Them Must Be Some Cookies

When John Kerry, a genuine war hero and anti-war hero, was Swift-boated, he was too stiff and too genteel to win the support of the common American. W defeated him easily, if one accepts the dubious notion that the Ohio totals were not tainted.

During Michael Dukakis's pursuit of the presidency, he appeared popping out of the top of a tank wearing a helmet that made him look as geeky as he really was. He became a national joke; yet some years later, George W. Bush appeared in full fly-boy regalia landing on an aircraft carrier festooned with a banner reading, Mission Accomplished. Only liberals objected. During a 1988 presidential debate, against George H.W. Bush, CNN's Bernard Shaw asked Dukakis how he would react if his wife had been raped and murdered. He dispassionately reiterated his opposition to the death penalty. That duck was cooked; he was not tough enough to be president either.

Al Gore chose to accept the vote that stole the election from him and from us in the 2000 election. Many liberals would never forgive him for what they considered to be a lack of spine.

If there was one lesson for any Democratic candidate pursuing the presidency it is that s/he must not let any insult go unchallenged. Politics is to us what cock-fighting or pit-bull fighting is to others: A blood sport played with a good shield and any weapon that comes to hand.

In recent days, I have read or heard, publicly and privately, Senator Hillary Clinton called a bitch, a shrew, and a monster, among other things. One commentator sarcastically asked if we would have voted for Mamie Eisenhower, to pick the sweetest and most oblique of First Ladies in recent history.

On Bill Maher's HBO Series Real Time, her own words about her reaction to her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky were played as evidence that she does not have the steel to react calmly to a crisis: "I could hardly breathe. Gulping for air, I started crying and yelling at him, What do you mean? What are you saying? Why did you lie to me?" And that was just because her husband had an affair! What if it was an international crisis, demanded one of the pundits. I guess it shows that she was not the brittle ice queen they like to portray her as. Perhaps a cool, calm fellow, like Senator John "Mad Dog" McCain, or President George W. Bush, or Vice President Dick Cheney would be a better choice. In fact, the last several of Maher's programs have featured public figures who, along with Maher, gleefully rip her apart. I can no longer stomach him.

If Barack Obama were pilloried in a comparable way, the screaming would be heard on the moon. Yet Obama himself, in discussing Clinton said, that she claims to have taken 80 journeys representing our country: What foreign policy experience? What was she doing, he asks, negotiating treaties? No dear, she was comparing chocolate chip cookie recipes with the other First Ladies, except for the last eight years when she traveled as a United States Senator. Now she only compares cookie recipes with other female legislators and heads of state. Them must be some cookies.

Then Clinton says she has foreign policy experience and she is ready to lead; and that McCain also has that experience, and she asks if Obama has. By comparing a GOP opponent favorably to a fellow Democratic rival, she crossed a line some say should not be breached, but what lines should be drawn that the men who oppose her should not cross? Are the kid gloves off because she is a political opponent? Because she is a woman? Or just because she is Hillary Clinton? Even Republicans ignore the eleventh commandment these days: Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. But I have not yet heard one of the men attack another man by calling him the male equivalent of a bitch. The closest I have heard are references to Senator John McCain as Mad Dog McCain or Senator Hothead that long predate his current presidential run.

What's fair and what's dirty pool?

Hillary Clinton was first lady for eight years. It is no secret Bill Clinton looked to his brilliant intellectual equal and spouse for counsel. She made it very clear from the beginning that she did not plan to stay in the kitchen and bake cookies. The protests that erupted against her when she said so openly were as hysterical as though she dismembered small animals in her free time. She was accused of putting stay-at-home moms down, and the din continued long past her apology and publication of her cookie recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe-Tools/Print/PrintFull.aspx?RecipeID=9928&servings=42

Is that why they call her a bitch? Or is it because she argued that there was a vast Right Wing conspiracy against her husband? Now the Right has her in its sights, and the New York Times reported this week that the Republican National Committee has bought up a large number of domain names to smear her, like calculatingclinton.com, canttrustclinton.com, clintonisbad.com, clintoniscorrupt.com, among dozens of others.

America's expectations of its First Ladies are almost Victorian. They are supposed to be ladies, first of all, who glide in and out of the background silently. They are supposed to devote themselves to innocuous causes that are not tainted by politics. First Ladies are meant to be eye candy. If they are soft-spoken, declining to talk about politics or appear to influence their husbands in matters of state, they are acceptable. Jackie Kennedy was hailed for her fashion sense and her redecorating of the White House. Betty Ford was considered a firebrand next to her bland husband for speaking out for the Equal Rights Amendment but what really earned her press notices were her battles with substance abuse and her creation of the Betty Ford Center. Rosalynn Carter was dubbed a Steel Magnolia, but I do not know why. She never did anything controversial or spoke out of turn, though in retirement she and her husband founded not only the Carter Center that focuses on human rights around the world, but also the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving; the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation Inc.; and the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism. Steel Magnolia, indeed. Nancy Reagan only had eyes for Ronnie and the most controversial thing she did was to consult astrologers to help schedule important meetings. Most of all, First Ladies sure are not meant to discuss politics, run for the Senate, and then take on the boys. It is not lady-like.

Liberals criticize her for staying with Bill after his affair with Monica Lewinsky, saying she did so only out of political opportunism: Is that why the hard-hearted Hillary went into couples' counseling with him for a year following the incident? I suppose the American public prefers its female presidential candidates to be more like former U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder: She used to put little hearts on her autographs. In 1987, she tearfully withdrew from the presidential race saying hat she could not find a way to run. Such a lady.

I am not worried about Hillary Clinton despite the viciousness of the attacks on her. She has had everything thrown at her and has had every bit of her personal life exposed and explored. For all the noise, they have never gotten anything on her. Some pundits are saying that McCain would prefer her to Obama as an opponent. If anyone thinks the GOP will go easy on Obama think again. Here are some of the domain names they have bought to smear Obama: amateurobama.com, barackisliberal.com, barackiswrong.com, baracknotready.com, barackobamanotready.com, yeswecandowhat.com, and yeswecanwhat.com

Unfortunately, the other hard lesson the Democrats learned, this one from Jimmy Carter's presidency, is that in politics, if you take the high road, the train will pass you by. Whoever wins the nomination wins the chance to face off with the junkyard dog of the Senate. You think the primaries have been nasty? Just you wait.