snip: I kind of winced when John Edwards, after Hillary’s choked-up moment in a coffee shop, said we need a commander-in-chief who shows “strength” and “resolve.” But my reaction was nothing compared to that of the Nation’s Katha Pollitt:
“John Edwards just lost my vote. How dare he take cheap shots at Hillary Clinton for letting her eyes mist over (not ‘crying’ as was widely reported) at a meeting with voters in Portsmouth N.H.? This is a man who has used his most private tragedies–his wife’s cancer, his son’s fatal accident — in his campaign in a way that had a woman done the same she would surely be accused of ‘oprahfying’ the lofty realm of politics.
“This is also the man who promoted himself early on as the real women’s candidate, and who has repeatedly used his likeable wife to humanize his rather slick and one-dimensional persona. Today he deployed against Hillary the oldest, dumbest canard about women: they’re too emotional to hold power . . .
“Ooh, right, we need a big strong manly finger on that nuclear button! Even if that finger has spent most it its life writing personal injury briefs in North Carolina, which, when you come to think of it, is not an obvious preparation for commander-in-chiefhood.”
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/09/AR2008010900803_5.html?hpid=topnews
January 9, 2008
Media Blow It Again
July 19, 2007
Bill Clinton, candidate spouse to candidate spouse
“If you look at the record on women’s issues, I defy you to find anybody who has run for office in recent history whose got a longer history of working for women, for families and children, than Hillary does,” Bill Clinton said Thursday in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
On Tuesday, in an interview published in the online magazine Salon, Elizabeth Edwards said that her husband John Edwards would be a more consistent champion for women if elected president.
“Keeping that door open to women is actually more a policy of John’s than Hillary’s,” she said, suggesting the New York senator may be avoiding women’s issues to “behave as a man.”
President Clinton disputed that contention.
“I don’t think she’s trying to be a man. I don’t think it’s inconsistent with being a woman that you can also be knowledgeable on military and security affairs and be strong when the occasion demands it.”
“I don’t consider that being manly. I consider that being a leader,” he said.
Associated Press 7/19/07
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20070719-0829-onthe2008trail.html
July 18, 2007
Mrs. Edwards in Iowa: Clinton avoids “female issues”
Iowa City, Ia. – Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is not talking much about issues that affect women as she pursues a position many Americans still consider a “guy’s job,” said Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Clinton competitor John Edwards.”Maybe she’s staying away from some of those issues described as female issues,” Elizabeth Edwards said of Clinton, after speaking to a crowd of about 150 people – most of them women – in Iowa City.
Edwards equated Clinton’s pursuit of the White House with her own early days as an attorney, when she steered away from women’s issues so she would be taken seriously by men.
“I’m not criticizing her,” Edwards said. “She’s got a pretty hard maze to walk through.”
DesMoines Register 7/18/07
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070718/NEWS09/707180387/1001/RSS01
The Salon Interview: Elizabeth Edwards
On her confrontation with Ann Coulter, why she backs gay marriage — and why Edwards is a better choice for women than Hillary Clinton.
Salon 7/17/07
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/07/17/elizabeth_edwards/index.html
October 1, 1996
Edwards’s campaign manager Pro-Life
Abortion continues to be one of the most divisive issues in contemporary America. It is an issue which does not break cleanly along any party line. Many notable Republicans have openly expressed opposition to their party’s pro-life stance and several high ranking Congressional Democrats like House Minority Whip David Bonior maintain their pro-life opinions in a party dominated by pro-choice.
News Hour 10/01/96
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/backgrounders/abortion.html
