Let me preface this diary by saying that there is no doubt in my mind that sexism has been and will continue to be a major force in our national politics for the foreseeable future. The fact that women make up half of our population, and even a greater percentage of voters, but that they hold relatively few national offices attests to that fact. That being said, I honestly believe that the idea that Hillary finds herself in this position mostly because of the sexism of the press, the Democratic Party, and the Obama campaign - as many here have alleged - is ridiculous.
I don't know that this can be emphasized enough.
Hillary is losing, and will eventually lose this nomination because of self inflicted wounds.
1) She admitted that she never planned for this contest to go beyond February 5th.
2) In an election defined by "change", she ran on experience and knowledge of the "insider" game of Washington.
3) In an election where the vast majority of the country believes Iraq was a strategic mistake, Senator Clinton steadfastly refused to admit she was wrong to vote for authorization.
4) Hillary's poll numbers on perceived dishonesty and unfavorability have been relatively stable at more than 50% - even among Democrats.
5) After South Carolina, she lost most AA support.
6) THe campaign was financially mismanaged and is upwards of $20,000,000 in debt.
7) The inability of the campaign to control Bill Clinton in the early days.
Now, let's imagine that we lived in a Utopia where sexism simply didn't exist. Even if that were the case, that would have had ABSOLUTELY NO BEARING on the 7 mistakes that I pointed out above.
The fact that Obama made comments about how the "claws have come out" does not change the fact that the Clinton campaign never took caucuses seriously.
The fact that some college students barged into an event yelling "Iron my shirt!" and that CLinton supporters feel the media was not sufficiently offended, had no bearing on the fact that the Clinton campaign spent $500,000 on parking and is $10,000,000 in debt to an advisor/pollster that could have very easily been replaced by any of probably a dozen Hillary supporters from MyDD.
Add up every sexist comment that has been made during the campaign and I still don't see how it is that it forced the Clinton campaign to make those critical errors. At the end of the day the reason Hillary is losing is because she is behind in delegates and the popular vote - not because she is a woman. The numbers show that the voters had no problem voting for a woman. If the campaign was run more efficiently and professionally, we would not be having this discussion.
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