Friday, May 16, 2008

Hillary and Louise

One more must-read, just in case you (like me, gulp) missed it: Susan Faludi's recent oped at the NYTimes. Writes Faludi:
As Thelma, the housewife turned renegade, says to her friend in “Thelma & Louise” as the two women flee the law through the American West, “Something’s crossed over in me.”

Senator Clinton might well say the same. In the final stretch of the primary season, she seems to have stepped across an unstated gender divide, transforming herself from referee to contender.

What’s more, she seems to have taken to her new role with a Thelma-like relish. We are witnessing a female competitor delighting in the undomesticated fray. Her new no-holds-barred pugnacity and gleeful perseverance have revamped her image in the eyes of begrudging white male voters, who previously saw her as the sanctioning “sivilizer,” a political Aunt Polly whose goody-goody directives made them want to head for the hills.
I know it's over. I imagine she knows it's over. But I admit, I'm truly enjoying that glee in her eyes. That woman is one tough cookie, and I mean that in only the best of ways.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I strongly disagree with Faludi here. I believe it was her general race-baiting of Obama, her equation of hard-working Americans with "white" Americans that won over her otherwise white male begrudging voters. And objections to that unfortunate tactic of her campaign are not merely fashionable, they are morally imperative.