Is Obama a sexist?

In the final installment of Eriposte’s interview with Eric Boehlert is up and I found this part worthy of notice:

Eric Boehlert: By contrast a lot of the attacks on Clinton’s candidacy were strictly personal in nature. For instance, I don’t remember reading lots of allegations online that Obama was a monster out to destroy the Democratic party. Or that he was an egomanic. Or that he was a sexist. But the inverse—that Clinton was a racist monster trying to rip the party apart for her own personal gain—became quite common by the spring of 2008.

Of course, a lot of that looked pretty hollow when one of Obama’s first acts was to appoint the ‘monster’ as his Secretary of State; a move which made the online claims against Clinton look rather foolish. And I think people realize that now. But there isn’t much interest in going back and examining the phenomena. And examine what drove the hate rhetoric.

[Eriposte note: Eric and I exchanged some additional notes on this topic. The gist of it is that his comment about Obama not being labeled a sexist really applies to the A-list pro-Clinton blogs - there were much smaller and mostly low traffic pro-Clinton blogs that did accuse Obama of being a sexist. In contrast, the references to Clinton being racist were rather common in the front pages of some A-list blogs.]

I guess we must be one of those “smaller and low traffic pro-Clinton blogs” he is referring to because we accused Obama of being a sexist (and a misogynist too.)  Were there ANY A-list pro-Clinton blogs?  I can’t think of any.

I must say I am a little disappointed in Boehlert and Eriposte.  Despite the fact that they both recognize the over the top sexism and misogyny that was pervasive during last year’s campaign, they both give appear to Obama a pass on the issue and hold him blameless.  So to clarify I asked this question in the comments:

It’s not much of a jump to make the conclusion that the pervasive sexism during the primary and general campaigns was directed or at least encouraged by the Obama campaign itself.

If Obama ran a sexist campaign is it unreasonable to conclude he is a sexist?

Eriposte’s reply:

Myiq2xu,

In the absence of direct evidence that the Obama campaign “encouraged” or “directed” the use of sexist attacks, I would not assume this was the case. I have not seen any compelling evidence for this theory.

Let me also pre-emptively address another possible line or argument. Even if one wants to argue that Obama, occasionally said something that could be construed as sexist, it is a giant leap from that to assume that he is a sexist by nature or that he encouraged sexism. Sometimes people who are upset say stupid things that they regret later.

A final point. Michelle Obama is a fairly independent woman and I seriously doubt she would have stayed in her marriage if she thought her husband was sexist or encouraged sexism.

Posted by eriposte at June 5, 2009 08:25 AM

Obama supporters not only saw racism in unlikely places last year, they always presumed it was directed and/or encouraged by the opposing campaigns of Hillary Clinton (in the primary) and John McCain (in the general election.) To my knowledge neither Eric Boehlert nor Eriposte agree with that presumption, but then again neither one of them has indicated that racism was a significant factor in last year’s elections.

However both men acknowledge that the sexism was widespread and played a major role.  Obama was the only beneficiary of the sexism because any sexism directed at Michelle Obama would be unlikely to help Hillary or McCain/Palin.  Assuming that the Obama campaign directed and/or encouraged the sexism, would you really expect them to admit it? The Watergate era term that comes to mind is “plausible deniability.”

It is widely accepted that beginning with Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” and continuing with the campaigns of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush that the Republican party ran racist campaigns utilizing “dogwhistles.”  Their campaigns were not overtly racist but used code words and symbolism that would appeal to racist voters.  In the words of Lee Atwater, the 1988 campaign manager for G. H. W. Bush:

“You start out in 1954 by saying, “N****r, n****r, n****r.” By 1968 you can’t say “n****r”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff.”

I would have been shocked if any candidate for President openly used words like bitch, c**t, slut or whore, just as much as if they used racial epithets. But Barack Obama, allegedly the smartest President in history whose biggest strength is his ability to communicate, did say these things:

“ I understand that Senator Clinton, periodically when she’s feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal.”

“You challenge the status quo and suddenly the claws come out.”

“Tea parties with ambassadors.”

“Hold on one second, sweetie.”

“You can put lipstick on a pig.”  “It’s still a pig.”

Michelle Obama added this little pearl of wisdom:

“If you can’t even take care of your own house, then you have no business in being in the White House.”

Obama maintained a dismissive attitude towards Hillary throughout the campaign, at times even acting contemptuous. He was even more dismissive of Sarah Palin.  He made little or no effort to stop the rampant sexism among his supporters. A few times he tepidly denounced the it, usually when it was starting to create a backlash but never really calling off the dogs.

Let’s not forget that the virtually every minute of the Obama campaign was tightly scripted and controlled from the top, from who sat on the stage behind Obama to people fainting at rallies.  So my question for Eriposte is this:

What more will you need before you accept that there is compelling evidence?

Will it take copies of written memos from David Axelrod or will you require a confession from Obama himself?

Obama didn’t “occasionally” say something sexist, he did it on a regular basis and not when he was “upset.”  The only time he showed regret was when there was a backlash.  Obama has yet to show by his actions that he gives a shit about women’s issues, and the evidence continues to mount that he does not.  Sure, he nominated women to his Cabinet and to the Supreme Court, but then again so did Ronald Reagan. As for “fairly independent” Michelle, she has been relegated to the role of June Cleaver.

If the burden of proof was on Obama to prove that he is NOT a sexist, what evidence could he present?

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