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Posted
Friday, November 16, 2007 1:14 PM
| By
Rachael Larimore
Dahlia,
I might not be the best person to answer your question, since I can't picture myself supporting Hillary regardless of what she's calling herself, but I agree that it's hard to imagine how dropping "Rodham" can help her. Jill is right that feminists might overlook the switch as a concession to the greater good of getting a woman into the Oval Office, and that this latest flip flop DOES come across as another example of the calculating and triangulating for which she is so often criticized.
I agree—if I read it right; it was indeed an odd column—with Cary Tennis' assertion that women can choose whatever name they want. (For the record, I happily took my husband's name.) And in this post-feminist era, we shouldn't apologize for reserving the right to stereotypically change our minds, like Sarah Michelle Gellar Prinze. But Hillary's repeated flip-flopping reminds me of what Emily B. wrote about John McCain's "B-word" gaffe. It's a move that tells us a lot about her. Just like in this damning video John Edwards put out after the last debate, when Hillary was caught contradicting herself on Iraq and Social Security and those darn driver's licenses, she changes her very identity depending on which way the political winds are blowing.
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