Tuesday: The Trouble with Women

It sure seems like Obama is serious about putting Hillary Clinton in as Secretary of State.  It would be a sure signal that there won’t be any significant changes on health care or equal pay.  {{Sigh}}

We’re pretty confident that Hillary would bring her same standard of excellence to whatever job she chooses.  But the Obama administration attitude towards working with women leaves a lot to be desired.  The NYTimes reports that Obama’s hesitancy in offering the position to Clinton hinges on Bill cutting his ties to foreign business associates.  I suspect Bill would have had to take care of this if Hillary had been elected as well so this burgeoning scandal sounds like a non-starter, just like all of the other scandals.  When will the media get a clue and find a different scapegoat?  After 15 years, the crying wolf routine is getting really old, especially when there’s no payoff.  It’s like one of those annoying traffic jams where you wait forever to see the car wreck and when you finally get to it, it’s just a guy with a flat. It’s just incredibly unsatisfying and I wish they’d stop already.

ANYWAY, Obama really does have a problem with women, as does some elements in his support base.  So, maybe it’s time for a Presidential Commission on Women. From Pat Bakalian, of the Campaign for Gender Equity comes this:

In July 2008, because of the experiences of the 08 campaign and a belief that we needed to keep the issues that effect women in the national dialogue, myself and a few others formed the Campaign for Gender Equality (we are new but growing) and set out to identify a longer term strategy to deal with issues of gender inequality. We decided that the next President should establish a Presidential Commission on Women to serve as the vehicle to address the gender issues that we all know are still with us. This is also a great vehicle to bring people together and to organize around.

We recognized that this would require a nation-wide effort. I have a background in grassroots organizing and coalition building and believe strongly that working collaboratively with other women’s organizations would increase our collective power therefore we decided to go to WomenCount to talk about working together on this campaign.  Since then the Campaign for Gender Equality and WomenCount have been working  to develop and implement the petition drive asking that President-elect Obama establish a Presidential Commission on Women within his first 100 days. We are grateful to WomenCount whose experience and expertise made the nationwide launch of this campaign possible.
Getting the word out is what is important now. We have contacted over 700 organizations and hundreds of individuals and are getting a great response. As a part of this grassroots outreach effort thank you for signing the petition and forwarding the attached information and/or the email below on to your network. Please delete my note to you and add your own personal note of support.

If you have any questions or just want to talk please email or call me at 831-566-0448. It would be very helpful if you would let me know how many emails you sent out.

All my best,
Pat

Pat Bakalian
Campaign for Gender Equality
http://www.campaignforgenderequality.org
831-566-0448

Women Count has more on the background of the Presidential Commission on Women:

In 1961, as the nation grappled with the issue of women in the workplace, President John Kennedy convened the first Presidential Commission on the Status of Women and appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as its chair. Kennedy recognized the moment was right.

That was 47 years ago, and it’s time to do it again. As in 1961, women are at the forefront of our political discourse – and we are committed to keeping them there.

47 Years!?!  I don’t know if we can exclude Bill Clinton from the shame of th 47 years without a Presidential Commission, but them, Hillary was a walking, talking role model for us (unlike SOME First Ladies who prefer we give up our jobs to don our aprons and become Mom-in-Chief)

Yes, it is time.  Waaaay past time.  I doubt that Barack Obama has an enlighted Human Resources director like the one above.  More likely is he has a bunch of Samantha Powers types who call Hillary types “monsters”.  Hmmm, maybe Hillary had some conditions of her own for taking the position of Secretary of State and raising Powers’ consciousness is at the top of her list.

It could happen.