I don't want to support a candidate for President just because she is a woman. I consider myself a feminist, and I am joyous beyond all reason that there is a viable female candidate for President in my lifetime. I did not think that there would be. If she is the Democratic nominee, then I will support her with everything that I have.
But I agree with Caroline Kennedy. There is something to Barack Obama that I just don't feel when I hear Hillary Clinton speak. My husband has said time and again that he is turned off by Hillary; I insist that his feelings are prompted by a deep-seated and sub-conscious chauvinist bias. I insist that if she were attractive and young and spoke in dulcet tones that he would feel differently.
But I don't feel it either. That inspires within me a deep-seated feeling of unease. There is something in me that wants to support a female candidate solely because she is female. (Somehow this didn't apply to Libby Dole.)
This, however, got to me this morning: the New York State chapter of the National Organization of Women attacked Senator Ted Kennedy for his endorsement of Barack Obama. Their insistence that his endorsement of a male candidate is a betrayal of women demeans Hillary Clinton more than anything else I have read or heard. We should not a select a nominee on the basis of gender or race.
So I'm not going to.
No comments:
Post a Comment