Though UI Freshman Michael Slusark seems to think so, as he wrote in to today's DI with the argument:
What's worse, the attacks on Rodham Clinton ring of sexism. Andrew Swift's column, "Clinto-phobia" and Nate Whitney's "Hillary Clinton: the Queen of convenience," repeatedly suggest that Rodham Clinton is nothing more than her husband's name. The former does little but attack former President Clinton's presidency and attempt to link it to her campaign.
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Now, this is hilarious. The Clintons are a tag-team, as are any married couple. You get one of them, you'll get the other - and Bill's injection into this campaign has certainly not been under-the-radar lately. If Hillary is going to campaign on "experience", and count her eight years as First Lady as experience, than she has to own up to those eight years in full. You can't pick and choose. I don't know where Mr. Slusark gets the impression that I think Hillary "is nothing more than her husband's name", but it seems to come from some deep-seated desire to paint opponents of the Clintons as automatically sexist, and hence stifle any discussion of the merits of the two.
Furthermore, I'd offer Mr. Slusark an opportunity to demonstrate what Senator Clinton's "strengths" are, as I see very few that get past even modest analysis. He doesn't even offer a strong case for the experience argument - he cites Senator Clinton's four more years in the Senate as making all the difference in the world. 35 years, Michael! Did you forget your talking points? Or have they changed already?
Mr. Slusark goes on: "She has just as much, if not more merit in running for president as Obama ..." Well, I don't know how you can have more "merit" to run for president - a) Merit is entirely relative, and b) It's not a freaking college application.
So before Mr. Slusark gets to call the DI Opinions Page "ignorant", perhaps he should write in detailing why we should support Mrs. Clinton, rather than charging that op-ed writers are "sexist." I'll be waiting.
Friday, February 1, 2008
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12 comments:
I'm waiting as well, Andrew.
I've read and re-read our columns. Not sure what's sexist.
Was the term re-defined and we weren't told?
I have a feeling we won't be getting our answer.
Make sure that you don't trash letter writers too often. People get to call us ignorant whenever they like. That's part of the deal.
That said, I think you're both right. The letter was pretty unconvincing.
Also, interestingly enough; the first time I got published in the DI was a nasty letter I wrote about a then-columnist. He referred me to his blog, on which he called me a stupid and a moron.
I really do find this amusing that we can write things about letter writers on this blog without any challenges.
To be fair, it would be really cool if we actually got a blog that people - I mean lots of people - lived for. We could be famous!
I also just realized that the first sentence of my piece makes no sense. It originally had a different title, and open edit I forgot to change the first sentence.
And yes I am fully aware I could easily change this.
I'd just like to say that Wolf Blitzer is still a Deutschebag.
Oh, and that clown that wrote the letter is racist, because he doesn't like Obama.
And I'm an anti-Catholic sectarian because I think Dennis Leary sucks.
You can't say anything bad about Hillary Clinton without being accused of sexism. I read the letter to the editor and I gave it some consideration. True, the opinions staff have no love for Hillary Clinton, but a lot of what we say is representative of the opinions of many people I talk to. I was encouraged by one of my guy friends to write a column about Hillary. He and I have similar feelings about her, but he's not comfortable voicing any negative opinions about her b/c he doesn't want it to be interpreted as sexism. It's almost like he's trying to be gentlemanly by keeping his anti-Hillary opinions to himself. That's pretty messed up. Nate and Andrew are martyrs. Richard Nixon's "silent majority" knows the truth.
I love being described as a martyr.
"I'll be outside on the veranda, since you're on the cross."
Family Guy
We need to buy a gong for every time Kathleen dispenses her thoughts.
"Richard Nixon's "silent majority" knows the truth."
Early leader for quote of the year.
Nate,
when I first read that, I thought you said 'bong' - which felt more appropriate b/c it would probably make my comments hilarious.
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