I do think that Obama refusing to consider a woman as VP is a sexist gesture.

jsb16, have you asked him whether or not he’s doing this?

:rolleyes:

Veronica, sorry, I might’ve misunderstood too. You were pretty clear, I see in retrospect, but blogging at 7 a.m. muddles me. =)

Ico, I’m sorry, but I still don’t believe the media has been any easier on Obama than on Clinton. Maybe this is a point-of-view issue; maybe I’m missing the cracks about gender and maybe you’re missing the cracks about race. To me, the shit looks pretty evenly thick for both.

And you bring up Olberman as an example, but I’m not sure of what — a gendered attack? I haven’t seen that. Olbermann seems genuinely concerned that Clinton is fucking up so badly that it’s hurting the entire Democratic cause. His attacks on her aren’t sexist — unless you take the Ferraro tack, and any criticism of Clinton = sexism, no matter how well-founded. He’s also quick to emphasize that he’s not an Obama supporter. His attacks are because she’s bringing teh stupid, and teh stupid will guarantee a Republican win.)

Re: Ron Paul — I think this is a point-of-view difference again; I’m always honestly surprised to run into people these days who didn’t know about RP’s white supremacy links. It’s been all over the liberal blogosphere for months. Daily Kos, the Huffington Post, you name it. You’re right in that RP hasn’t gotten much attention from the mainstream media, but I figured it was because once this crap came out, the media knew he was hopeless. It’s gotten some attention from the mainstream media, mostly conservative channels like MSNBC and Fox that seem overjoyed to see bleeding-heart liberals duped by a guy the Stormfront neonazis love (no link; I won’t link to a Stormfront site. But if you go there, or Google “Ron Paul stormfront”, you’ll see the endorsements of Ron Paul pretty prominently). But even this has gotten nowhere near the kind of play that “Obama’s reverse racist pastor” seems to be getting right now. It’s astounding to me that they media seems to think black churches are worse than skinhead white supremacists who advocate lynching, race war, gay bashing, etc. This is classic media WTFery, and again, soooo not kid gloves.

Also, I don’t think Obama should offer Clinton anything he doesn’t want her to accept. And I for one am afraid that if he offers, she’ll accept, and if she accepts, Obama will end up sleeping with the enemy. (Argh — gendered/sexual insinuation not intended.) Not the kind of unity we need right now.

jsb16, I’m wondering whether you’re raising these strawman arguments on purpose or out of genuine confusion. No one in this thread, or in Obama’s camp that I know of, or anywhere, has said that Obama refuses to consider a woman as VP. If he had, then yes, it would be a sexist gesture. He hasn’t. Bringing this up makes about as much sense as insisting that Barack HUSSEIN Obama (rhymes with Osama) was educated in a madrassa in reading, writing, and rigging suicide bombs, and was Yasser Arafat’s secret black catamite. Why are you saying this?

So I was thinking in terms of a couple months ago. Sorry, should have paid more attention. You’re right — to come out and only declare *now* that she’d take him as VP is rather late, isn’t it? I think it’s a cheap political tactic. “You can have us both! So elect me, dammit!”

But I still think Obama should offer Clinton VP. Because she’d never accept. But the gesture would appease her supporters.

Re: Clinton supporters and Obama, I’m speaking mostly of my experience on DailyKos and MyDD, which admittedly are not exactly representative of your average voter. They’re Democratic progressives, pretty politically active, mostly young, that sort of thing. Dailykos is (or was, when I last checked in a month ago) a stronghold of Obama supporters, while myDD remained a last bastion of Clinton supporters. And I saw many many *many* diaries and comments on Dailykos in which fervent Obama supporters declared they would never, ever vote for Clinton if Obama lost; they’d go Republican. By contrast, I found very few Edwards supporters (a dwindling group at the time) or Clinton supporters who said such things. Obama himself has hinted that his followers wouldn’t necessarily support the nominee if it’s not him, so yes, I think it’s an attitude of Obama supporters more than others.