TrueBlue

I know–they don’t obviously fit together, but check out today’s post on the Huffington Post about Clemens’ news conference, long time baseball writer Murray Chass losing it, and Maureen Dowd’s truly vicious column about Hillary in today’s Times.

It’s become increasingly clear that no matter what Hillary Clinton does as a candidate– smile or not smile, emote or not emote,  hug or not  hug–the categories most folks use to dissect her campaign owe more to sexist categories than any other form of political analysis.

No historian can fail to be pained, however, as some voters replay debates over the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution,  which ended up with the spectacle of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton opposing the 15th Amendment because it didn’t provide for women’s suffrage as well as black male suffrage.

Liberals ought to be excited that both a woman and an African American are leading candidates for the Democratic nomination–and appear to have strong constituencies–and refuse to choose one or the other based on the persistence of racism or sexism.  That Democratic women turned out for Hillary in huge numbers in New Hampshire bodes well for the campaign–as does the fact that young people and independents turned out for Obama in Iowa.  We need all these  folks to win in November.