The way I see it is that the Obama campaign has mostly used dog whistles and then its supporters take it from there. Through use of the dog whistles, they not only failed to stop any of it, it encouraged it.

RL calls, so I don't have time for links, but I've been meaning to put together a timeline on Obama's attacks on Clinton and how they tie into stereotypes of powerful women. Even without that, I'd say note the following incidents of sexist dogwhistles that I can think of off the top of my head:

- Referring to the work Clinton did abroad as First Lady as having tea;
- Reducing Clinton to an appendage of her husband and comparing her to Michelle (I still hope Michelle kicked his ass for that one because it insulted both Hillary and his wife)
- Referring to "claws" coming out (instead of knives, which is how the saying actually goes)
- Senator Clinton, periodically when she's feeling down (lambert did a post)
- Jesse Jackson Jr. claiming Clinton cried in NH over criticism of her appearance
- Zbignew B., speaking for Obama about his experience, comparing Hillary to Mamie Eisenhower (this was documented on the Washington Note and I believe I posted video here that might have even made it into one of your posts, VL).

I would note Obama also has a history of using condescending terms for women challenging him, calling a reporter "sweetie" and a woman asking a hard question "feisty." He'd never use those with men. He later apologized to the Reporter by saying he calls lots of people sweetie. By people, of course, he means "women."

And then right after the Palin announcement, I think they tried the same thing with Biden noting the difference between him and Palin is that she's pretty (there's a Corrente post on that here by lambert). Which I might normally just chalk up to Biden being Biden if it weren't for the history of the primary.

So what I would say is that they do what campaigns often do on negative attacks, they encourage them without appearing to overtly embrace them. They did the same thing with the sexism. Only now it's coming back to bite them in the ass. The only bad thing is that somehow this is going to end up being the fault of feminists and women and not, you know, the sexist assholes behind the Obama campaign. And, yes, I've come to believe they are a lot of sexist assholes. I don't have a whole lot of reason not to at this point.

You mean Melissa doesn't cover the "the claws come out," "when she's feeling low periodically," she's "throwing the china" at me, along with "the kitchen sink."??

These aren't mentioned? I have not read each and every Sexism Watch, alas.

Or the playing of that song about "got 99 problems but bitch ain't one"?

Or brushing stuff (lint? dandruff? bird droppings?) off his shoulder and then scraping something yucky off the bottom of his shoe?

I think Obama has serious "mommy issues" that have resulted in a rather significant level of subconscious sexism and misogyny. And that comes out when Obama is off the teleprompter--he doesn't even know he's doing it.

But that is separate and distinct from Team Obama's leveraging of sexism during the primaries -- and now with the attacks on Palin. AFAIK, while Obama has said that "Palin's family" was off limits, he has never taken a strong and unequivocal stand against the sexism displayed by his supporters and the media. And considering the extent/prevalence of that sexism, the absence of strong opposition to it speaks volumes. (I mean, if blatant racism was the norm from McCain's supporters and the media, I think that McCain would make a point about condemning it. And certainly, Clinton did everything she could to signal that racism was not acceptable to her campaign....)

And since Obama's claiming the campaign as part of his executive experience, that makes these things his responsibility. Both Tier One and Tier Two, with the primaries and the general as a seamless continuum.

As always, 1. He doesn't slap down his supporters when they do it; people are so used to his reproofs being pro forma that it took reinforcement from Biden to get the blogs to back off on Palin's kids; and 2. He doesn't slap down the press when they do it.

I can't see that it would have been hard to do in the primaries, certainly, and it would have made Obama look good (at least to me). It would have shown leadership.

He doesn't do that, so he likes the results. And he is the nominee, so the tactics worked. Why would he stop what works? Expect more of it. My $0.02.

[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

and his comparison of Hillary Clinton to Glenn Close's character in Fatal Attraction. The complete and total lack of response from either the Obama campaign or any DNC member makes this a twofer for me -- the Democratic Party and Obama both share responsibility for this one.

that "If you can't run your own house, you can't run the White House." Aside from the fact that this comes from another woman -- can you imagine any man being held to such an explicit standard comparing how one runs one's household and how one runs the nation?

(Crossing fingers that the site lets me post)

I think it crucial to distinguish between the individual candidate and his alleged sexism, the campaign's leveraging of sexism in the primaries, and the response of the larger Democratic and/or Prog audience to misogyny in the public realm.

An individual candidate can be a total moral reprobate (or simply a garden variety casual sexist) and it is an issue only for that person. I honestly don't care about the condition of Obama's internal life. People can hold reprehensible beliefs and still manage to do the right thing when circumstances demand it.

The problem is the way the Obama campaign has woven misogyny into its standard operating procedure and the way in which its supporters are primed to praise it and use it in defense of the campaign.

The wider liberal audience cannot directly stop this from happening, so what matters is our response. Do we call it out? Do we refuse to excuse it? Do we use the ballot box to discipline those who would use these tools and methods for electoral gain? Going forward, how do we fight this battle?

Now that the left has legitimated the bipartisan use of misogyny as a political tactic, it cannot simply be put back in the inner psyche. We have a focus with the clueless and (increasingly) self-defeating behavior of Obama and his campaign, but the problem is bigger. It comes down to the fact that women are rivals of men for power and status on the left to a greater degree than any other demographic (noting that demographics are cross-cutting), and there are a lot of privileged men who are not happy at having their positions challenged so broadly (ahem).

The sexism was lying in the street for the Obama campaign to pick up and brandish.

Anglachel

0f course because sexism is really not so much to worry about, comparatively speaking.

If you think it is, or mention it more than 1/100,000,000,000 times more than how bad McCain-Palin will be, you are trying to end civilization and doom your children to eating roots in caves. On the other hand, if you just learn to forget all that silly stuff, the world will be saved by Obama.

Wise up!

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Around these parts we call cucumber slices circle bites

She did not just call Hillary a monster. She said "just look at her ergh." Very revealing about the internal ethos of the Obama organization.

what's that psych term? transference?