northwest rain

A guy who pays his female staffers LESS than his male staffers. A guy who makes rude and condescending remarks about his female opponent.

Anyway the list is long — and yes WE at NQ and other enlightened blogs (we’ve seen the sun light and not the faux light of O-zero) — have been talking about Obama the sexist pig for months.

We have watched as Obamabots behaved like sexist pigs on “progressive” boyz blogs for over a year or more. At one point these boys defended the right of males to stalk and terrorize women on the Internet.

Do bears poop in the woods?

it would have been nice to see more women

It would have been “nice” if he did not beat the hell out of her last night — but geez she did promise to be better and not criticize him in front of the guests.

It would have been “nice”?? “nice”

What a stupid wimp statement — now giggle again Kimie and go back to whatever “important” you were doing before.
Ani

LisaB,

Thank you for this — yes NoQ and many other awake citizens have been screaming from the rooftops about his arrogance and sexism since January.

Nobody listened or cared.

Go away now is right. NOW, NARAL all of them should just do what Barack told Rep. Diane Watson all women should do back in June…”get over it.”
Mr. X

I find the irony itself ironic.

Womens’ groups like NOW chooses a man. And they’re upset that Obama is doing the same and choosing more men? Excuse me while my brain explodes.

You know, I’ve heard of “crazy” being when you try the same thing over and over expecting different results. But it’s gotta be a special kind of stupid when you act one way and expect others to act differently.

And YES, NQ has talked about this issue TO DEATH!!! Dear LORD, have mercy!

(And it seems NQ keeps being proven right issue after issue.)

Judy L. NC

ditto….

Irony on top of irony. I fear a brain explosion too.
Ani

Thank you. I’m glad I’m not the only one feeling like my brain will explode.

What did these organizations think they were accomplishing by abandoning a woman who has always stood with them for a man who has done zero?

Well, I’m going to have to keep the damaging koolaid rays out somehow…

In the words of one of our other wonderful posters -

- I’ve got my tin foil hat, complete with chin strap.

kgirl1028

The next african american will wake up and realize obama hasn’t nominated any of them either. I don’t care what obama does as far as females are concerned I hope his cambinet is filled with Y chromosomes. After the way these little bitches treated Palin and Hillary they deserve what’s comming to them.

PuppyDogMom

Isn’t it true that BO is 1/2 white? Isn’t it true that BO was raised by his white grandparents? Gee…and we wonder that he’s surrounding himself with white males?

We told you so? Yeah, we told you so.

marcos

Yaaaa just go away and leave us men that voted for hillery and the few women that voted for her the audacity of these liberal fools
marcos

Duuu what the hell were these women thinking
marcos

The best dam thing was in front of them now the oppurtunity is dead

/www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsP6XN2dIo&eurl trixta

If NOW couldn’t fully support HRC — the most qualified candidate, let alone the most qualified woman to ever run for national office — then I don’t now when.

NOW should be called officially NOT NOW.

marcos

At least they can,t blame me I know who I voted for
elise

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL, was with Obama in Chicago on election night. He is no doubt going to have to throw her a bone in exchange for NARAL’s inexplicable endorsement of him before the primaries were over when Hillary has been one of their greatest advocates for years. PP and NARAL will never receive another donation here. NOW did nothing to protest Hillary’s treatment by BO camp or the press, but a few days after the convention in Denver sent a ridiculous and mind boggling email asking members to vote for the most offensive member of the media and they intended to send the result of the vote to the “winning” channel” asking that they slap some one’s wrist. If Kim Gandy had been representing women’s rights in 1973, NOW would have waited until after the Supreme Court ruled against choice and taken a straw poll to send to Warren. I don’t care if they would have been called racist. The NAACP represents the voice of AAs very well. NOW is(was) the voice of women. What exactly is it they are doing now for my rights? Supporting female candidates for office doesn’t help me or my daughters and granddaughters if they run for office some day and Emily’s list bails on them when they want to fight the old boys club. There will be a fallout from this election that won’t help them or us. It’s ok to use sexist attacks. Who’s going to complain? Disrespecting women is officially sanctioned now. Does anyone really believe we will have a woman president some day? If Hillary couldn’t make it, who will? I have a wonderful husband and he is the least sexist man I have ever known, but everyday of the many years we have been married I have had to be vigilant. If I am not, he will take control of every aspect of our lives, make decisions without consulting me. It would be so easy to let that happen and to let some one else take care of every thing and that is the trap many very capable women have fallen into. How can we make other women understand when the only way they measure their rights is Roe v Wade and that is the only thing the Democratic Party has offered? In spite of the numerous times the Party has promised to revisit ERA in their platform, it is always ignored and it won’t be any different this time. Obama has promised income parity, but does anyone believe that will happen? What about real financial aid for single mothers to go to college or help with childcare? How can AA women hope to keep their children off the street when they have to work two jobs just to survive and never have a hope of a better education because they can’t afford tuition or childcare? Those were the dreams of women in the 70s so what happened? Why did AA women support Obama. He is not one of them and will do nothing to help them. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Shelia Jackson Lee understood it was gender bias keeping Black kids in the ghetto, not racism. Obama and JJ Jr. see nothing wrong with rap music degrading Black girls and disrespecting them. Why don’t college women and “progressive” women object to the music played at Obama’s Iowa victory rally or the disgusting joke told at a fundraiser? Where is our voice NOW?

Seirem

Women don’t get leadership now. It’s necessary to find a good leadership.
Winston

The NAACP represents the voice of AAs very well. NOW is(was) the voice of women.

NAACP represents left-wing blacks, not blacks.

NOW speaks for liberal women, not women.

This has been true for decades. People are too blind to see it. They are political groups that march in lock step with the DNC. Its about votes.
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsP6XN2dIo&eurl trixta

It’s NOT NOW, apparently. NARAL was certainly AWOL when it came to women this election.

wodiej

I swear I cannot for the life of me figure out what the hell is wrong with women who allow themselves to be used, abused and disrespected than go back for more to get approval from the person who treated them like shit. Throw them a bone and they’re happy or at least satisfied. NOW has no credibility whatsoever. When women allow this kind of behavior, it hurts all women as a group. When will they every learn??!!

elise

I have asked myself that question so many times wodie and I don’t have an answer. It is an insidious thing and so built into the physic of our society it is bondage for women and men. Young women starve themselves and, sometimes, kill themselves trying to look the way the media and movies have presented the accepted standard of beauty. Something happened a decade after the Feminist Movement that stopped it dead in it’s tracks. Members of the media like Limbaugh began making fun of independent women (ie Feminazi). Successful women were called “bitches” or “ball breakers” and it was a self fulfilling prophecy. Women believed they had to lose their identity in order to be successful. Few women wanted to make that transition. Sometimes it seems the only thing remaining from the 70s is aggressive sexuality which is just fine with most men, but diminishes young women.I don’t know how it can be reversed. Was Roe v Wade a curse because it made us complacent? Affirmative Action never really helped women the way it did AAs. It makes me so sad.

mimi

Although I passionately agree with this thread and will make a longer comment at the end, I cannot let this stand as fact:

“Affirmative Action never really helped women the way it did AAs.”

Statistics prove otherwise.

Just because this so-called AA became president, don’t be fooled into thinking that. White women have far surpassed black men because of Affirmative Action. There has yet to be an AA movie studio head and white women have achieved that goal. There have been white women who became CEOs of major companies.

There may have been more Affirmative Action educational programs for AAs to help balance the scales of the inferior education that blacks receive, but there is no doubt that white women were able to make important climbs in the job sector because of Affirmative Action, too.
Winston

Roe v Wade split women into two camps of equal size. Divide and conquer. Women were mutually annihilated.

NOW was not pro-female, it was anti-male. There is a big difference.
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsP6XN2dIo&eurl trixta

But Affirmative Action did help women break into otherwise male dominated professions, especially the media. I remember back in the early 70s when a woman’s voice on the radio or TV was thought to be shrill and thus a reason to keep women off the air.

Of course, after great strides for women in this and other professions, by the 80s, there was a right-wing manufactured backlash on Feminism and women in general (see Susan Faludi’s BACKLASH).

PuppyDogMom

Madeline Albright: There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t support women.

FenelonSpoke

I think there may be an implicit assumtion that an African-American Obama would have more concern with inclusivity. Trouble is, sexism and misogyny crosses racial lines. Yep, onee had only to look at Obama’s words and attitudes towards Hillary and other women and NOW and others would have seen it. To bad they had the blinders on.
JudyfromMO

I don’t know what nation these empty-headed people are saying they are organizing for, but it sure as hell ain’t mine. How do these people get in power with this attitude? Just suck up to the man and maybe he will throw us a crumb-seems to be their attitude. This whole business makes me puke.
AnninCA

I’m hoping that Hillary will accept the SoS position. I’m amazed but not surprised at the Huffpo respondants. They really want Richardson. I can’t imagine anyone less competent for that position than him.

Or Kerry…..who wouldn’t scare me, at least.

But Hillary is by far the only person truly qualified for the job.

csuzeq

But in 2008 it was proven that the less qualified man gets the job over the more qualified woman-ALWAYS.

Any woman who did not see that happening and support women for their daughters, their friends, their neices, their neighbors, themselves deserves to lose their rights and not be heard. They also deserve to see Roe Vs. Wade overturned. I would laugh my ass off if Obarfy appoints judges who do just that. One of his probabilities for SCOTUS is Cass Sunsteen thinks Roe V. Wade is a poorly written law, as do most lawyers. He supports it because of length of time the law has been in place, but from things I have read about him, he may want it overturned so a new law can be written. Well, in the meantime it won’t be pretty for Pregnant women, but hey, girls, you have your Saint Obama now so all will be great now.

I no longer donate to any woman’s groups or presidential campaigns. I learned the hard way. I donated monthly cash to a democratic Senator and then didn’t want him any longer. No more money for any politics in the future. None.

Women’s groups don’t exist for me any longer.
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsP6XN2dIo&eurl trixta

I disagree. HRC needs to steer clear of the SOS position, since it man very well be a chess move to get her out of the Senate. And why should she be the SOS for Obama, since “he will be tested in the first 6 months of his administration.” Why should HRC become the next Colin Powel to promote and enforce very unpopular policies or wars that, according to Biden, are sure to come.

jack

This is an “enlightened” blog? Hahaha! Lucky for you racists you can hide behind your computer screens and whine. In real life you’d all get whupped badly.

csuzeq

I am a racist now. You can have your token black affirmative action POTUS and you can suck on him. For me, I don’t need a token. I will wait until there is actually a qualified person to prove my gender’s advancement in society. We won’t accept the phoney. We will only take the real thing.

You keep your token and maybe it will help you get on a subway or something. A token can’t buy you much.
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsP6XN2dIo&eurl trixta

Jack, but we’re only half racists, since Obama is only half black.

mimi

cI want to see all of these women eat shit.

They had their opportunity and decided to go with 0bama. And none of the leadership has offered an explanation why they chose him over Hillary. I would have looked at this differently if someone from the leadership had put forth legitimate reasons for choosing him.

They also never spoke up against the misogyny thrown at Hillary and then Palin. Even if they wanted to support 0bama, where were the public statements and outcries about this? Worse, they participated in it, particularly with Palin.

So let them eat shit from this man. I could care less. I want to see how much they will eat.

I pretty much feel the same way with AAs. I’m waiting for someone in my community to say something about this so I can pretty much read them chapter and verse. That AAs were too stupid to realize that 0bama is not only biracial, but was raised by white people and sociologically removed from our experience defies my personal understanding.

When the history of this story is written in the black community, it will be noted how Michelle 0bama figured prominently in 0bama’s ability to oblitirate his biracial heritage. 0bama very shrewdly took advantage of the long festering issue of skin color in the AA community by choosing a spouse of which there would be no doubt as to her African Americaness. There is no way for me to prove this, but Michelle was a calculated choice by 0bama who has been planning his accendency to the presidency for longer than anyone will be able to prove. Michelle was the right color tone with the added advantage of being educated and politcally connected in Chicago. This is why any interviews between them with all that lovey-dovey romantic stuff is absurd. Especially on 0bama’s part. This is also why I don’t give credence to the idea that Michelle has so much power. Somehow, someway, history will prove that she was used as well.

I realize that many whites cannot absorb the magnitude of what I’m saying. This is certainly a cultural thing. But trust me on this: if 0bama had married a wife who was biracial like he was, someone who looked like Halle Berry, or an AA woman who looked like Vanessa Williams, Hillary would be our president now. He would not have received the 95% support of the AA community during the Primaries. Michelle’s image sealed the deal early on for this unknown politician among AAs, and this is true especially among AA women who would have tipped the scales if his wife had not passed muster.

But back to the point, here at NQ we’ve known for months who 0bama really is. So far he has picked nothing but Clinton people. So I ask, WTF kind of change is this? All this proves is that the country wanted a 3rd Clinton term, but they just couldn’t stomach the idea of Hillary, a woman who was the more qualified and experienced, heading it.

That makes me sick to my stomach. It speaks of deep-seated female hatred in America and that women participated in it is the most tragic of all.

This bothers me more than racism. I find racists laughable. Especially nowadays. They are ignorant turds with low IQs, they are stupid. So let them hang their symbolic ropes and paint their stupid graffiti and burn their crosses. They are so far down on the food chain not to warrant attention beyond their ability to commit a stupid violent act. Other than that, they have become unnecessary and more an annoyance to our society. They are being bred out. The sooner, the better.

Misogyny on the other hand is insidious and malevolent. It’s been given free reign. And worse, there are traitors among our own gender. Thousands of intelligent people proved their gender bias in this election and were proud of it. I think women lost a huge amount of ground during this election.

This is why I want them to eat shit. All of these people will get everything they deserve.

AnninCA

I don’t agree that there’s deep-seated hatred.

If anything, I think there’s quite a bit of pedestal thinking when it comes to women.

I think we’re given TOO much power.

I really do.

I think it’s the bane of all women. Whether it’s your kids or the entire political party, same stupid dynamic.

Women need to screw up more, I think. Really mess up big-time in public and then laugh.

Maybe then we’ll get to be human.
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsP6XN2dIo&eurl trixta

“All this proves is that the country wanted a 3rd Clinton term, but they just couldn’t stomach the idea of Hillary….”

But it was the corrupt DNC and a cadre within the Dem Party that pushed HRC out of the race after she had won the popular vote and was dead even with BO in pledged delegates(the stolen 4 MI delegats belong to her!). It was obvious that she was the peoples choice — even consistently out polled both Obama and McCain throughout the primary and GE races.

Basically, the presidency was stolen from her. And I do agree that the toppling of the Clintons was in the making from at least 2004 (if not before), when Obama first came onto the national scene.

There is an eerie Manchurian quality to Obama, moreover. Some believe Michelle Obama is an intelligence plant of sorts, who was chosen to keep an eye on BO and to steer him in the “right” direction.

AnninCA

The issue of sexism, in my mind, has to do with lingering doubts of many men that a woman can lead effectively.

Progress was made this year, with two women in the spotlight. We all got to watch and see how they handled the slings of the campaign trail. We saw the sheer attack of the left when Hillary misted up. We watched as Obama was allowed to stomp off from his first real press conference after 5 questions without much ado. He recovered with his speech. We watched as Palin was reduced to stories about a wardrobe that she didn’t even wear.

It was a fascinating insight into the real attitudes of people regarding gender, age, race, etc.

What’s interesting to me is that I think, just my opinion, that none of it was relevant.

I do know from personal experience that professionalism wears away these issues. I remember being shocked by the behavior of some men and how they maneuvered me into the “woman” corner in corporate initially. I also remember later when nobody bought it, since I just got to work. Apparently, my work was good enough for the real power people to ignore the sexist stuff. Ditto for politics.

Palin drew in much needed money. Imagine what McCain was up against without her draw? Palin drew in much needed energy. I swear, if the Republicans are so stupid they don’t see how many more seats they would have lost without her, then they really are in a stupid funk.

Women in politics will survive nicely, provided they do their job.
IBI

A post copied from elsewhere. The link does indeed show Obama born 1961 in Africa. THis is a totally non-political site.

***********
If anyone is a member of ancestry.com, they can look there for information. I typed in Barack Obama, born 1961, Africa, and it came up. But since I am not a member (you have to pay, and I don’t have credit cards) I couldn’t get all the info. Here’s the page where I saw it: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi…ftp=Africa
Sassy

This campaign has exposed the sexual bias that lurks every where, and while Senator Clinton did well, in the long term, her success will be a negative for ordinary women!
Why? Because males will be more determined than ever to stop any future female candidate!
The serious issues facing this country barely were addressed because of celebrity and stupid gossip!
Frankly, I don’t want to see another debacle, and I won’t participate in one.
Womens’ groups cooked their goose this time, so eat, drink, and be merry!

http://www.rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com/ Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

Yes, it did. I have to say, the vast amt of revisionist history that is going on now with Obamessiah is astonishing. You would NEVER KNOW that Clinton won all those big states, even when he was outspending her up to 4 – 1. You would never know that HER being the nominee, which most of us know she SHOULD have been, would have been HISTORIC. If you saw all the different articles in my daily newspaper abt him, how historic this is, the essays people are writing abt how amazing all this is, you would NEVER KNOW that he STOLE this election with the help of the ONC. Never. And you would sure never know he did it at the expense of ALL women.

When my Obamabot sister kept trying to convince me how much better he would be for women tan McCain (which I doubt highly), I told her if she was REALLY concerned abt WOMEN’S issues, she would have supported the person who has a long, proven track record on women’s rights! Yeah. RIght.

Great post, LisaB!

AnninCA

Well, your sister has one good point. McCain and Palin did NOT stray from the Republican doctrine of state rights.

Even in the very blue state of CA, we see what that means. Progress for gay rights will be slow. Not in this decade.

An activist court speeds up our society. A conservative court slows it down.

I guess I’m a bit philosophical. We have yin-yang in our politics.

But she could be right in that 8 MORE years of conservative court thinking may well have become a generation of slow-down.

So that’s one point for the liberal voters.

ford

I have no real animus with the idea that NOW is an bunch of dinosaurs roaming around sucking up to every lefty male they can find, and bitch slapping women everywhere.

NOW and NARAL will never get another dime from me, and I think it’s GREAT that BO is hiring white old political hacks to design his HOPE and CHANGE administration…
ford

Hillary is the constant fixture in this sea of misogyny that PROVES that the gender gap is really the last taboo.

Please remember that Black Males got the vote BEFORE ALL WOMEN did…

DeniseB

LOOONG before.

http://www.democratic-disaster.com//index.php?topic=286.0 missy

Women were voting their son’s futures, not their daughters.

/www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsP6XN2dIo&eurl trixta

Missy you are soooo right.

It was Sophie’ choice for the DNC and the Pod Feminists, and they certainly made it clear which gender they thought was worthy and wanted succeed.

Betty

I understand the anger toward Obama for his lack of fairness, for his outright misogyny, and, unfortunately, as with all of those who use tricks as opposed to a brain in creating policy, I’m queasy about his proposed defense and intelligence picks.

The last thing they need is some potato unable to understand the complexities of the war, one of those who just knows he has the solutions, despite what Gates says, someone so stupid he still thinks conquer and divide is viable, thinking Obama’s pseudo strategy was in fact, a feat of war engineering, unrivaled.

They will leave us further behind than if Cheney and Bush, and their team of cretins, had remained. At least Cheney’s team was broken in, however much denial they’re in…

Nothing worse than someone as hopelessly stupid as Michael Brown, (borrowing from the war crimes entry), in charge of a multi level operation, unable to accept suggestions from his advisers, totally off track in understanding the complexities of the war, enacting solutions that will only harm the US, mind closed, incompetent.

Again, stupid men in command create a power vacuum, increased chaos within chaos. After Rumsfeld, that is the last thing they need, the SOD a simple patronage job for an Obama hack.

And no commander should ever make George Bush or Jack Keane look intelligent.

Hagel has been mentioned, that might be good, Gates, of course, but Danzig?

ROTFLMAO…

Obama should pick a civilian for the job, simply to maintain balance, not an ex military man, that was the problem with Bush and Cheney, appointing ex military to what should clearly be civilian positions.