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The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...
February 2008 - Posts
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Speaking of "whore" and other such eptihets, how great was Tina Fey's "Bitch Is the New Black" on SNL last week? An astute friend of mine points out that while Fey has gotten lots of attention for mocking the press for falling at Obama's feet, this is Read More...
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Cindy Loose, a Washington Post reporter, writes this guest post: I was stuck in a crowded parking lot at the grocery store the other day in my minivan, the woman in a station wagon in front of me waiting for a space to open. Driving up next to me was Read More...
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I hear you. But let's just all agree that in debates, at least, she's the Aston Martin while he's the pimped-out Honda Civic. Or maybe the pimped-out Prius, if we can imagine such a thing. After all, Aston Martins can be finicky, impractical and hard Read More...
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It's interesting that you're focusing on Obama and I on Clinton. But if she does have superior positions and intellectual firepower, plus near-universal name recognition and every institutional advantage in the world, doesn't that make her inability to Read More...
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Hanna, you're right that Obama has to do a better job of showing his dark side, or at least his response to the world's dark side. But can't he sort this out after he wins the nomination — or at least Texas and Ohio? In a race against John McCain, the Read More...
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Yes, it matters what you're selling! You hit on precisely the two things I am finding troubling about Obama: 1) the persistent absence of any specifics and 2) the absence of any darkness — or recognition that there is darkness — both here and abroad. Read More...
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Have you no shame, Madam , in your shocking refusal to see things exactly as I do? Nah — but tone and temperament do matter, not only in winning elections but in working with Congress, moving public opinion, and negotiating with our allies and adversaries Read More...
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I'm afraid to even say that in this crowd, but I'm just trying to be fair. I mostly read the transcript of the debate, because I got home too late to watch it. And from the transcript, one gets a whole different impression. For one thing, you don't get Read More...
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Melinda , I'm with you that Hillary's performance last night was a devastating blow to her argument that she is cool, collected, and ready. Fine that she is incapable of inspiring (but it's probably not a good idea for her to mock people who have been Read More...
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On the campaign trail, Chelsea Clinton compares her mom to Margaret Thatcher. But can you imagine Thatcher whimpering that it seemed like she always had to go first in debates, and that just wasn't fair? One thinks not, and I was surprised when Hillary Read More...
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Just now back from the land of consumptive coughing to discover that in my absence Hillary Clinton has somehow decided she’s running against us . Between this Hillary-versus-the-media meme and the Obama/messiah silliness, we in the media may have finally Read More...
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Torie, You and Jezebel are right that Heather Mac Donald goes off the rails with her rant against drunk college girls . Which is too bad, because before that, she was making an important point. At first I wondered, why is she rehashing this now? Because Read More...
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Hanna, you've made me realize that to me, there is really only one red dress, this one, and all the others are knockoffs. Read More...
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In a Sunday column for the Los Angeles Times , Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute questions the incidence of campus rape, which is reported to affect 20 percent to 25 percent of college women. (Penn State, the college I attended, is among the Read More...
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One recent Hillary line that sure works for me is the one about how it's no more OK to discriminate against sick people than it is to discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity. For the last two years, my friend Lisa Girion of the Los Angeles Times Read More...
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I too think we need to revisit our first ladies in red conversation after the Oscars last night. With Hillary and Michelle, the color just seemed derivative, a pol-gal's safe way of standing out in a crowd. But last night the meaning of red seemed much Read More...
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As Oscar host, Jon Stewart let the woman talk! He deserves an award of his own—a plate of brownies, maybe?—for bringing the silenced Markéta Irglová , who won for best original song but got the hook before she could open her mouth, back onstage to have Read More...
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Over on his blog at Psychology Today , frequent Slate contributor Peter D. Kramer (author of, among other things, Listening to Prozac ) notes what plenty are rushing to note: that Clinton, having accused Obama of Xeroxing, went ahead and echoed other Read More...
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1) As usual, a woman's skinny blondness is admitted as evidence against her, once again deflecting suspicion from zaftig brunettes. 2) As noted by Emily Y. , insinuations about said skinny blonde are better than a spa week for making an old soldier young Read More...
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As our resident McCain supporter, I'd be remiss not to weigh in on the strange story in the New York Times about the affair that the presumptive GOP nominee may or may not have had with lobbyist Vicki Iseman (who, as Hanna points out , looks eerily like Read More...
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John McCain may be denouncing the New York Times ' story about his possibly inappropriate relationship with a young, fetching lobbyist, but doesn't it subliminally help him? One of his big problems is that he's so old—he keeps trotting out his 96-year-old Read More...
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I entirely agree, Anne and Hanna , that the affair/maybe-not-affair aspect of the Times ' McCain story makes the piece seem weirdly bonkers. Still, what about this toward the end (for those who wade past the rehash middle): A champion of deregulation, Read More...
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Hanna, I read the Vicki Iseman-the-cute-lobbyist/John McCain-isn't-ethical piece , too, after no fewer than three people told me to—none particularly enthusiastic about McCain. All were apalled, not by the content of the story, but by the transparent Read More...
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That New York Times story about McCain's "self-confidence on ethics" is one of the weirdest news stories I've ever read. This is not a story about McCain's coziness with lobbyists and whether his line about money corrupting politics is a lie. It's not Read More...
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When I heard what Michelle Obama said , I thought uh-oh, classic Di Kinsley an gaffe: She said something true but unflattering, and thus a total no-no for someone in her position; that's why they call it impolitic. I also assumed she was talking about Read More...
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I agree, Emily , that we don't have to go to Lady Macbeth territory over Michelle Obama's ill-considered remark. (If only she had said, " I am really proud of my country" instead of " F or the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.") Read More...
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Emily , your passing reference to Lady Macbeth just now reminded me of something I’d been meaning to post for a while. A friend suggested yesterday that one of Hillary Clinton’s great weaknesses as a candidate is that — fair or not — she seems so completely Read More...
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Over on Kausfiles , Mickey Kaus is giving Michelle Obama a hard time. Here's her full quote ( or watch here ): "What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something — for the first Read More...
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After Super Tuesday, Slate 's William Saletan pointed out that Obama had made serious inroads with white voters, passing the 40 percent mark in eight Super Tuesday states. From last week's elections, add Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Read More...
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Barack Obama brought up Hillary Clinton's period ! "I understand that Senator Clinton periodically ,'' (See? He said it!) "when she's feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal." Clearly, he was saying his rival ought to look Read More...
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Remember back when we didn’t believe in torturing people? Turns out it's way more interesting to reopen the whole question and bicker with the umps about their recent calls. Let’s go to the telestrator : Out on the field this week, we have Sen. Joe Lieberman, Read More...
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I never thought the day would come when I'd look at a photo of civil rights hero John Lewis and think unflattering thoughts, but here we are. When I first moved to Washington 35 years ago—OK, 13, but some of those years were longer than others, which Read More...
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More from Tim: We should probably share with XX readers Slate ’s rough consensus that the censored word in “Joey doesn't want me. S- this campaign, I'm quitting” was Screw . Why the Journal would omit the word screw here I can’t explain. On the very same Read More...
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The pertinent fact about Patti Solis Doyle's explanation for leaving Hillary's campaign (that her little boy cried for Daddy instead of for her) seems to me to lie outside its factual veracity. It's probably a fictionalized condensation of something that's Read More...
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Granted, Tim , the timing is convenient for Patti Solis Doyle's mommy crisis. But couldn't both versions of events be true for Hillary's former campaign manager? Say your life's work is going down in flames—to the point that One Life to Live seems more Read More...
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Yesterday, Erica Jong argues the current feminist equivalent of the Jews control the media. "Unfortunately the Hillary-Haters are in charge," she writes in Huffington Post . "They monopolize the networks, the newspapers, the talk shows—both radio and Read More...
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A guest post from Timothy Noah of Slate 's "Chatterbox" column: It's the recently that provokes my skepticism. Are we to believe that Solis Doyle's 6-year-old reached his mommy-deprivation limit at precisely the same moment that Solis Doyle's candidate Read More...
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A report in the Wall Street Journal today about the departure last weekend of former Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle offers up this explanation for the departure: Ms. Solis Doyle recently returned home after two months on the road to find a Read More...
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Dahlia , your post about McCain's powerful message of hopelessness cracked me up and reminded me of this great spoof of Obama's "Yes We Can" video: You might call it McCain's "No, We Can't." Check out the actors' expressions toward the end. That said, Read More...
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A couple of years ago, for reasons that I can't remember, if they ever existed, I decided to do an unscientific research project on circumcision. I asked men who'd been circumcised as adults and experienced sex both ways, to write in about which they Read More...
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Emily, I wish I had amnesia. Because when push came to shove, they played the race card, repeatedly, and called it the fun part. And after that, all the policy mastery in the world couldn't put her back into the running as a role model for my daughter Read More...
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To go back a couple of steps, but still in the general XX spirit of today, I think: Hanna , you've put your finger on what I've been thinking/worrying about lately—which is not the candidates themselves, actually, so much as their followers. I'm not sure Read More...
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Dahlia and Melinda , here's what I don't get. Yes, there have been moments of excess and misfire in Hillary's campaign--gender traitor, J'accuse moments. I haven't liked them, either. (And this latest from Erica Jong is a doozy.) But it wasn't all Robin Read More...
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Emily and Hanna , I’m with Melinda on this one. Pity is the least interesting political impulse around and the faster we banish it the better. Last night I had dinner with my former Fairy Slate -mother, Margo Howard —a second-wave feminist in feather Read More...
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When Hillary Clinton tugs on me, Emily and Hanna , it is usually not in a good way. Sometimes I do feel sorry for her, but I can't imagine casting a pity vote for president. Nor do I want to be guilted, frightened, fooled, or worn down to the point that Read More...
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Emily, I'm with you. Last night, despite the hoarse, bordering-on-Howard-Dean-breakdown speech, I felt a wave of gratitude toward Hillary. Even Maureen Dowd felt it. She managed to get through nearly two-thirds of her column this morning and keep her Read More...
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When Hillary lost Iowa I started to regret my Obama allegiance (though I recovered by the New York primary) because I'm a sucker for the underdog. But now I find Hillary-as-loser a major turnoff. She really hasn't mastered the art of the concession speech. Read More...
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When I lived in Seattle, I was a regular at Cineoke , where participants sing along, karaoke-style, to songs from movie musicals. My big number was “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina,” from Evita . I’d bring audience members up on stage to serve as my descamisados Read More...
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Hillary Clinton lost women in both Virginia and Maryland tonight, and not by a little; nearly 60 percent chose Barack Obama. (Or Oback Barama, as former Maryland Rep. Kweisi Mfume just called him on MSNBC, which I'm sure made all those who've ever mispronounced Read More...
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Since the Iowa caucuses, I've been feeling the Hillary tug. Most of the women I've talked to in the last couple of months have felt it, too: Even if they weren't sure they'd vote for Hillary, they were rooting for her on some level. They wanted her to Read More...
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Wow, Rachael . Kudos to you for highlighting the McCain Blogette . That is quite a campaign artifact. Like mother, like daughter, eh? That little anime silhouette in the corner wearing nothing but BRIGHT RED heels and a tank top, a certain part of the Read More...
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Coming in late to the "pimped out" conversation, I know, but I had a revelation while checking out Meghan McCain's blog . I wonder if the perception that Chelsea is being used by Hillary's campaign ( like Dahlia, I need my job , so I'm not using the p-word) Read More...
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I've written before about the effect of birth order on intelligence. It's not my favorite topic, because it pits older siblings against younger siblings and inevitably makes parents feel guilty. Here's a new study from Brigham Young University economics Read More...
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After the events of this past weekend , it’s very difficult to hear Hillary Clinton extol the virtues of forgiveness. Indeed it’s extremely hard to hear Sen. Clinton say anything at all today over the relentless drumbeat in my own mind: “Don’t say pimp Read More...
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Here's Hillary on how things are going: Solis Doyle's departure capped a rough weekend for Clinton after she lost the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska, Washington state, Maine and the Virgin Islands to Obama. She said she never expected to do Read More...
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Wouldn't you love to know the back story on Paul Krugman's column today? Because without knowing that his real beef is that his wife can't stop singing "Yes, we can," or maybe that his idiot nephew won't shut up about how all the cool people are on the Read More...
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I just figured out why I might have such kinship with the heroin freak. Her father is a cabdriver! Outside the Holy Land, we must be among the very few Jewish women who can make
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