Sherry Chandler

Campaigning while female

It’s the day of the annual office Christmas luncheon and not a sprig of broccoli in sight, let alone a broccoli occarina. I did, however, have a spinach salad with cranberries and fresh figs with a sorghum molasses vinaigrette. Those of you who are not from Kentucky may not know about sorghum molasses, but I couldn’t resist.

For good or ill, the vinaigrette didn’t taste much like sorghum. It was very tasty, though.

I also had a turtle cheesecake, which I will leave to your imagination.

The restaurant is Portofino.

I am now incapable of much in the way of coherent thought, so while I nap surreptitiously at my desk, I invite you to consider Rebecca Traister’s meditation on Hillary Clinton’s offense of Campaigning While Female:

…
I read story after story about an unflattering photograph of Hillary Clinton posted on Monday by Matt Drudge above the tag line “The Toll of the Campaign,” and picked up by Rush Limbaugh, whose thoughts were printed under the less felicitous heading “Does Our Looks-Obsessed Culture Want to Stare at an Aging Woman?”

The photo, taken at the start of the final, grinding slog through Iowa, less than three weeks before the caucuses there, is simply of Clinton’s face. She’s wearing a camel coat, a cream scarf, and gold earrings. So what the hell, let’s take out the purple magic markers: The image of Clinton shows her with crow’s-feet, bags under her eyes, and a furrowed brow (count me among those surprised to see any candidate’s brow crease in this artificially paralyzed age). There are deep naso-labial folds, laugh lines; she looks a little jowly; her skin’s papery, her foundation and lipstick appear caked, possibly from the cold. Also, some of her neck skin has been pushed up around her chin thanks to the unfortunate convergence of talking and scarf-wearing that is, alas, unavoidable when you’re campaigning for president. In Iowa. In December.

That pretty much covers it, though I’m sure many eagle-eyed readers will spot aesthetic shortcomings that have escaped my attention. What do all these circled imperfections tell us about the way Hillary Clinton will represent us at the next Delt Formal?

Limbaugh’s take is couched in the same oleaginous “Who me?” insincerity with which Bill Shaheen speculated about how “Republicans” might question whether Barack Obama sold cocaine. It’s called concerned trolling.

Since I neither read Drudge nor listen to Rush (shudder at the thought), this incident had passed under my radar. As I’ve said before, I am content to wait until the early primary states pick a candidate for me, and in the meantime I intend to remain neutral. Regardless of whether I want Hillary for my president, however, all serious-minded women should protest this treatment of a woman candidate.

Read the whole piece.

Meanwhile, Cheney’s office is burning. How symbolic is that? I See Invisible People asks the pertinent question:

I wonder how many CIA interrogation tapes were stored in that building ….

Possibly related posts:

A change of heart?

I have no idea what to make of this

Clinton’s speech

Clinton Derangement Syndrome

As Palins go,

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