Obama a Muslim? Forget It. He's a Girl.

They said Bill Clinton was our first black president.  Now they're calling Barack Obama our first woman president.  Susan Faludi:

You don’t see him crouching in a duck blind or posing in camouflage duds or engaging in anything more gladiatorial than a game of pick-up basketball. If Mr. Obama’s candidacy seeks to move beyond race, it also moves beyond gender. A 20-minute campaign Web documentary showcased a President Obama who would exude “a real sensitivity” and “empathy” and provide a world safe for the American mother’s son. Mr. Obama is surrounded in the video by pacifist — not security — moms.

If Mr. Obama’s campaign has fashioned any master narrative, it’s that of the young man in the bower of a matriarchy — raised by a “strong” mother, bolstered by a “strong” sister, married to a “strong” wife and proud of his “strong” daughters. (Bill Clinton had a similar story, although his handlers highlighted his efforts to save his mother from domestic violence.)

“In many ways, he really will be the first woman president,” Megan Beyer of Virginia, a charter member of Women for Obama, told reporters. An op-ed essay in The New York Post headlined “Bam: Our 1st Woman Prez?” came to a similar conclusion, if a tad more snidely.

Could Beyer be a Republican mole?  I can't believe Obama's women supporters are saying that -- it's like putting a baseball bat in the hands of his opponents.

In the campaign ahead, expect a fierce Republican effort to reinstate the nation’s guardian myth — by [...] cast[ing Obama] as the epicene metrosexual who can’t protect the country [...]  News media blatherers and bloggers are taking up the theme. On MSNBC, Tucker Carlson called Mr. Obama “kind of a wuss”; Joe Scarborough, the morning TV talk show host, dubbed Mr. Obama’s bowling style “prissy” and declared, “Americans want their president, if it’s a man, to be a real man”; and Don Imus, the radio host, never one to be outdone in the sexual slur department, dubbed Mr. Obama a “sissy boy."

I guess I'm forgetting that in some precincts, the pendulum has swung all the way over, and Woman = Good = the new human norm.  But these Women for Obama are doing him no favors, considering that the half of the population still defending the embattled male's right to some unique strip of turf or sense of worth will find it yet another reason to scorn him.

The generational shift that Obama represents is also a shift in gender roles, a toning-down of machismo that can be played, and read, either as androgyny or as a new kind of quiet confidence -- a masculinity with less to prove.  In the animal world, macho display is often less a prelude to a fight than a way of avoiding a fight.  Another way of avoiding future fights -- a frequent trope in classic Westerns, actually -- is to win the first one with such devastating decisiveness that no one mistakes your quiet confidence for anything less ever again.  Obama needs to convince us he is capable of that.

Comments

[PatHMV]

As a male who doesn't hunt or fish, and who enjoys but doesn't obsess much about watching sports, I'm highly offended by Ms. Faludi's archaic stereotyping of men.

Since he's already alienated the hard-core feminists who supported Hillary Clinton, Sen. Obama should slap this down hard, reprising his fatherhood talk the other day and talking about his manhood. This would give him a delightful opportunity to talk again about "moving beyond" stupid stereotypes and labels.

Sadly, he's too traditional of a politician to actually do this, but it would be smart.

[eusto]

Um, this is monkey-business but understandable monkey-business. (I do believe that either Mark Warner's or Tim Kaine's wife also called Obama the first woman president.)

It's understandable because Obama unlike Clinton does not feel the need to "walk and talk like a George Bush Republican in order to be tough on national security." It's understandable because Obama is both interpersonally warm (the trademark Obama grin) and a cool operator.

But to view Obama as weak is a very deep, deep mistake. Obama knows when and how to strike. For instance, when the assassination story came out Obama's people linked a story in the New York Post and said such language has no place in the campaign. That was all they needed to do to brutalize Hillary (and hopefully dash her veep prospects); the next day Obama was saying that we should move on and that we all misspeak on the campaign trail.

By contrast, Hillary constantly overreached. She let Bill off the leash and really damaged them by his South Carolina remarks. She rambled on about her love for guns and her love of whiskey and thus opened herself to a devasting counter-rebuke during bittergate. She should have made one statement and then shut up. She tried to force her way on the VP slot by not conceding, but it blew up in her face.

I remember going all haywire before South Carolina "telling" the Obama people they needed to go viciously negative on Clinton in order to survive after they lost both New Hampshire and Nevada. The Clintons ran some nasty and completely false ad against him in South Carolina and the Obama people simply put up a counter-ad calling her willing to say and do anything to win. The Clinton people took down their ad, and the Obama people took down theirs. Obama then won South Carolina by 30 points in a three way race. People were screaming at the Obama people to go negative before Iowa as well. And we know how that turned out.

A question recently posed on the Washigton post blog the fix was "is Obama beating Clinton one of the most historic upsets or the most historic upset of the century."

You want toughness; how about destroying the Clintons all the while preserving your image as above the fray and representing the new politics? After all, the Clintons ran one of the most vicious, nasty, hard-knuckle, and dishonest primary campaigns in recent memory but who won??? Whether or not Obama beat his chest like a gorilla during the primary campaign is of no significance. Victory is. Obama knows when to pick a fight, and how to move in quick, deliver the fatal blow and then act like nothing ever happened.

This isn't just my view: this is the view of some of the most influential CW setters in politics:

First, Mark Halperin on Obama's "killer instinct"

here

and Politico's article on his fighting style.

Certainly, Obama screws up and makes mistakes, but just pay attention to his responses during a political attack. Either it's a calm, cool shiv to the throat like when he dissed Romney on the Situation Room. Or it's a brutal smackdown like Obama's first response to bitergate or to the appeasement flap.

The reason why Obama appears wussy is because unlike Clinton who likes to talk about obliterating foreign countries or McCain who likes to joke about bombing foreign countries, Obama's not an idiot. He doesn't think you need bluster to get shit done. He's more of jujitsu kind of guy rather than a drunken, chest-thumping bar brawler.

Now, on foreign policy, he unlike McCain has said that he would not hesitate to strike in Pakistan were they to have actionable intelligence -- say bin laden is thought to be in this remote location. And he's in favor of doubling down in Afghanistan. As his famous 2002 speech proclaimed he's not against all wars just dumb wars.

But again, just ask Hillary and Bill whether she (or he) thinks Obama was a pussy, whether he was formidable opponent or not? The dude is from Chicago, people.

Just because he's not a foaming at the mouth neo-con like Hillary or McCain just means he's not retarded, not weak.

They've called Obama Obambi. But you know if you get close to a deer its hooves can rip your chest open.

So the question is, what exactly does Obama have to do to prove his strength, does he need to announce he's going to shock-and-awe some random muslim country and bomb them back into the stone age, what exactly are people looking for????

[eusto]

And as Pat points out, Obama loves sports. He's always trying to go on ESPN and do sports interviews. And there was also a lot of talk about how Obama should go negative after Penn (talk about impeachement etc.) but after NC and Indiana he was baptized the presumptive nominee.

[eusto]

Alright, I misread Pat but he reminded me of how much the 'bama loves his sports. His body man (the dude who makes sure he has his drinks and gum and stuff) is a big brawly football player who I think was interested but didn't make it the NFL or something close to that.

[Maxwell James]

On MSNBC, Tucker Carlson called Mr. Obama “kind of a wuss”

Classic.

[Meade]

I wonder if he, or rather, she, has told his or her wife yet. I'd hate for her to have to first learn about it while skimming through the New York Times.

"Now they're calling Barack Obama our first woman president."

And yet he, or rather, she, is still just a senator. Amazing! How does he or she do it?

First Black president. First Woman president. First Woman president married to another woman. Could someone please hand me a broom and I'll start sweeping up all this shattered ceiling glass before anyone steps in it.

I guess this makes ObamaGirl a lesbian.
Oooo! Double hot!!

[Maxwell James]

Next week on Oh, Bama!

* Obama is Oprah!

* And she's also the Pope! Pope Bama!

* Plus, he's pregnant!

*** With change!! ***

[Outis]

... engaging in anything more gladiatorial than a game of pick-up basketball.

Uh, this was clearly writen by someone who hasn't played serious pick-up basketball games. I remember playing in one gym where the "home" players would regularly and repeatedly elbow their opponents in the face. Mind you, this was in an officiated game! Never called by the home ref but every little ticky-tack foul the other way was called.

I remember another court that was populated by a mix of drunk red-necks and Mexican farm workers. That was a game where it was necessary to "protect oneself at all time" or you'd get punched in the groin and not know who to slug later.

Not to mention the games where you'd get jumped by roving gangs or be worried about getting knifed.

I also remember another time when a friend and I were happy to have a crack addict unexpectedly show up. He provided a distraction for us to get away before we got jumped. We were the wrong ethnicity, and were unaware that the locals practiced a strict "No Whites Allowed" policy. Really it was unforgivable cluelessness on our part. You've really got to be aware of these things when you're looking for a game.

[Meade]

So Outis,

You're a girl?

[karen]

"They've called Obama Obambi. But you know if you get close to a deer its hooves can rip your chest open."

Eusto- their 1st defense is: flight. They'll rip you apart w/their hooves only when cornered- or in rut. Not the same thing, either.

Outis-- where the hell do you all hail from, anyways?

[Outis]

So Outis,

You're a girl?

Don't get fresh.

Outis-- where the hell do you all hail from, anyways?

Orlando. Lots of people from lots of different places living here now. It creates a hostile atmosphere. I wrote (at length) about this on a previous blog, under another name. I've just reposted one of my better (and longest) posts on my new blog.

[reader_iam]

Sen. Obama is "warm interpersonally"? And a "cool operator"?

Regardless of how I eventually choose to "pull the lever" in the fall, I find both of those adjectives to be a real stretch.

[huxley]

I can't believe Obama's women supporters are saying that -- it's like putting a baseball bat in the hands of his opponents.

Given the reality of white working class voters Obama needs to attract, no, this article is not helping. And I don't know how much help Obama can get there. He's a talker not a doer.

Nor do I buy eusto's "how and when to strike" characterization of Obama.

Obama didn't beat Clinton going head-to-head. He ran a blitzkrieg through caucus states while Clinton wasn't paying attention. Once she took him seriously, Clinton won most of the remaining primaries, some by bruising margins, but by then it was too late. Obama beat the tape by a thin margin.

McCain is the first serious Republican opponent Obama has ever faced, and Obama hasn't had a really good week--aside from the DNC--since.

We shall see.