Is Obama Using Sexist Language?

The Clinton campaign didn't have a healthcare plan before it felled and they don't have one now. Well to be honest, if everyone is a goverment employee, then the Clinton healthcare plan will work for everyone. Unfortunately some are self employed, independent contractors or work for private employors or small business. Under the Clinton healthcare plan these people would be penalized if they don't pay for their healthcare. This means that most of your family members and friends will have their paychecks garnished. We all know that it doesn't stop there if it is a goverment enforcement. There will be fines and then misdemeanors which is a criminal offense defined as less serious than a felony. Why did Ms. Clinton decide on this approach? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out. Big business, big Corporation call it what you will, they want their money back and in order for Ms. Clinton to get their support in her race to presidency she is giving victory to one side (the healthcare providers) by promising to them that she will have the poeople wages garnished if they continue to give healthcare. Thus allowing her to shout the words "UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE" This is a shady tactic and makes fools out of every american that falls for this trick. The Obama healthcare plan is for the people. Poor people, middle class and rich people can rest assured that there is no tricks or penalties in the Obama healthcare plan. VOTE OBAMA

Obama is condescending and he has been sexist. It is obvious but the press has helped him. We cant tlak about race but the heck with progress for women.

It is very frustrating.

This is utterly ridiculous, and I can't even believe that this article could pass as "journalism". Those statements clearly weren't sexist. Period. And when the shoe is on the other foot, Hillary doesn't seem to mind. Let's take a stroll through the Hillary merchandise bin:

"Got experience?" t-shirts...clearly belittling.
"Hillary Cares" t-shirts...Only women actually CARE, what sexist man designed that shirt?
even an,
"I'm your girl" button. If Obama ever said, "If you want mandated healthcare, she's your girl", immediately people would begin to cry wolf and call him sexist. Give me a break. Focus on the issues and who can actually win against McCain, not, who used the word "claws" or "periodically". SERIOUSLY!!! ARE YOU KIDDING!?!?

Condescending? Yes. Sexist? No. It's not at all sex-specific, and could equally be applied to any political opponent. Getting on him about "periodically" is just silly. What's next, anagrams? This is belittling identity politics at its worst. And the Clintons know how to play this game, if nothing else. To those complaining of a double standard with regard to the lead-up to the South Carolina primary, I humbly suggest you take a second look at the record. Bill compared Obama to Jesse Jackson. Not John Edwards, who won the primary 4 years earlier and went on to lose the nomination. Not anyone else over the past 20 years. He reached back for the last black candidate. The implication was clear and required minimal interpretation: he won because he's black, so it doesn't matter. That's how you play the race card. Obama's remarks? They require mental somersaults to get to a place where anything about gender is even implied. The two are, obviously, not in any way equivalent.

It's not lost on me how quick we were to assign racial overtones to Bill Clinton's remark in SC, yet we let Obama's sexist statements slide on by. As a southern woman, I firmly believe that the white male (Southern, at least) is prepared to vote for a black man to show how enlightened and "unpredjudiced" he is. Yet as far as a woman goes, "I ain't lettin no woman tell me what to do" mentality is pervasive!

Wow, all kinds of bells and sirens went off in my head when I read that quote in the paper. "Barry" Obama (yes, that is what he was called most of his life) is trying to tap into sexual prejudice without owning it, yes, code talk; I wonder how Oprah feels about that - a little down, maybe? She probably gets irrational when she's depressed over her period. This guy is calculating, and I really don't see that he has accomplished anything in his short stay in the Senate. Further, his getting there was pure luck: two of his major opponents self-destructed in personal scandals, so it was a skate. Actually, between growing up in Hawaii as the only child of two well-heeled professionals, going to private schools, then Harvard, I mean, has this guy ever SUFFERED?

To be fair, I'm a mixed race (black-white) guy like Obama but I haven't detected in either Hillary or Bill's statements coded racism or anything like that. At the very worst they were being patronizing and a little insensitive. But that can be an unconscious thing. Considering how much excellent work this couple, and Bil in particular, have done for black people in America and elsewhere, I don't believe they would consciously have intended to belittle Obama on teh basis that he is black via coded messages or otherwise. In fact the same goes for George Bush, whose unswerving help for the African and African American people during his term of office I have nothing but the greatest admiration for.

It's a storm in a teacup. I don't regard such statements as sexist. It has to be placed against the backdrop of the very cutting and unreasonable tone that Clinton has been taking of late, but in no way shape or form did it come across as an insult to her womanhood or anything like that. Those who might have reacted that way are being way too oversensitive, or else they're playing the gender card against him only because he's a man.

This story should be getting more media attention. Instead Obama is getti Of course Obama was trying to be subtle--he knows better than to be overtly sexist. It is this subtle and insidious sexism that continues to plague women in the 21st century. Challenge: Can anyone find a presidential candidate who ever used the expression (about their male opponent)..."the claws come out"? And, the use of "periodically" had to be calculated--there was no other reason to use the word and it is not a word that "flows" naturally in the context of his statement.

Signed,
Another Hysterical Woman

Utterly ridiculous - sorry, I'm a woman (liberal, independent, even consider myself something of a feminist) and I just don't see it.

People who try to read this level of insinuation into ordinary words are either (a) trying to create controversy for their own ends (ratings desperation, anyone?) or (b) weighed down by very low self esteem and looking for some way to blame it on others.

This looks like a stretch to me. After reading the single quote as well, I don't think he's raising the sex card. It would be stupid for him too, no matter how coded. He doesn't look like he wants to pull a Clayton Williams (see Tx Gov. race '90). This is likely only news since no one shot a baby in a school after work at the post office on the way to church that day.

Is this for real? Tell ya what...go to your local zoo,find the lions,find a male lion, and start pissing him off. Fairly soon you will find that you have MALE CLAWS stuck in your torso.
I'm not sure where the idea that claws=female came from, but it needs to go back.
Always ask:who benefits? Now, who would benefit more from this whole tempest in a teapot-Obama or Clinton? Can Obama afford to drive away female voters with this alleged sexist language,or would Clinton gain from female voters leaving the Goodship Obama because of the alleged "code words"?

You have GOT to be kidding. This is a joke, right?

Wait a second. Code words work both ways. It's true that Obama's words play into HRC's moody swings. But her words play into racial stereotypes too although VERY well coded. She (and Bill) always refer to his words as "cheap" and she says she will WORK for change and really emphasizes work. Does this mean O will NOT work for change but just talk about it? Obviously not, but the Clinton code is about race, that is, it says "Lazy (Black) Man Who Talks a Good Game Ain't Gonna Get Nothin' Done" and quite frankly it's offensive.

I'm not sure if he's it's sexist, but it's certainly condescending. It's not an anomaly, either; I've noticed many such comments by him that have been arrogant and dismissive and quite harsh. When I heard him talk about Hillary being "down," I thought, what a jerk. It was one more reminder why I don't like him, and why I'm baffled that his sometimes prickly personality hasn't turned people off, especially the press. (But then G W Bush was similarly snotty, and you guys lapped it up.)

Though I'm hardly a Mitt Romney fan, I heard a similar tone in comments Obama made about him not long before Rommney dropped out of the Republican race. (Something like "statements like those are why he's been such an ineffective candidate.") He also got in a very unsubtle shot at McCain, praising -- backhandedly -- his "50 years of service to this county." So, I guess you can add "ageism" to his list of verbal sins.

I can't understand why his cockiness and frequent disdain for other candidates has never been discussed. But then, there are a lot of things about Obama that haven't been discussed.

Here's one: how Obama and his campaign quietly fueled the whole Clinton-race-baiting firestorm, which, true or not (and I think not) has been the single greatest reason Hillary's losing right now.

But if her campaign should try to highlight his remarks, it will be "just the same old Washington politics."

I tell you, the guy is good.

I'm not sure if it's sexist, but it's certainly condescending. It's not an anomaly, either; I've noticed many such comments by him that are arrogant and dismissive and quite harsh. When I heard him talk about Hillary being "down," I thought, what a jerk. It was one more reminder why I don't like him, and why I'm baffled that his sometimes prickly personality hasn't turned people off, especially the press. (But then G W Bush was similarly snotty, and you guys lapped it up.)

Though I'm hardly a Mitt Romney fan, I heard a similar tone in comments Obama made about him not long before Rommney dropped out of the Republican race. (Something like "statements like those are why he's been such an ineffective candidate.") He also got in a very unsubtle shot at McCain, praising -- backhandedly -- his "50 years of service to this county." So, I guess you can add "ageism" to his list of verbal sins.

I can't understand why his cockiness and frequent disdain for other candidates has never been discussed. ("Yeah, she's likeable enough.") But then, there are a lot of things about Obama that haven't been discussed.

Here's one: how Obama and his campaign quietly fueled the whole Clinton-race-baiting firestorm, which, true or not (and I think not) has been the single greatest reason Hillary's losing right now.

But if her campaign should try to highlight his remarks, it will be "just the same old Washington politics."

I tell you, the guy is good.

I agree: He wouldn't have used those words and phrases against a male candidate. Thank you for blogging about this. Very perceptive.

Matt, those very same words are stated in every single election.

Women, black, brown or white recognize the "Obama" type. He is the smiling guy in the wingtips who gets hired into the company and thinks he has all the answers. He smiles and talks nice and then the woman trains him to take over her job (usually for more $$) or he becomes her boss although he knows little or nothing about the operation. Borack Hussain Obama uses "code" words to belittle Senator Clinton.

Mr. Addison: What if she replied ... "Well, it's unfortunate that instead of trying to overcome these losses, Senator Obama is just sort of shuffling along, lobbing negative attacks from the porch instead of working hard and offering solutions."

She said almost exactly that last night:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/us/politics/17obama.html?_r=1&ei=5088&en=1e8e436b9a3effb5&ex=1360904400&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1203297092-nhxzHQwNbwq+ScwxptTBFw

"Mrs. Clinton ... spent days criticizing her rival while campaigning in Ohio, where the primary is March 4. In city after city, she warned voters about politicians who offered oratory steeped with big promises but ultimately did not deliver.

'Speeches don’t put food on the table,' said Mrs. Clinton, of New York. 'Speeches don’t fill up your tank, or fill your prescription, or do anything about that stack of bills that keeps you up at night.'

The long-distance message — 'My opponent gives speeches; I offer solutions' — clearly was heard here in Wisconsin."

No need to depend on an imagination for that.