The Washington Informer: Opinions/Editorials

“Baby! You’re missing it!” I called out to my husband. “This is great theater! These boys just held Hillary up by both arms and told Obama to slap her! But he declined. He took the high road.”

Clinton said she had been unaware her campaign was sending the photo, and Obama said he would take Hillary at her word. Throughout much of the debate, however, he glanced down at her as if he were a patient father and she an impetuous teen.

This is good political theater, but many have grown weary of this election already. They don’t get excited anymore by the prospect of making history - electing the first African American, the first woman, or the oldest man for president. They want this thing over. But some of us are drawn to the drama. Unfortunately, Hillary’s working from an out-dated script.

Even The New York Time’s Maureen Dowd calls her “whiny,” and suggests she’s “tangled in her victimization.” The narratives for women’s triumphs have changed since the 1950s and damsels in distress are more often found dead than rescued. Who is writing her scripts?

I wondered about Hillary’s disconnect and it occurred to me that a majority of her female would-be supporters can’t relate to riding a husband’s coattails to prominence or hiding behind a husband when times get rough. Of course the women who have worked with her over the years know better. They’ve called her down right nasty - beyond feisty. But those of us watching from a distance don’t see her as a scrappy woman.

Most of us have not enjoyed her advantages. Most have had to fight to eat and struggle to thrive. Most of us have been ghetto-rized and marginalized, but we didn’t see Hillary’s ghetto side soon enough. She didn’t get ghetto-desperate until after she got trounced on Super Tuesday.

To make a come-back, she fought valiantly in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, and Vermont in the days leading to the “Crucial Tuesday” this week. Her supporters carried signs saying, “Obama, Meet Me in Ohio,” and placards with a 1950s ad featuring a working woman muscled up. (See photo on page 20.)

Her campaign put Obama on the defensive making him explain his association with Black nationalist Louis Farrakhan and forcing him to discuss his religion. How many times did he have to say, “I am a Christian…I have been in the same church for 20 years,” instead of using that time to expound on his policy proposals?

Many of us would like to see a woman in charge, but she has to be the right woman, not a woman fronting her man’s agenda, pulling us in as mere support characters and spectators.

I haven’t met Hillary and I don’t know any of her women advisors well enough to attest to her real strength or genuine humility. I’m just speaking as the “everywoman” here. There has been a disconnection, and it may have happened along the lines of generation and class.

When I sat on a panel with Sarah Weddington, one of the lead attorneys in the original Roe v. Wade decision, the generational difference was stark as we spoke about women’s rights and women’s evolving roles.

“We don’t want to bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan and do everything humanly possible to appease the male ego,” I said, harkening back to a 1970s commercial I’d loved as a kid. “That’s absolutely exhausting!”

Weddington glanced at me as if I’d lost my natural mind, then explained the significance of the movement for an Equal Rights Amendment. There was a time when women could not buy a piece of real estate in their name, and could not open a bank account. Women were nothing if not attached to a man. How dare young women come along and take so much struggle and gain for granted?

We don’t take it for granted, of course. Thanks to them we’re in a different place. The battle is not over, but so much has changed.

Women who are supporting Hillary appreciate her struggles to establish herself and blaze her own political trail – but I think she’s not ready to be our first woman president. Hillary’s tired already. You can hear it in the hoarseness of her voice. The New York Times reported last week that her staffers are “exhausted;” they’re drinking more wine, fussing at each other more, and calling it quits earlier in the evenings.

Would they be ready for a showdown with John McCain? Probably not. But here’s something else to consider: Chelsea Clinton could be ready for Day One and ready for the rough-and-tumble in the future.

Twenty years from now, I would probably vote for Chelsea Clinton. She’s been embarrassed by her daddy, but loves him still. She’s working hard for her family’s future. Now, that, I can relate to. Hillary’s quite possibly paving the way for our first woman president in my lifetime.

Sonsyrea Tate is managing editor of The Washington Informer and author of the book, “Little X: Growing up in the Nation of Islam” and “Do Me Twice: My Life After Islam.” She can be reached at 202-561-4100 or by e-mail at state@washingtoninformer.com.