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  1. #1
    Part-Time Polemic Senior Member ICantSpellDawg's Avatar
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    Default Crocodile Tears

    Hillary without tears

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    Why it's time to close the book on the Clintons -- and herald the Obamas! Plus: Iran war hawks, Russian drag queens and the genius of Zeppelin.

    By Camille Paglia

    Camille Paglia

    Jan. 10, 2008 | Subject: Hillary and sado-masochism

    As her husband has dragged his numerous female play objects before her and has humiliated her on the public stage year after year, she still stays within the marriage.

    Hillary seems to take every beating, and yet she appears to "keep on ticking." Does she thrive on this?

    How would this affect one's (female) psyche? Judgment as President? General perspective?

    A swarm of biographers in miners' gear has tried to plumb the inky depths of Hillary Rodham Clinton's warren-riddled psyche. My metaphor is drawn (as Oscar Wilde's prim Miss Prism would say) from the Scranton coalfields, to which came the Welsh family that produced Hillary's harsh, domineering father.

    Hillary's feckless, loutish brothers (who are kept at arm's length by her operation) took the brunt of Hugh Rodham's abuse in their genteel but claustrophobic home. Hillary is the barracuda who fought for dominance at their expense. Flashes of that ruthless old family drama have come out repeatedly in this campaign, as when Hillary could barely conceal her sneers at her fellow debaters onstage -- the wimpy, cringing brothers at the dinner table.

    Hillary's willingness to tolerate Bill's compulsive philandering is a function of her general contempt for men. She distrusts them and feels morally superior to them. Following the pattern of her long-suffering mother, she thinks it is her mission to endure every insult and personal degradation for a higher cause -- which, unlike her self-sacrificing mother, she identifies with her near-messianic personal ambition.

    It's no coincidence that Hillary's staff has always consisted mostly of adoring women, with nerdy or geeky guys forming an adjunct brain trust. Hillary's rumored hostility to uniformed military men and some Secret Service agents early in the first Clinton presidency probably belongs to this pattern. And let's not forget Hillary, the governor's wife, pulling out a book and rudely reading in the bleachers during University of Arkansas football games back in Little Rock.

    Hillary's disdain for masculinity fits right into the classic feminazi package, which is why Hillary acts on Gloria Steinem like catnip. Steinem's fawning, gaseous New York Times op-ed about her pal Hillary this week speaks volumes about the snobby clubbiness and reactionary sentimentality of the fossilized feminist establishment, which has blessedly fallen off the cultural map in the 21st century. History will judge Steinem and company very severely for their ethically obtuse indifference to the stream of working-class women and female subordinates whom Bill Clinton sexually harassed and abused, enabled by look-the-other-way and trash-the-victims Hillary.

    How does all this affect the prospect of a Hillary presidency? With her eyes on the White House, Hillary as senator has made concerted and generally successful efforts to improve her knowledge of and relationship to the military -- crucial for any commander-in-chief but especially for the first female one. However, I remain concerned about her future conduct of high-level diplomacy. Contemptuous condescension seems to be Hillary's default mode with any male who criticizes her or stands in her way. It's a Nixonian reflex steeped in toxic gender bias. How will that play in the Muslim world?

    The Clintons live to campaign. It's what holds them together and gives them a glowing sense of meaning and value. Their actual political accomplishments are fairly slight. The obsessive need to keep campaigning may mean a president Hillary would go right on spewing the bitterly partisan rhetoric that has already paralyzed Washington. Even if Hillary could be elected (which I'm skeptical about), how in tarnation could she ever govern?

    The current wave of support for Barack Obama from Democrats, independents, and even some Republicans is partly based on his vision of a new political discourse that breaks with the petty, destructive polarization of the past 20 years. Whether Obama can build up his foreign policy credentials sufficiently to reassure an anxious general electorate remains to be seen.

    But Hillary herself, with her thin, spotty record, tangled psychological baggage, and maundering blowhard of a husband, is also a mighty big roll of the dice. She is a brittle, relentless manipulator with few stable core values who shuffles through useful personalities like a card shark ("Cue the tears!"). Forget all her little gold crosses: Hillary's real god is political expediency. Do Americans truly want this hard-bitten Machiavellian back in the White House? Day one will just be more of the same.

    I will vote for Hillary if she is the nominee of my party, because I want Democrats appointed to the Cabinet and the Supreme Court. But I plan to vote for Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary because he is a rational, centered personality who speaks the language of idealism and national unity. Obama has served longer as an elected official than Hillary. He has had experience as a grass-roots activist, and he is also a highly educated lawyer who will be a quick learner in office. His international parentage and childhood, as well as his knowledge of both Christianity and Islam, would make him the right leader at the right time. And his wife Michelle is a powerhouse.

    The Obamas represent the future, not the past.
    Last edited by ICantSpellDawg; 01-10-2008 at 16:06.
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  2. #2
    Enlightened Despot Member Vladimir's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    Isn't there a rule or law against reposting an article in it's entirety? Not even a link to this one.


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  3. #3
    Master of Few Words Senior Member KukriKhan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    Quote Originally Posted by Vladimir
    Isn't there a rule or law against reposting an article in it's entirety? Not even a link to this one.
    We do ask that non-Org articles not be reproduced in whole, so as to not violate:
    Copyright ©2008 Salon Media Group, Inc. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited.
    The odds of a Salon lawyer visiting our Backroom and objecting are admittedly pretty slim, but we ought to respect their (and their writers') desire to control the dissemination of their work.

    Preferred is: Intro and/or commentary on the piece by the Org poster, a link to the original source, and excerpts of the piece (under spoiler tags), used to illustrate or illuminate the poster's point.

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  4. #4
    Part-Time Polemic Senior Member ICantSpellDawg's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    I forgot the link. There you go.
    "That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there."
    -Eric "George Orwell" Blair

    "If the policy of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court...the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned the government into the hands of that eminent tribunal."
    (Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, 1861).
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  5. #5
    TexMec Senior Member Louis VI the Fat's Avatar
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    Default Re : Crocodile Tears

    Quote Originally Posted by article
    I remain concerned about her future conduct of high-level diplomacy. Contemptuous condescension seems to be Hillary's default mode with any male who criticizes her or stands in her way. How will that play in the Muslim world?
    Excuse me!? Is the author advocating American women, even if they are the President of the United States of America, should show due subservience to foreign Muslim men? Lest it should hurt America's high-level diplomacy?

    People hate uppity madame Hillary so much they consistently lose all sense of persective, all intellectual honesty. For Pete's sake, "How will that play in the Muslim world?". Madness.

    I wouldn't wipe my arse with this article.
    Last edited by Louis VI the Fat; 01-10-2008 at 16:02.
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    Part-Time Polemic Senior Member ICantSpellDawg's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    Madness, maybe - but I've been hearing it from quite a few people who I believed to be "enlightened" leftists as well as people on the right.

    So - a reality that would need to be dealt with before the election, Louis.

    It does't say "Women" - it says women with a bitter psychological complex who shows pure condescension for males.
    "That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there."
    -Eric "George Orwell" Blair

    "If the policy of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court...the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned the government into the hands of that eminent tribunal."
    (Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, 1861).
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  7. #7
    Filthy Rich Member Odin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Re : Crocodile Tears

    Quote Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
    I wouldn't wipe my arse with this article.
    I would, it would at least serve one purpose.
    There are few things more annoying than some idiot who has never done anything trying to say definitively how something should be done.

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  8. #8
    American since 2012 Senior Member AntiochusIII's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    Careful. The columnist is falling into the very trap Barack Obama was supposed to bring us all out of.

    Hillary Clinton has so many faults on her own that I don't think we really need vitriolic bile like this to try and character assassinate her really.

  9. #9
    Backordered Member CrossLOPER's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    Quote Originally Posted by article
    And let's not forget Hillary, the governor's wife, pulling out a book and rudely reading in the bleachers during University of Arkansas football games back in Little Rock.
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  10. #10
    TexMec Senior Member Louis VI the Fat's Avatar
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    Default Re : Re: Crocodile Tears

    Quote Originally Posted by Tuff
    It does't say "Women" - it says women with a bitter psychological complex who shows pure condescension for males.
    It doesn't indeed, Tuff. You're quite right. Nevertheless, the implication is dangerously close to what I suggested.

    There were a lot of things in the article I vehemently disagree with. I singled out the quote I did to show the ridiculousness of the character assassination on Hillary. It will instantly make the blood boil of even Hillary's staunchest opponents. The President of the United States of America does not need to bow to Muslim standards of proper female behaviour.

    Quote Originally Posted by AntiochusIII
    Careful. The columnist is falling into the very trap Barack Obama was supposed to bring us all out of.
    No, I hope they keep it up. Give me more of: 'Hillary herself, with her thin, spotty record, tangled psychological baggage, and maundering blowhard of a husband, is also a mighty big roll of the dice. She is a brittle, relentless manipulator with few stable core values who shuffles through useful personalities like a card shark'

    The vehement bitterness of the hate against Hillary is taking her straight into the White House. People want change, not this tired old partisan vitriol. And not Hillary, but the hatred against her is fast becoming the symbol of this old partisanship.

    Everybody has a theory about the remarkable resurgence of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. She "cried her way" to victory. Or she had a better vote-pulling operation. Or she benefited from a "Bradley effect" of white voters reluctant to actually pull the lever for an African-American candidate. But what seems just as plausible as any other explanation is also the most ironic: that New Hampshire Democrats -- and especially Democratic women -- were sick of the corrosive hostility and naked slant of the mainstream media against her.

    The polls that had showed Barack Obama well ahead of Clinton were not so much wrong as misleading -- or at least badly interpreted by journalists too eager to write Clinton's political obituary. In fact, the polls correctly measured Obama's share of the vote. What happened during the contest's last few days was that the undecided broke for Clinton, and the question is why.

    Without depriving her and her campaign team of any credit they deserve for her late revival, it seems quite possible that all the cheap shots and hate bombs finally backfired on Clinton's aggressive adversaries in the media.
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  11. #11
    master of the pwniverse Member Fragony's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    Who will be the first to adress Obama with his real name Hoessein? I like Obama, he is a nightmare for the european left, a black eurostyle liberal who didn't need the equality industry and will not cash in on his skin. They need the US to be a racist place and it's getting kinda funny.

  12. #12
    Probably Drunk Member Reverend Joe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    I do not hate Hillary; I am scared of her, for the same reason I am afraid of any machine candidate. I just don't feel she will give us any chance whatsoever for change. However:

    Quote Originally Posted by TuffStuffMcGruff
    And let's not forget Hillary, the governor's wife, pulling out a book and rudely reading in the bleachers during University of Arkansas football games back in Little Rock.
    I did this at my High School pep rallies. And I think I can understand why she would do it; football sucks. As for the rest of the article... maybe. I have no way of knowing. What I do know is that Louis has a point; and the sad part is, the partisanship is nor coming from Obama, who is trying to rise above this sort of thing.

  13. #13
    Arena Senior Member Crazed Rabbit's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    Louis, did you read the bit where the author, a female democrat, said she'd vote for Hillary if she got the nomination?

    CR
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  14. #14
    The Black Senior Member Papewaio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    Which her feminazi gender sniping might engender the required support to get Hillary.

    What I can't under/stand is that a democracy will lower itself to such gutter journalism. Nor put up with such a level of hypocrisy 'I hate her, but I'll vote for her to get something else I want', it is that very partisanship that means your vote is already bought and compromised and it won't have much leverage.

    Its the fence sitters who will be feted and it will be them whose desires will be looked after in at least the first term.

    I've said it before, character attacks quite often more accurately portray the character of the attacker then the supposed victim. This tabloid writer doesn't seem to have much character to herself with the way she writes and then says she will vote for the very person she demonises.
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    Senior Member Senior Member econ21's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    I don't think much of the article, but on the wider point - it seems widely assumed that Hilary's tears were fake, but I liked Joe Klein's comment - she's not that good an actress; if she were, she'd be doing much better.

    If it were her husband, then absolutely, the tears would be faked. He's fantastic at emoting as the situation requires. But she has the Al Gore stiffness that makes her struggle against "naturals" like her husband and perhaps Obama.

    Given that the tears were genuine, they still are rather odd as Maureen O'Dowd pointed out in the NYT - she was getting emotional over the possibility of not being elected rather than the plight of others.

  16. #16
    master of the pwniverse Member Fragony's Avatar
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    Default Re: Crocodile Tears

    A woman in a men's world bursting in tears on tv and someone is actually wondering if it was genuine? I can't believe it! If she is so delicate, how come she is running for president? Because she is one ruthless cookie that is why. How would her fragile frame have gotten crying when there happens to be no camara?

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