The efforts of a frenzied few to undermine "the most accomplished woman in a lifetime"

Courtesy of Peter Daou.com.

The mushrooming support for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election has been stirring up increasing frenzy among her few remaining irrational adversaries. Peter Daou has done the rest of us a favor by providing a reader's guide to ant-Hillary themes. Daou writes:

Over the years, the chasm between the real Hillary Clinton and the unseemly caricature portrayed during two decades of personal attacks has been all too familiar to those who know her. Distinct from legitimate policy criticisms, these attacks have served as lazy shortcuts to undermine one of the most accomplished women of our lifetime.

Now, as the floodgates open on 2016 speculation, and despite her high standing in public polls, commentary about Hillary Clinton is following predictable patterns. Several pervasive anti-Hillary themes are being dusted off for yet another political cycle; these are carefully-crafted and patently false talking points designed to dehumanize and demean her. Many of the themes are rooted in the sexism that permeates our culture.

During the 2008 campaign, under withering fire for allegedly being, among other things, too ambitious, too polarizing, and willing to “say or do anything to win,” Hillary refused to play into stereotypes. She told her staff, “I don’t want to succeed because I’m a woman, I want to succeed because I’m the best at what I do.” Whatever she chooses to do in the future, as a former advisor and current supporter, I sincerely hope she is judged based on her actions, not on other people’s inventions. With that in mind, I’ve put together a list of anti-Hillary themes so that readers, viewers and listeners recognize them for what they are.

Read more:

Former Clinton Campaign Advisor Speaks Up For Hillary

Our misogynist male dominated media appears to have geared up in attack mode when faced with the reality that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s approval rating in the past year has soared far above that of President Obama. Even more galling to the good ol’ boyz media network, it has become abundantly clear that their euphoric allegiance to Obama in 2008 and simultaneous sexist assault against Hillary has become an accepted truth by most thinking people.

Ugliness emerging from the sensationalist, gossipy recently published trash, Game Change, by Heilemann and Halperin erupted at Politico the other day in an item by Ben Smith titled Game over; the Clintons stand alone. Not quite, Ben.

Peter Daou, a Clinton campaign advisor has stepped forward on behalf of his former boss with an eloquent, balanced mature article this morning at the Huffington Post.

Daou writes:

I am reading Game Change now and will update this entry once I've completed the portions about Hillary Clinton but I wanted to post something immediately in response to the Politico story.

Ben Smith is a savvy, well-connected reporter and Heilemann/Halperin are about as plugged into Beltway culture and DC power centers as anyone can be -- whether that's good or bad I'll let others judge. I became acquainted with Halperin during the campaign -- and with Smith -- but never spoke to the former about the book, nor with the latter about his article, so I'm coming to this as an outside observer. I don't dispute that Heilemann/Halperin have high level sources. I just want to be sure their readers get an accurate picture of Hillary Clinton's conduct during the campaign.

To read Daou’s article in its entirety, go here.

The Sadistic Political Sideline of Bashing Palin and Clinton

Peter Daou, political consultant and former Internet Adviser to Hillary Clinton, recently posted a sensitive, insightful article at Huffpo on the sadistic political sideline of bashing Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. Daou begins:

The explosion of Palin-bashing (and yes, it's bashing, justified or not) across the political spectrum reminds me of a campaign that happened a lifetime ago. Back then, Hillary Clinton reprised her role as the political world's favorite target. Attacking her was elevated to an art form; participants of all stripes joined in. It was the pinnacle of bipartisanship; right and left hammering away at her in an all-out assault that ultimately cost her the nomination.

I don't want to rehash whether or not any of it was warranted -- I'm more interested in another angle that's been completely overlooked in the torrent of punditocracy about Palin's resignation.

It's that Sarah Palin, like Hillary Clinton, is a person, a human being, a mom, a wife, a daughter, once a little girl.

That last sentence was enough to set off Obama supporters in the comments section; the fine example below with its peculiar little twist of sexism was contributed by mrsgm:

As much as I hate the fact that us ladies have to be ten times better...at everything, to be respected, I must say that I would not trade in the last of the sexism just yet. As horrible as it is when they show their true colors as in calling Palin a slutty looking flight attendant, what are us girls going to do when we get so equal that the guys stop noticing that we are girls? I know it probably sounds horrible but I know a lot of men who don't know what they are there for and so feel as if their wives are unapproachable. They often fight with their ambitious wives about sex, when the truth is that the wives are becoming so like the ambitious men they work with, that their husbands are becoming less attracted to them.

But back to Daou’s article. Again he reminds us that Palin is a human being:

Vulnerable, like all of us.

Self-centered, like all of us.

Fragile, like all of us.

Opinionated, like all of us.

Defensive, like all of us.

Deceptive, like all of us.

Lost, like all of us.

And totally wrong on the issues as far as I'm concerned

.

Daou points out:

Unlike Clinton, Palin didn't have time to develop the layers of thick skin required to handle the withering glare of the national celeb/politico spotlight, a glare that for some reason shines much more harshly on women like Palin and Clinton.

For some reason? Take Arianna Huffington and Maureen Dowd, for example, both of whom immediately go on the attack if any strong woman with leadership potential dares set foot on the national stage. Arianna and Maureen thus gain acceptance in the good old boys network in both the old and the new media. And make no mistake, those good old boys are still stuck in the dark ages when it comes to women’s rights: “The world is better off when us men keep women barefoot and pregnant.”

Daou concludes:

Patrick Hynes, my co-blogger at CTN, is chronicling some of the more offensive remarks about Palin. All I ask of my fellow Democrats and progressives is that no matter how wrong-headed Palin's policies, no matter how inconsistent her rationale for stepping down, and no matter how muddled her infamous press conference, we remember that she is the rare public figure who for some reason attracts infinite interest and attention, much of it negative.

Granted, you ask for scrutiny when you enter public service, but not this much, not so quickly. She may not have Hillary Clinton's character or experience to cope with the spotlight, but even if she did, it behooves us to avoid outright viciousness and mockery on a level that few of us could handle.

From glancing at the readers’ comments following his article, Daou is apparently asking too much in that last paragraph from the majority of his readers at the Huffington Post who appear to be psychologically incapable of empathizing with anyone who doesn’t share each and every one of their opinions.