I don't know if the genderist argument is the best one to make. If someone can't stomach the notion of supporting a candidate simply because they have a single X chromosome instead of two, I'd say they've got some growing up to do. I doubt many people will vote for Barack Obama because of his wife. I agree that Michelle will probably be a great First Lady, but Obama is the one you need to vote for.

It's simply time to end the racism and the genderism and get down to more important issues.

"Barack has never claimed race as part of his political capital." Giggle. Tee hee. Guffaw guffaw. Alright, where's the hidden camera.

In contrast, Barack has never claimed race as part of his political capital.

BS.

What a bunch of Crap!

Hey Sean, how ya doin'? I'm off to work now. Just had to put in my two cents before I left.
Later...

Michelle will be the most glamorous and loved first lady since Jackie Kennedy. I cannot wait.

One commenter in a similar fashion complained that Michelle hadn't been properly respectful of Hillary so "screw her." Yep, reading that sure made me proud as a woman.

Maybe you don't understand this response because you're an Obama supporter? I don't know.

Maybe you forget that Hillary is still running for the presidency of the United States, a more important job than First Lady. The more states Hillary wins, the more she is paving a way for future women candidates, correct?

Maybe you don't think that Hillary will have amassed some party clout after garnering as many votes as she possibly can. She is expected to do very well in WV and KY. Hillary is a professional politician who still has a career after this race is over. She is a permanent fixture in the Democratic Party. If you don't agree with this, then don't expect us to support Michelle.

Maybe you don't know that Hillary is the first First Lady to have had her own independent career. Maybe Michelle doesn't know this.

Maybe you don't know that Hillary is the first First Lady to run for public office (and I'm referring to her senate run). Maybe Michelle doesn't know this.

Maybe you don't know that Hillary is New York's first female senator. Maybe Michelle doesn't know this.

Maybe you don't know that Hillary is the first female presidential candidate to ever win a major contested primary (Shirley Chisholm won NJ's nonbinding primary in 1972). If you don't know this, that's not surprising, given the blackout of media coverage surrounding Hillary's historic accomplishment. Maybe Michelle doesn't know this, either.

Hillary has now won more delegates and primaries than any woman in U.S. history, and the numbers will rise, yet Hillary supporters are supposed to abandon her and support Michelle? It's simply unreasonable to expect that!

Maybe you don't understand that Hillary's millions of supporters will support her until she decides she's reached her goal, whatever that is.

But regardless, if Michelle can't be respectful of Hillary and her accomplishments (and so far she hasn't been respectful), then she won't earn the respect of Hillary's supporters. It's that simple. Michelle's public performances to date have made her look like a petulant child.

The comment thread left me in despair.

Good, join the club! It's a two-way street. Now, I have a request for you: Please educate yourself about the more vile attacks on Hillary (compiled and analyzed by Kathleen Hall Jamieson) before you even ask Hillary supporters to support Michelle. After you do that, then I'll consider supporting Michelle.

Thanks!

It might be instructive to consider the history of feminist response to this campaign. Especially that of well known literary feminists. How are they responding? What kind of model will their actions suggest? More important, of course, is the mood of everyday women and men. But in the public conflict of ideas and reputations, that is a clique I will follow with interest.

I could only get through half your post. Once you started lecturing on how Hillary lost I figured I just didn't need the rest. If you want to unite people, don't grind your heel into their necks.

First, Obama has played "the race card" from early on and played it masterfully. Second, Michelle Obama early on, before things got nasty, stated that she would not work for the election of Clinton if Clinton won the nomination. The translation of that remark is simply that she is not that interested in "remaking" or "uplifting" America. She simply is interested in getting into the White House.

Hillary Clinton has had a known political agenda since her university days. Her roommates at the time predicted that she would be the first woman President of the US. She put off Bill Clinton at first because marriage would interfere with her political future.

Michele Obama's agenda is ... Michele Obama. The notion that she will represent all women, once in the WH, is likely spurious. She hasn't been seen much during the campaign, but what I have seen just makes me think she is a selfish, ambitious woman. That's neither here nor there, fundamentally; but, tasking her as some kind of "guiding light" for women is likely a mistake. The most likely scenario is that she'll be another Laura Bush.

Thanks.

mp

"Our greatest strength as women is our emphasis on relationships, . . . ."

I think many womens' greatest strength is not in emphasis on relationships, but in manipulating those relationships for their own ends.

Its not that Michelle ever actually dised Hillary. To the Clintons, if you are not for them, you are the enemy. They are professionals at demonizing anyone who does not treat them as entitled to nobility. Fortunately, we are not a monarchy. Or will it next be their daughters "turn" to be president.

The Clintons have thrown so much garbage at Obama. The American people recognize this, as poll after poll shows that twice as many people believe that Hillary has run an uglier nastier campaign than Obama. as the populist candidate, how could Hillary or her supporters disagree with "the people." Clearly Hillary thrives on spite and revenege. Unfortunately, so to do too many of her supporters.

Also unfortunately, the same right-wing screamers who savaged Hillary when she was first lady are salivating at the prospect of going after Michelle. But as Hillary would surely say to Michelle: "You're on your own Girl. If there is nothing in it for me or Bill, screw you."

P, you've made me think about anything I might have said about Hillary that was negative or snarky, and I think I've been pretty consistant in loving women in politics, just not wanting this woman. Unfortunately for her it has more to do with Clinton history in general

Her ability to mobilze Republicans against her is so huge. And, I simply didn't want a campaign full of impeachment, Monica Lewinski, and presidential pardons. These distractions have dominated everyone's concept of Democrats for far too long. Whether any of these things are attributable to her are a source for great debate. I have seen facts on this web-site including her in some of the particulars more than I had ever suspected. Only serving to reinforce my choice for Obama.

Michelle, what is there not to defend? She may be the most dynamic first lady we have had in years, maybe ever. Ironically it is in her private sector job, as the VP of Community Development for the University of Chicago Hospitals that may be the most intriguing. Who else knows more about the current state of healthcare and all it's flaws than someone comming from this type of background, and from a University not an HMO. These are the hospitals that are more attuned with the communities they serve, through research and community outreach. Teaching hospitals have always been at the forefront of everything.

Unfortunately, due to the very contentious recounting of Senator Clinton's position as a wife who championed health care these facts about Michelle are overlooked, or underreported in order to not draw too close a comparison.

She may be Obama's secret weapon on more than one front. Health care, working mothers, and the myriad of problems involved in juggling today's families. This is a woman of pure substance. I'll take on anyone who doesn't get it.

Thanks for the consciousness check! Hard to pull off - nicely done.

Michelle is a slug.

Hillary has been the first woman who had a chance to win the presidency and so women in particular have rallied to her but we need to keep two things separate: the historic moment and the actual candidate.
First, this is an historic moment and many women are rightly caught up in the satisfaction and excitement of a woman president. They are so enthralled with the idea of it, however, they are failing to notice who the actual woman herself has evolved into.
For eight years Hillary built her reputation as a hardworking senator. She made us proud. Negatives about the way she did healthcare in the early '90's were quickly forgotten. Out of the gate last year she seemed sunny, successful, and very well-prepared. But then Barack happened and the new version of Hillary began to fade.

Many of us who had supported her watched her begin to transform. She tried an assortment of persona on for size: wistful, haughtly, vulnerable, self-assured, policy-wonk, teller of tall tales, personable, pandering. She was sharp; she was soft, but in the end she chose to employ the type of attack techniques she had had herself been the recipient of.

To me the fact that Hillary is a woman is no longer a value-added characteristic; she has chosen a political style I cannot admire.

I have been surprised and bewildered by the attitudes of many women in this race. It seems far more important to many of them than to have the best President available, regardless of sex.

The exit polls in the Indiana primary were an eye-opener. Despite the heavy and overwhelming majority of African-Americans backing Obama, those voters identified his "race" as far less important to them than the female voters for Clinton. This is consistent with the fact that at the beginning of the campaign, winning the "black vote" was no slam dunk for Obama. Clinton enjoyed considerable backing with African Americans, and it was only as the contest began taking on thinly veiled racist overtones, and Hillary started veering to the right that the bottom fell out for her with that demographic group.

Obama has never presented himself as "the black candidate" in in fact would have clearly preferred that the issue not come up at all - as unrealistic as that hope might have been. Even when assulted by obvious race-baiting, he has gone out of his way not to characterize it as such. On the other hand, Hillary seems rarely to miss an opportunity to claim all opposition to her is based in sexism.

As a male, I feel no urgent need to elect a female President. Nor do I have any objection to doing so. In fact, I have considered the entire idea to be so mundane as to be a non-issue since Thatcher's reign in Great Britain. If they can do it, I have always believed it would only be a matter of time before we did it here. The ONLY barrier would be the emergence of a woman who also happened to be the best candidate.

That seems to not have been the criteria for many women who have loudly and forcefully backed Hillary Clinton. Their position has struck me not so much as a celebration of Hillary as the "best candidate" who happens to be a woman, but the first competitive female candidate to come along, who also happens to be "good enough." irrespective of her competition.

There is something fundamentally wrong with this attitude. Something I cannot really address, because I do not understand it. I am certainly not supporting Obama because he is a male. Not only is his status as "black" not a reason for my support, but I would rather that he wasn't, only because the fact that he is unfortunately is going to present greater challenges in getting him elected. It's not right, it just is.

But if Hillary had performed politically, rhetorically, and principally they way Barack had, and conversely, Barack had played Hillary's role in this campaign, I'd be just as enthusiastic for her. I promise you.

Honestly, I understand and empathize with the unfair treatment women have faced in this country - the concept of the glass ceiling, and all that. But I really think some women believe the current situation is worse than it actually is, and it sometimes leads themselves to conduct that not only hurts their own cause, but hurts OUR cause as Americans - white black brown and yellow, male and female.

We should all support and protect Michelle Obama not because she is a woman, but because she is a quality human being, well-spoken and over-qualified to be first spouse, and happens to be running for that position as the spouse of the best candidate for President we have had in over 40 years.

At least, that's good enough reason for me.