At the At the Reality-Based Community, Mark Kleiman wonders how successful Republicans will be at feminizing Barack Obama, who, after all, is black and plays basketball. Er....all I have to say is: Trust me, they will find a way. After all, Hillary Clinton, a bona fide woman, is already accusing Obama of being lily-livered and weak-kneed for complaining about the absolutely inane debate ABC served up for us on Wednesday. Here's what she said on a Philadelphia morning show today:
“Can I say that I've been through, what, 23 of these debates? And as I recall, I was asked some pretty tough questions in nearly every one of them. That goes with the territory. Having been inside the White House, I know the pressures inside the White House; I know how hard it is every single day. When the going gets tough you can't run away. And it's going to be tough going to deal with these hard problems; getting out of Iraq in the right way, turning the economy around, getting universal health care, ending our dependence on foreign oil. The special interests are going to be a lot tougher than 90 minutes of questions from two journalists and we need a president who is going to be up there fighting everyday for the American people and not complain about how much pressure there is, and how hard the questions are.”
Clinton, of course, has been using the "Obama's not tough enough" theme throughout this primary. So we can fully expect GOP message makers to pick it up, mix it with a big dose of misogyny, and voilà -- attempt to give Obama the same girly-man treatment they served up for John Kerry and Al Gore.
--Dana Goldstein
