Obama’s Problem with Women

The biggest problem with identity politics and trying to pander to every conceivable identity voter is that sooner or later these hard core identities collide and that means some group has to lose.

Identity voters are worse than single-issue voters in that the ultimate winner can not soften or clarify a position on an issue to pander to that group. Hillary Clinton could not become black and Barack Obama can not become a women.

Another important point is that when identity voters lose; they get really pissed:

They are downright angry about some of the language employed by the media to describe Clinton, and at what they see as the media’s undue haste in shoving her out of the race. And they don’t like some of the phrases tossed around by Barack Obama (“Sweetie”; “You’re likable enough, Hillary”) either.

The major newspapers now regale us with stories about the many women, especially but not limited to the Geraldine Ferraro generation, who threaten to withhold their votes from Obama. Such angry and disillusioned female Democrats seem, for the moment, to be everywhere.

Way too early to say for sure that this sentiment will last through November but one thing is pretty certain. This just sunk any hopes of Jim Webb getting the Vice President job.

Women who voted for Hillary for the sole reason that she has a uterus are not taking the loss well. They feel that the media conspired with the Obama camp and the DNC to bully her out.

Obama is now forced to reverse the charge of sexism against his campaign. Tapping Jim Webb would be the most amazing act of political suicide in 50 years.

Webb’s problems with women go back a long way. It hit the forefront in his infamous November 1979 article where he tore in to the decision to allow women into the Naval Academy, where he wrote:

“There is a place for women in our military, but not in combat. And their presence at institutions dedicated to the preparation of men for combat command is poisoning that preparation. By attempting to sexually sterilize the Naval Academy environment in the name of equality, this country has sterilized the whole process of combat leadership training, and our military forces are doomed to suffer the consequences.”

Kathy G., writing for Matthew Yglesias at The Atlantic noted this article in her May 27th piece on Webb:

Webb’s writings on women did a hell of a lot of damage. It gave invaluable ammunition to the enemies of women’s presence in the military and helped stall and perhaps even roll back women’s progress there. Kathleen Murray, a 1984 academy graduate who went on to become a commander in the Navy, said of Webb’s screed: “This article was brandished repeatedly. [Men] quoted and used it as an excuse to mistreat us.” Her observation is confirmed by this post, which contains devastating testimony by women in the military about the effect Webb’s writings had.

She goes on to point to some of the statements and uber flip-flops that Webb has said over the years to question his liberal bona fides:

To quote a Rolling Stone profile of the man, just a few years ago he was saying that “Liberals were ‘cultural Marxists,’ and ‘the upper crust of academia and the pampered salons of Hollywood’ were a fifth column waging war on American traditions.”

In 2000, Webb opined that affirmative action was “state-sponsored racism”; that same year he endorsed the ultra-conservative Republican George Allen for the senate. In 2004, Webb wrote an op-ed for USA Today arguing that John Kerry “deserved condemnation” for his opposition to the Vietnam War.

These pissed off and very vocal feminists will be the deciding factor in Obama’s VP choice. And trust me, it won’t be Jim Webb.

Obama is weak in every conceivable measure of a presidential candidate; foreign policy, national security, military experience, executive experience, business economics and pretty much everything else. But this outrage by democrat women has to be a huge concern inside Camp Obama.

I think Webb is already toast because of his verifiable record but if the outrage starts to get legs it could spell the end for tools like Wes Clark, Mike Bloomberg and Chuck Hagel as well.

Well, you’ve still got Kathleen Sebilius and Janet Napolitano.

Category: Politics