The Political Post

I call this the political post because I have no intention of posting my political opinion with any regularity here. This is a rare exception, I promise.

I am supporting Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary and general election for a variety of reasons, not least because her health care plan is the best. I will vote for Barack Obama in November if he is there, though I'm a little worried that he's too self-confident and will turn out to be ineffective at compromise or, worse, dangerous. The very thing that makes others like him so much - his charm, suave nature, ability to make you believe everything's going to be okay - are the things that worry me. But that's neither here nor there.

This post is about Hillary. Specifically, the terrible way that the press and the people have treated and talked about her throughout this election. I have been appalled, shamed, and disturbed at this campaign, specifically the sexism inherent in nearly every mention of Hillary in the media and even in my regular conversations.

It's hardly a fair comparison, but let's look at facebook for an easy example. Search "Barack Obama" in Facebook groups, and the majority of groups are supportive. That makes sense - he's done a great job of appealing to the young, modern liberals that are the majority of facebook's population. There are a few groups, however, that are opposed. These groups have titles like "Stop Barack Obama (One million strong and growing)," "Anti-Obama and damn proud of it," and "Against Barack Obama." Fairly neutral names that may show strength of opinion, but are certainly inoffensive.

Search Hillary Clinton, and the very first result is "Hillary Clinton has Gonorrhea." Just a few down, you have "Hillary Clinton: Stop running for President and make me a sandwich." A bit further: "Life's a bitch, why vote for one?" And those are just on the first page.

Okay, so these are mostly jokes. But what kind of world do we live in where jokes like this are okay, ignored, condoned, and laughed at? It makes me sad.

Anyway, all that to say: I watched SNL for maybe the first time in years last night, just luckily, so I got to see this clip live. And I love it.



This one is pretty funny too.