Iron This

Iron This

“New Hampshire, I listened to you, and in the process, I found my own voice.” – Hillary Clinton

They said it couldn’t be done.

The momentum was just too strong.

They said she was through when she hadn’t even begun to fight.

But on one January night, at this defining moment in history, Clinton did
what the pollsters, the pundits, Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, insert fifty
other names of white men here, all her supporters, her own staff, likely Bill
Clinton, not to mention everyone else, didn’t believe would ever happen. One
woman turned a much rumored, written and blathered about double digit Obama
Blowout into a victory that left the entire punditocracy sucking their own wind
back through the pie hole from which they spewed their sexist, venomous, biased,
good old boy baloney day after day, night after night, week after week for it
seems an eternity, which only got worse once Mr. Obama had one win — one
— under his belt.

“The biggest American political story in modern times if Obama wins the Iowa caucuses. It’ll be all over the world, it will sweep the headlines of every newspaper in the world, friend, foe or neutral. It will be the Third World story of the century, the last century, the biggest story of modern Third World history really, if Obama wins the American presidential caucus in Iowa.” – Chris Matthews (video available at link)

Last night, Hillary Clinton led Barack Obama, John Edwards and Bill Richardson
all night long. The numbers never switched. She never gave up the lead. But
instead of that storyline, it became “too close to call,” with not
one word from Matthews or Olbermann or anyone else on the MSNBC panel about
what was actually happening. What it might mean.

Imagine if Matthews delivered the same to Clinton as he did to Mr. Obama:

“The biggest American political story in modern times if a woman, for the first time in United States history, comes back after a defeat to win the New Hampshire primary. It’ll be all over the world, it will sweep blah-blah-blah… .. It will be the Third World story of the century, the last century … blah-blah-blah … if Clinton wins the American presidential primary in New Hampshire. Men have dominated this power field since the founding of our country. No woman will have done what Hillary Clinton is setting out to do. It will change the possibilities of every little girl, every teenager, every woman with a dream of being a leader and changing not only this country, but the entire world, not to mention fulfill the dreams of mothers and grandmothers everywhere who never had the chance to be the boss.”

Hyperbole is always a little embarrassing in the light of day. Besides, all
you had to do was look at him. He simply couldn’t find the words after Clinton’s
win.

TM reader TrishB channels a lot of what I’m hearing:

Wow, I’m overwhelmed. My mom rang me right when the winner was called. That call was followed right after by a call from my sister. We were all Hilary supporters before, and we are all Hilary supporters now. Woo hoo! – Trish B

Tom
Brokaw found the words Matthews could not.

BROKAW: … .. But we don’t have to get in the business of making judgments before the polls have closed. And trying to stampede in effect the process. Look, I’m not just picking on us, it’s part of the culture in which we live these days. I think that the people out there are going to begin to make judgments about us if we don’t begin to temper that temptation to constantly try to get ahead of what the voters are deciding, in many cases, as we learned in New Hampshire when they went into the polling booth today or in the last three days. They were making decisions very late.

Truth is no one believed Hillary Clinton could possibly win New Hampshire after
Obama’s win in Iowa. He was the second
coming. He was “the one.” Even Mr. Obama’s speeches talked about wrapping
up New Hampshire then moving on to the nomination in a blink, his walk shifting to swagger. Never mind less than 1% of the United States population had voted, and unfortunately for him, the people of New Hampshire had other ideas.

But that didn’t keep the pundits, the pols, the traditional media, and everyone
else, including the blogosphere from pushing every unsourced, unfounded, pull
out of your posterior posting about Clinton’s campaign in its death spiral ever
since Iowa went to Obama. Not only was Clinton going to lose by double digits. She was going to have to consider whether she should go on in order to protect
her Senate career! I mean, really. Then came Clinton is broke!, squealed by a certain campaign that shall remain nameless because they probably feel enough like jackasses as it
is, with blog posts heralding Clinton’s campaign bankruptcy hoping to make fantasy a reality before one vote was cast. This was the type of unadulterated diaper dirt that was spread from one end of the traditional media to the blogosphere, complete
with every ugly photo and blaring headline that could paint Hillary Clinton
as a loser. There were few males in the power structure who didn’t
jump on this beat the beeyotch bandwagon, excepting Mark Halperin of Time, feeling awfully cocky that
they just might have gotten the job done.

I’ve got one word for you, baby.

WOMEN.

There was a large number of women who came out for Clinton, flipping around
what happened in Iowa.

I’ve got another phrase for you: blue collar Democrats. Iron that.

But there are also those who haven’t
voted yet, including so many readers and listeners around here, who have been
watching the misogynistic spectacle spewing from the traditional media that
was enough to plug a volcano. Then there are those wonderful modern men, all
of you wonderful hunks, like eriposte and Tom Watson, my husband, and so many
of you readers around here, you liberated gems, you gods, who all knew
what was happening in the press and gagged on it with all of us girls, sent emails, and just ranted with the rest of us.

Change has been the buzz word so far. Last night Clinton talked about the power
to transform. Yeah, baby.

Like I’ve been saying all along, it’s all the way to February 5th. Strap yourself in.

“I will never underestimate Hillary Clinton again.” – Chris Matthews