bumped
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared on all five talk shows yesterday morning and demonstrated a particularly senatorial skill: the art of the filibuster. … [...] Above all, though, in a morning of appearances that yielded virtually no news, Clinton illustrated her ability to talk. And talk. And talk. – Anne Kornblut, “Hitting All the Sunday Talk Shows, Clinton Says a Lot but Reveals Little”
Anne E. Kornblut has a book coming out. She’s giving advice on how a woman can crack that final “highest, hardest” glass ceiling. No, it’s not a comic book, but it should be.
Ladies and gentlemen, exhibit A from Ms. Kornblut is the quote at the top, which proves she’s actually got no interest whatsoever in outlining what it will take to get a female president. That she believes it’s unique for a politician “to talk. And talk. And talk” renders her analysis worthless. Males have been doing it for two centuries in America, but when Hillary Clinton does it it’s “the filibuster.” But none of this means that the Kornbluts of Traditional Media haven’t been influential.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is now in, very in, so capitalizing on all things Hillary, while not forgetting the latest political phenom, Sarah Palin, has to pay, right?
Now, I’ve got no beef with anyone making a buck. But Ms. Kornblut deserves scrutiny on this one, if for no other reason than the sheer gall of her to rewrite her own roll in this drama.
Ms. Kornblut beginning her book campaign this past Sunday in “How to shatter the ‘highest, hardest’ glass ceiling”. A more fitting and truthful title would read: “How to shatter a woman’s reputation as she reaches for the ‘highest, hardest’ glass ceiling, a traditional media guide.” An excerpt from Sunday:
That other milestone still beckons though. Women are running for some of the most critical seats this year, in Massachusetts, California, Texas, Florida and elsewhere. Despite “lipstick on a pig,” “beat the bitch,” and “iron my shirt,” the 2008 election wasn’t just a collection of lowlights for female candidates. It was a chance for the country and for women running for high office to learn what it will take for a woman to someday assume the Oval Office.
As a political reporter, I spent more than two and a half years covering the Clinton campaign, and traveled with Palin after her nomination. Here are some lessons, culled from what I witnessed on the campaign trail, for the next female candidate who’s aiming to break what Clinton called “the highest, hardest glass ceiling of all.”
Kornblut’s analysis of what went wrong in the Clinton primary campaign missing the mark by a mile, but something I have no intention or interest in re-arguing (someone else will have to write that book). But on she drones with her advice for how to break that final glass ceiling.
Don’t take women — especially young women — for granted.
Shorter Kornblut: Men won’t help elect a woman. Kornblut ignorant to the fact that the young women demographic has been the most sought after vote in the last two decades.
Prepare your family.
As if your family can mitigate the traditional media’s swipes, including those by Ms. Kornblut.
Expect them to hate you because you’re beautiful.
What, did she copy this out of the Miss America Pageant guide book?
Speak softly and carry a big statistic.
Shorter Kornblut: Resumes matter, except when they don’t. Someone should point out to Ms. Kornblut, who ignorantly equates Palin’s “lipstick on a pig” with the salvos thrown at Clinton, “beat the bitch,” and “iron my shirt,” that these are not equivalent. Palin’s lipstick-pig comment from her own repertoire and mouth, while the others were either thrown at Clinton by a female supporter of her male opponent, John McCain, and a stunt by male’s standing up against everything Hillary represented. Not quite the same, but Kornblut isn’t concerned.
Beat breast cancer? You may beat your opponent. … But if history is any guide, the public may hold her in higher regard for having beaten back the disease.
Unbelievable. Shorter Kornblut: Play the victim, it works. I assure you that Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz isn’t where she is today because she beat breast cancer, though there’s no doubt women have to juggle toughness with tenderness or be called “shrill,” a description used continually against Clinton.
Seize the moral high ground.
Shorter Kornblut from her own mouth: “Voters instinctively view women as more honest, a trait they can use when running against men.”
I know. Stunning stuff.
With advice this sage at the ready, maybe I should run.
When Secretary Clinton traveled to the Congo this past year, Jake Tapper asked Kornblut this question: …as somebody who is writing a book about women and politics, what was that eruption in the Congo when she thought — was so offended somebody would ask her about her husband’s view on whether or not the Chinese should loan the Congo some money?
KORNBLUT: Well, and, in fact, I think we’ve reported out that there was no mistranslation, that she was asked about her husband. The reporters who were there said it was very hot. She was very tired, so maybe her demeanor is not the one she would have wanted, but that the underling sentiment, that she’s the secretary of state, is one that she intended to convey, especially in a region of the world that is so male-dominated.
But these incidents are kind of bigger than that. It’s sort of the perfect encapsulation of the burden of being Hillary Clinton, that you are seen in relation to your husband wherever you go, not just by the media, but by the world, and asked questions about him.
And it reminded me a lot of the campaign, when she was seen in relation to him and having to respond and trying to be her own person. But it also raises the question of what kind of secretary of state she’s going to be and if she’s going to be able to harness the celebrity, which, of course, is the reason we’re all talking about it, you know, to a larger purpose.
Some people, when this whole incident happened, said to me, “You know, she looks kind of like a first lady on this trip. She’s out there. She’s been gone 11 days, 7 countries. She’s away from the center of action here.”
Kornblut ignores the fact that she participated fully in the relation to her husband melodrama. Will she address that in her book? Obviously, self-reflection isn’t her strong suit.
Next we get the “some people” source, as Anne pontificates that Clinton really should take “some shorter trips,” because, after all, she won’t “get as tired when she’s on the road” if she’s reined in:
So I suspect we may see some shorter trips from her, ones where she’s not going to get as tired when she’s on the road. But at the end of the day, I think her — again, the underlining sentiment, is one that certainly the White House and she defend, that she had the right to say that.
Well, at least Clinton is perceived as having a “right to say” what she did, after all, free speech is given to even women in politics. Anne says so.
But as HuffPost’s Jason Linkins pointed out last summer, Ms. Kornblut can change with the wind about Clinton, if it suits her purpose, which since she’s writing a book USING Clinton for cash, you can certainly bet she will.
MITCHELL: And we have to say, for all of the talk of Bill versus Hillary and all of that, we shouldn’t lose sight of what she did. She really has elevated as Mary Beth Sheridan wrote in the Washington Post today, really has elevated the whole aspect of women. I talked to Richard Engel about the women in Afghanistan, but women around the world is very much a part of Hillary Clinton’s diplomatic mission.
KORNBLUT: Yeah, absolutely, and has been in her life for a long time. Going back to the famous speech she gave in 1995 in Beijing when she was First Lady and she said women’s rights are human rights and vice versa. She has been an international celebrity. And even though there have been two previous female Secretaries of State, she’s elevated that role, she’s given women around the world someone that they’re familiar with to look to and this trip to Africa, that was a great deal of her focus and has been at the State Department since she’s been there.
Mind you, Kornblut’s casual flip on Clinton isn’t part of a partisan fight, as has historically happened throughout U.S. campaign history against competing candidates of the same party, which inevitably ends in a kiss and make up hand shake, including from the camps involved. This is a so called journalist who is supposed to have a clear and consistent eye through her analysis.
It’s the Richard Wolfe syndrome, access for cash, though at least Wolffe was always a kiss ass for Obama, deserving of, at the very least, points for consistency.
Anne E. Kornblut, who has made a career out of sliming Hillary Rodham Clinton, does not. She’ll never examine her own hypocrisy and lack of integrity for even thinking she could write a book about women in politics seeking the highest office without investigating her own culpability in crafting a cartoon image of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who despite the likes of Ms. Kornblut actually made it one step away from the top, now holding a job making her one of the most powerful women of world influence.
If Sarah Palin takes a turn, you can be sure that the Kornbluts of Traditional Media will be at work again, going beyond issues to the personal, only this time they will likely be joined by the AndrewSullivans of New Media.
A female U.S. president is an idea whose time has come, and a lot of that is due to the hard road Hillary Clinton traveled, which ended in the prize she was awarded by Pres. Obama, which in spite of the Kornbluts of Traditional Media, was part of her historic journey that made the sky above the cracks visible for the first time.
Shove the advice.
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