February 27, 2009 9:52 AM

Why Liberal Women Dislike Hillary Clinton

By
Keach Hagey
(CBS)  The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.


They are like her, but they don't like her.

Such is the curious phenomenon of many educated, professional, liberal women of a certain age when it comes to Hillary Clinton, the Los Angeles Times reports. In fact, upper-middle-class women on the left are "historically her toughest crowd," the paper reports.

Why is this? The Times offers a handful of possibilities:

1) They're not as worried about job security as their more blue-collar peers (who are more pro-Clinton), so they feel free to judge the New York Senator as a peer.

2) They're disgusted by the fact that, while they struggled to break through barriers in the workplace, Clinton hitched her star to her man and followed him to the top.

3) They're disappointed by her support of the Iraq war and the fact that she has recreated herself as a centrist.

4) Women hold each other to an unrealistic standard.

5) She's trying to act too much like a man.

"What you may be hearing is the commitment to pacifism that some women associate with feminism," said Wendy Kaminer, a 57-year-old author and lawyer. "It's what I think of as the 'feminine' strain of feminism that sees women as bringing something to the table because they are not militaristic, work by consensus and don't play the boys' game. And Hillary is someone who has played the boys' game exceedingly well."

Jane Fonda perhaps summed up this view best in an interview with the LA Weekly last May, in which she called Clinton "a ventriloquist for the patriarchy with a skirt and a vagina." (It would be such a great quote, except when was the last time Hillary wore a skirt?)

The Times says Clinton has been working to overcome this skepticism from her sisters by appearing on "The View" and telling a Chicago audience that "I'm your girl."

Why this should endear her to feminist peers, I'm not quite sure, but something seems to be working. Support for Clinton among college-educated women jumped from 29 percent in June to 50 percent in October, according to the latest LA Times/Bloomberg poll.

The Most Expensive Weapons Program Ever

Believe it or not, the biggest financial concern for the U.S. military isn't how to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Washington Post reports. Those are being taken care of by supplemental appropriations.

Rather it's figuring out how to pay the $200 billion estimated price of upgrading the largest war machine in history into the robotic, wireless, Buck Rodgers-esque force of military leaders' dreams.

The project involves creating a family of 14 weapons, drones, robots, sensors and hybrid-electric combat vehicles connected by a wireless network. Experts say it's the most ambitious modernization of the Army since World War II and the most expensive weapons program ever.

This vision has a name: Future Combat Systems, or FCS. It also has a growing number of grumbling critics - most notably in the Government Accountability Office - who say the billions that have been burned on the upgrade since it was envisioned in 1995 have not yielded anything all that great so far. Its long-term program is scheduled to kick into major production mode in the next decade.

The original story of the program is a little scary, given this week's developments in the U.S. relationship with Iran. Back in 1995, Maj. Gen. Robert Scales Jr. assembled a team of 700 who warred over two years in a huge simulation center in Pennsylvania. The blue team represented the Americans. The red team represented - remember, this is 1995 - the Iranians.

In one scenario, the Iranians captured Riyadh and began executing the royal Saudi family on live television. That drew the blue team into the streets of Riyadh, which, choked with heavy armor, became a bloody mess. Scales called the exercise the "aha moment" in which he learned that the United States needed to develop a lighter, quicker kind of warmaking.

An Era Ends In New York

For most of the last year and change, New Yorkers couldn't hear the words Daniel Doctoroff without it being accompanied by the epithet "the next Robert Moses."

The city's old master builder was experiencing a posthumous renaissance of sorts, thanks to several exhibitions dedicated to questioning the negative way he was portrayed in Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Power Broker."

And it seemed like Doctoroff, the city's longest-serving deputy mayor for economic development with some power-brokerly tendencies of his own, was shining brighter for the reflected glow.

But in the New York Times' story about his resignation, the paper reports that Doctoroff leaves his post with a decidedly mixed legacy.

Despite his many achievements, much of his agenda remains unrealized. His defeats - the failed West Side Stadium and congestion pricing plans - are perhaps more famous than his victories. Nevertheless, in saying goodbye to the man who would soon go to work for a different wing of his empire - as president of Bloomberg L.P. - Mayor Mike Bloomberg couldn't resist the cliché comparison one last time.

"As chief architect of our five-borough economic development plan, Dan Doctoroff has done more to change the face of the city than anyone since Robert Moses."

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Add a Comment See all 81 Comments
by dgermenis December 10, 2007 11:37 AM EST
EVERYBODY dislikes Hillary!
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by mpepitone1 December 9, 2007 11:38 PM EST
Bill Clinton was not the only president on this earth that cheated. Are you aware of JFK and Eisenhower? And how about the husband''s that not in the limelight. There are thousands of them going out every day on their wives and vice versa. Then there''s the husbands that kill their wives for another women.At lease JFK, Eisenhower and Bill Clinton are normal and they were not boozers and druggers like what is going on with this generation today. Hillary kept her marriage together which is better than divorce. Take a look at the marriage''s of the movie stars. They marry 2 - 5 times or more. Hillary is very well experienced to become the president because she was first lady,now senator and qualified for the job. Oprah is wrong when she said experience is not a factor. Yes, it is and Obama lacks it. You can tell by his speeches. He needs extensive training. You can''t go into the presidency knowing nothing or American will really go down. And I believe him to be very hard core with no personality. His smile don''t fool me but it fools a lot of people. His whole attitude will change and he won''t make the changes he promised because he doesn''t have that ability. Thank goodness for Hillary, if not Hillary then Giuliani but not Obama.
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by mpepitone1 December 9, 2007 11:24 PM EST
If I was a candidate running for president I would not waste time worring about who was going to vote for me or who wasn''t. People will vote for whoever they please anyway so why waste your time. You can campaign all you want but if they made up their mind so be it. You just have to wait for the primaries and that''s when the winner will be chosen. No matter if Oprah is endorsing Obama that doesn''t mean he will win. He may not be the voters choice. These polls are just estimates of talking to 400 or 500 people on the street. If the majority are republicans choosing a candidate that how they poll that candidate and the same for the democrats. These polls don''t choose the winner, the voters do. And Oprah is very desperate for Obama to win and that is not a good sign. Does that mean she wants to run as VP? Now, that would be a total disaster for this country. Its bad enough we have Obama running for president, a know nothing, non experienced candidate that was running behind Hillary until Oprah got worried and decided to campaign for him because she believed she has the power to make him win. No so! Hillary Clinton will win the nomination and when she does it will be a slap in the face for Obama and Oprah. The only reason she wants him to win so bad is because he''s black otherwise she would not campaign. She is racial from the word go and this giddy senseless generation does not know enough about politics to see what''s going on.
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by rowdytexan2 December 9, 2007 3:04 PM EST
Posted by ArmyGuy81107 at 05:53 PM : Dec 08, 2007

Seems to me HIllary was treated as an equal partner in the marriage and was a great help to Bill when he ran the White House. They were married!

I realize that men have always thought they were king of the castle. But without a woman most of them didn''t have clean pants to put on. There''s a lot to be said to being in control of clean pants. Without ''em you stink! lol
Reply to this comment
by abbe91 December 9, 2007 1:52 PM EST
George Bush, Sr. was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
George Bush, Jr. inherited that spoon and to this day has not removed it from his mouth. If you don''''t believe me just listen to one of his Press Conferences.
Posted by realpatriot1 at 11:13 PM : Dec 07, 2007

And where was the spoon coming from ? Auschwitz ...
Reply to this comment
by tessies101 December 8, 2007 9:00 PM EST
Hillary reminds me of the type of person I use to be before I realized that power and greed is not what makes a woman strong and respected.
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by armyguy81107 December 8, 2007 8:53 PM EST
Who will really be running the country? Hillary or Bill? Sounds to me like Mr. William Clinton would just like to move back into his old house!
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by libsluvsuvs December 8, 2007 5:58 AM EST
just a bunch of female jackals that are ready to gnaw the life out of the other jackal to get ahead and to get her closer to her PERSONAL AGENDA...that is the essence of a liberal woman..
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by iceman_1960 December 8, 2007 4:55 AM EST
"IN OTHER WORDS, HILLARY SLEPT HER WAY TO WHERE SHE IS."
- Posted by userverify at 09:59 PM : Dec 07, 2007

Not at all. Bill and Hillary were legally married.

That expression refers to woman in the business or entertainment industries who have s*ex with powerful strangers in return for advancement in their careers.

It is never used to describe a wife who has shared in her husbands trials and successes. That"s the whole point of a marriage, even one that has had its sad chapters.
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by rowdytexan2 December 8, 2007 2:29 AM EST
Posted by jonnie62 at 07:00 PM : Dec 07, 2007

Go Jonnie go!

The woman has more guts than any male in the US of A, and it scares the hell out of ''em. She knows that every last one of them will be waiting to pounce on the slightest word or gesture, and will propagandize to the nth degree. They''ll be circling like vultures, and she''s still not afraid of it!

Bill was *** lucky to have her! She obviously went through the marriage from hell and survived it and lifted herself up from it. Even in the face of every Hillary basher calling her a lesbian and accusing her of every pervision that only they themselves can dream up.

She is the ONLY one on the slate that might be tough enough, and smart enough to do the job. And from her record as first lady, she has already tried to do good things for the people of this country. She was just totally outnumbered by the republicans and their cries of ''socialism''! They do that every time a program is proposed that benefits the people. Ever notice that? They come up with all these neat words like socialism, entitlements, etc. When the real deal is a country getting together and helping each other.

You go Hillary!
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