I'm no fan of unchecked executive power, but I still can't figure out that with all of those Justice Department memos, Patriot Acts, and extraordinary renditions, that Chris Matthews hasn't at least been deported to one of Saturn's moons yet. I mean, you didn't even link to this.

P.S. Let's not forget the ability of partisan hackery to cloud the minds of allies.

P.P.S. Not that Clinton's surrogates in the media are helping.

Crooks & Liars ran an embarrassing clip of Matthews gushing over Fred Thompson’s manly smell, trying to coax Ana Marie Cox into fawning over Thompson. She had none of it, leaving Matthews all alone with his man-crush:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/14/tweety-thompson-is-the-aqua-velva-man/

AWESOME post!!! I am totally ROTFLMFAO!!! This is GREAT!

Thank you so much, Ann and Jessica!!!

Kudos, Ann and Jessica. I am so sick of seeing male politicians fall over themselves trying to describe the type of animal that they hunt, or gun that they own, to prove their "manliness". I am tired of ignorant voters making decisions based on this window dressing, and not on the merits of a politician's stands on an issue.

So here is my challenge to Feministing and its readers. Hold Hilary up to the same standards. Can any Hilary defenders tell me her stance on torture? On Iran? Or are we just going to have uninformed women voters falling prey to the female version of "Kerry in a hunting outfit"?

Thanks for the much needed smile :)

Come on equalityforboth genders, it has been pointed out numerous times on feministing that voting for Hilary is not a feminist act.

Catch up with the rest of us.

Posts like this just make me want to say, Ann, Jessica: I love you.

Thanks for the letter Jessica. I've decided to make my own letters to those male politicians:

http://aikenareaprogressive.blogspot.com/2007/11/hey-fellas-whos-really-playing-gender.html

let us not forget the incident of Kerry driving onto the Tonight Show stage on his borrowed Harley-Davidson!

Amen. I was just watching CNN and they started to yammer on about Hillary playing "the woman card"--yes, because she is the one incessantly bringing up the topic of gender! Right...Ugh.

YES

The "cock" vote?

Right, Tim, kind of like the vagina litmus test.

Yeah!!! I was waiting for feministing to cover this!

I hated listening to Chris Matthews blarbing about Hillarys supposedly playing the gender card. How did this stupid claim come to be anyway? What IS a gender card? Isnt that what all the right wing politicians are doing when they claim theyre victims because feminism robbed them of their identity?

I think this lob at Clinton had to do with a speech she made at an all womens college where she said that "attending an all womens college helped prep her for the boys club in politics." That was the soundbite repeatedly aired on the news shows.

If thats what its about, Clinton is statistically right when she says this, as women who attend all-womens schools do succeed and attain more powerful positions than those that dont. Also, it IS an all-boys club in politics and that needs to change.

Does anyone know why they claim Hillary is playing the gender card? Ive searched the internet, watched some tv segments on the "issue" and I still dont know where theyre getting this from!

And I agree with the analysis, Ann. Damn good -- politics needs to be genderless. It's just that I'd never heard it described so . . . colorfully.

Really interesting post.

After taking a handful of modern economics courses and growing up at the dinner table with Al Gore's first congressional aid (that would be my dad) I have always found it hard to believe that the GOP could survive the desasters that were Harding, Reagan and both Bushes.

The fact is, the reason that the part is so hard to get rid of is because of this image. It allows them to immasculate democrats and smaller party members and make themselves look like the only real players of substance at the table.

The most recent president who smashed this whole steriotype was Bill Clinton, who managed to be a good ol' boy and a democrat. (props to Bill by the way, he was a great President)

All those things aside, as long as the midwest still regards these things as symbolic of masculinity and effective leadership, I don't see them going away.

Jstein mentions a good point. I'd say that, even where I grew up, in a densely populated, ethnic nieghborhood in the inner city, the notion that a "man's man" is more capable of leading than just a regular man prevails.

Honestly, as a man who votes 100% of the time (I have to find time to do it today), I look for proven leadership, inteligence, etc., regardless of gender. But, I do have to say, as a "man's man" (my girlfriend says that is a good thing) myself, I tend to, when it is guy v. guy, look more favorably on the person I deem more like me.

In this election, however, on the D side, that isn't an issue. Why? Because I find the three most qualified, Clinton, Biden and Richardson are nothing like me. Biden and Richardson don't have a chance in hell. So, I'm firmly with Hillary.

I'd like to add, I'd be with Hillary even if Biden and Richardson had a chance. I don't want that to be misconstrued.

caietanus, I think you raise an interesting point, whether consciously or not, which is that men have always had the luxury of identifying with political candidates and using the "Is this person like me," frame of reference, whereas there have been too few recognized female leaders for women to do the same. It would be nice if that meant that we were more prone to focus on the issues, but unfortunately, as a demographic we are no less prone to publicity programming than anyone else.

Brava. Jessica

This is Debra Cooper that you met through Vanessa.

Re Chris Matthews..You should try to retrieve the footage of Chris Matthews on the day George Bush landed on the aircraft carrier to declare Mission Accomplished. He was practically drooling over George's manliness. I just gritted my teeth and said someday they would rue the day that they pulled this stunt. But I think Matthews has a very convenient amnesia about his reactions doing the iraq war. It's revisionist history on his part to make himself more outspokenly anti war than he was. And drooling over Georgie Boy in his tight flight suit was definitiely not what he remembers.

And his adulation of Rudy's "leadership" quality is the same level of dishonesty.

lizadilly:

Thank you. Honestly, I don't know why men do it, but perhaps it is because people, naturally, like to project something of themselves onto leaders. Unfortunately, for so many our democracy is so impersonal that we seek to personalize it.

Side note: in the 2004 election, I voted for Kerry. But, certainly not because I thought he was more like me, but on the issues and related to intelligence, etc. But, I had a very difficult time being interested in John Kerry because of that.

Thank you for pointing out that male politicians have been using masculinity to advertise their leadership skills all along. Nobody complains because masculinity is the norm. The maleness of politicians escapes our notice. Hillary (and the other ladies in the house... and senate) can't avoid accusations of playing the gender card because being a female politician is not the norm, and therefore highly noticable. Yay for hegemony! Ugh.

caitenus, thanks for mentioning that. I'm also from the inner-city of Oakland, and I've lived there all my life. It doesn't really matter where you are as far as geography, the unfortunate part of the whole "man as breadwinner" steriotype is that it follows you everywhere.

I would also like to add that I was talking with one of the US Government teachers at my school and he mentioned something that makes alot of sense. He said:

"I feel like people vote for the GOP, guys like Bush and [Fred] Thompson, because they think 'I can sit down and have a beer and watch football with that guy.' Me, I don't want to have a beer with my president."