Uh, yuck? How about we just base our votes on the merit of the individual running, instead of voting for the woman candidate so we can get her husband back in the White House? I'm quite sure that Senator Clinton is an intelligent woman, perfectly capable of being in the White House on her own talent and ability, and not "Oh, we'll take her if we can get her husband, too."
On Monday, Bill O'Reilly (I know, I know) showed footage of 50 Cent adding that he has nothing against Barack Obama but doesn't think that America is "ready" for a black president, remarking "I think they might kill him."
So it really does come down to race and gender, huh? Nice to know we care about the issues, people.
Johansson says Obama will bring a "great woman" to the White House – Michelle Obama.
At a Barack Obama rally in Northfield, Minnesota, actress Scarlett Johansson said, "I don't want to say nasty things about Hillary Clinton. I think she has a lot of good intentions." But the Lost in Translation star said she thought Obama would bring a different capable woman into the presidency.
"When we elect Barack Obama to the White House, we will have an amazing woman in the White House: Michelle Obama," said Johansson, drawing applause at the Carleton College rally.
Johansson said she'd been "star-struck" the first time she'd met Sen. Obama, and the first words she'd said to him were, "Hi, senator, I love your wife, it's so nice to meet you."
She said the next time they met, Obama told her, "I told my wife you love her." She groaned, and jokingly said, "Oh, good, you remember that dorky thing I said."
This afternoon, Focus on the Family Action issued a strongly-worded press statement that Rev. James Dobson "cannot, and will not, vote for Sen. John McCain."
The cultural outreach arm of Focus on the Family, the Colorado Springs-based evangelical religious center and publishing powerhouse, relayed Dobson's statement, which it stressed, was a personal opinion and not made on behalf of the tax-exempt nonprofit ministry.
"I am deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, voted for embryonic stem-cell research to kill nascent human beings, opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, has little regard for freedom of speech, organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters in judicial hearings, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language.
I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative, and in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are. He has sounded at times more like a member of the other party. McCain actually considered leaving the GOP caucus in 2001, and approached John Kerry about being Kerry's running mate in 2004. McCain also said publicly that Hillary Clinton would make a good president. Given these and many other concerns, a spoonful of sugar does NOT make the medicine go down. I cannot, and will not, vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience.
But what a sad and melancholy decision this is for me and many other conservatives. Should Sen. McCain capture the nomination as many assume, I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime. I certainly can't vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life. These decisions are my personal views and do not represent the organization with which I am affiliated. They do reflect my deeply held convictions about the institution of the family, about moral and spiritual beliefs, and about the welfare of our country."
Much to the surprise of the conservative religious movement, Dobson also withheld an endorsement from fellow preacher Mike Huckabee's presidential bid at the Values Voter Summit last October, as reported by Colorado Confidential.
Mitt Romney's candidacy has not been well-received by religious leaders on the political left or right due to deep, long-standing theological differences between mainline Christians and the Church of Latter Day Saints, in which Romney is a prominent member.
While Dobson was not expected to throw his hat in the Romney camp, it has created a bit of a political pickle for him as Colorado's GOP establishment - long-time allies of Focus on the Family - are publicly supporting the former Massachusetts governor.
The democratic race for the presidential nomination has got progressives hotly debating who is the better feminist candidate. What is truly fascinating, however, is the potential for a new, dynamic definition of feminism to emerge from the debate.
The presidential campaign for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney must be stinging a bit on the news that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee carried West Virginia today, but you wouldn't know it from the latest supporter email.
Just a few moments ago, the Romney campaign sent out an email message to supporters highlighting the differences between its candidate and Arizona Sen. John McCain. While McCain, who has been downing the poli-vitamins sans water since his Straight Talk Express was nearly pronounced dead-on-arrival in Iowa last summer, is arguably the Republican frontrunner and deserving of Team Romney's scrutiny in these final hours, the email is notably silent when it comes to Huck. He's not mentioned.
The loss of all of West Virginia's 18 Republican delegates has to hit the Romney Campaign hard as it struggles to sustain viability - especially since the candidate himself addressed the convention. Those on the ground in West Virginia are reporting that McCain supporters, following a miserable first-round showing, threw their support to Huckabee in an effort to deny Romney the delegates.
Here in Iowa, a national loss by Romney, the Republican candidate who tossed millions of campaign dollars and untold hours of time into the state, to McCain, a candidate who largely ignored Iowa, doesn't bode well. The same holds true on the Democratic side of the coin if New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is named the Democratic nominee. The conventional wisdom is neither Clinton nor McCain would be strong supporters of Iowa's traditional role as first-in-the-nation.
As a rationalist, I tend to try to avoid too much superstitious nonsense. But elections make me ever so slightly superstitious. So here's two recent pop culture events I've consumed that incline me towards superstitious predictions about today's results.
The Super Bowl shares a striking similarity with the Democratic race. The Patriots went into the game as a historic juggernaut, with the assumption that the Super Bowl was just going to be theirs. The Giants were the scrappy, but loved, underdogs. But right off the bat the Giants put up a fight, and after a long, evenly matched battle, managed to scratch out a victory through what seemed to be sheer tenacity. Does this bode well for Obama's chances against the presumed nominee Hillary Clinton? Real sports fans could probably draw out even more coincidences, but I'm leaving it at that, especially in case I'm wrong. I will say that a Republican friend told me that he and his wife were crossing the aisle to vote in the Democratic primaries for Obama.
As for the Republicans, well, the movie There Will Be Blood seemed an ominous portend after watching it Friday night. (GIANT FRIGGIN' SPOILER ALERT!) While the middle of the movie is dominated by a story about a religious zealot bringing the uber-capitalist oilman under his control, it ends with the oilman devastating the zealot financially before bashing his head in with a bowling pin. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better metaphor for the ups and downs for the Republican candidates this primary season.
Oh, voting machines. After the Florida fiasco back in 2000, it would be great to know that all voting systems had been improved and were now nearly failproof.
This isn’t an election people are taking lightly--this is monumental and historical, and people have spent agonizing hours deciding which candidate is receiving their vote. Let’s hope they don’t use any of these machines that have a decent chance of messing up, and while we’re on the subject, let’s hope that their state’s primaries aren’t after today – there’s not really much incentive to vote in primaries after the nominee is all but guaranteed post-Super Tuesday.
This is something that feminists should be concerned about – disenfranchisement of voters, whether through machine failure or a poorly scheduled primary season, is not beneficial to anyone who cares about what goes on in this country.
It’s so striking, but it epitomizes my problem with the invidious media rhetoric that has dominated this election season. STOP PITTING GENDER AGAINST RACE! Stop ignoring multiple realities and realize that 2008 is a year of change, and that these paradigms that pundits and political correspondents are perpetuating are old fashioned and irrelevant. It’s time to move forward.
