The XX Factor: What women really think.

Joe Wilson Deserves No Sympathy

A post from guest blogger Amanda Marcotte:

Hanna, I see what you're saying about how Joe Wilson is in the mainstream of South Carolina white culture, but that doesn't strike me as a reason to shy away from drawing the conclusion that he's a racist. If anything, that just seems to be more evidence that he is a racist. Whether we like to admit this about our fellow Americans or not, there are large parts of the country where the mainstream white culture is overtly racist. As a white person living in a red state, I'm sick of pretending that this doesn't create plenty of occasions where conservatives will say the most hair-curling racist things when they think they're out of the earshot of anyone who will confront them on it ... (Read more in DoubleX.)

Cry For Me, South Carolina

Absent from Gov. Mark Sanford's amazing press conference: His wife, Jenny. Present: A man so utterly in the middle of a self-made disaster that he had to process it in front of us. Could it have possibly been more mortifying? Hanna, you're right, Sanford just couldn't save himself from total mortification even when the press threw him a rope. In the middle of one of the most unfortunate and self-indulgent bits, when Sanford was going on about how he met his "dear dear friend," a reporter tried to ask a question. "Wait, let me finish," the governor said, holding up his hand. Oh no no... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)