Seriously?!?

Don't blame him. I mean, come on, he would have no concept of how ignorant (maybe even, I dunno, prejudiced?) it would be to make sweeping generalizations about entire groups of people...

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them...And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

--Senator Barack Obama, at a fund-raiser in San Francisco (4/6/2008)

As a pro-gun-control, critical-of-organized-religion, son-of-an-immigrant, feminist educator and resident of central Pennsylvania with a bowling average of 181, all I can say is this:

Imagine this...

a president who uses the word misogyny:

"But there is no weapon as powerful as that of an idea whose time has come. A woman will serve in the highest level of the executive--simple as that!"

from The Contender

Madame Secretary's Words of Wisdom, part 2

"...I stepped out of what is a 'normal' role for a woman my age... I love to be involved. I'm definitely an activist. So, making a difference is what motivates me. It took me a long time to develop a voice. Now that I have it, I'm not gonna shut up." 

--Dr. Madeleine Albright, Diplomat (2007)

The episode of Iconoclasts (Sundance Channel) featuring Madame Secretary and Ashley Judd is a must-see.

Coming soon: The "Tonal Inaccuracy" Telethon

I think we're on to something here.

Chris Matthews has bravely come out as someone suffering from Tonal Inaccuracy. It's a pandemic, afflicting men (and some women) all over the world. 

Matthews says the notion that he is sexist has been pushed unfairly by blogs, women's groups and, to some degree, the Clinton campaign. His remark that Clinton benefitted because her husband "messed around" triggered much outrage from the Clinton team. Matthews eventually apologized in a rambling on-air explanation, but he hardly sounds contrite now. "I was tonally inaccurate but factually true," he told me. I had asked him earlier if he was forced into the apology. "Oh, yeah, of course I was forced into that," he said, laughing. "No, no, no .... Phil [Griffin] asked me to do that."

In severe cases, tonal inaccuracy also affects one's rhythm and balance.

A fellow [literally] survivor of tonal inaccuracy, John McCain, takes to calling his wife the name of a must-read book. It's not a big deal; he was just being tonally inaccurate. Or he was just rehearsing for his cameo in The Vagina Monologues. Yeah, that's it.

And poor Senator Obama, he also seems to be afflicted. We shouldn't be offended when he says that Hillary attacks when she's feeling down, or that she has to hurl a kitchen sink at him. That's not sexism. That's not misogyny. It's the dreaded tonal inaccuracy.

So reach deep into those pockets, folks, and start contributing. We can someday hope to eradicate this disease.

Do it for poor Chris. He's counting on us. And somebody warn Olbermann that it might be contagious.

Props to the Asian woman in the back row...

Michelle Obama at Carnegie Mellon University, covered by their student newspaper:

"While the crowd was indeed diverse, some students at the event questioned the practices of Mrs. Obama’s event coordinators, who handpicked the crowd sitting behind Mrs. Obama. The Tartan’s correspondents observed one event coordinator say to another, “Get me more white people, we need more white people.” To an Asian girl sitting in the back row, one coordinator said, “We’re moving you, sorry. It’s going to look so pretty, though.”

“I didn’t know they would say, ‘We need a white person here,’ ” said attendee and senior psychology major Shayna Watson, who sat in the crowd behind Mrs. Obama. “I understood they would want a show of diversity, but to pick up people and to reseat them, I didn’t know it would be so outright.”

Golly gee, there just aren't enough white folk in U.S. politics...

Overcompensating for his... shortcomings

"I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain"

--Senator Barack Obama, 4/7/08

The only thing missing here is a condescending pat (channeling sexism and/or ageism) on the head.

Senator Clinton, do you want to take this one?

“I’m somewhat shocked by that since I don’t see any evidence of it,” Clinton said, chuckling. “This is, you know, kind of hard to square with his failure ever to have a single policy hearing on the only responsibility he was given, chairing the European and NATO subcommittee on the Foreign Relations Committee.

“And as he admitted in the last debate, he was too busy running for president to pay attention to what we needed to do to improve our chances in Afghanistan and get NATO more involved. So, you know, I, I ,I don’t, I don’t know, I’m speechless. I mean, you know, making an assertion like that belies the facts and the record.”

--Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, 4/7/08

'Nuff said.

This month's winner...

...of the Madeleine-Albright's-Special-Place-in-Hell-For Self-Loathing-Misogynist-Women Award is...

Randi Rhodes.

Runner up: Donna Brazile