I love Gloria Steinem, but this was bad.

[CTyankee]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03032008/news/nationalnews/steinem_mocks_macs_pow_ordeal_100254.htm

I don't know what possessed Gloria to make such a gaffe. Whatever she thinks privately, she should never have taken this position.

[damonm]

1. Thank you, Gloria, for throwing Red Meat to the Rush crowd...

Should Hillary get the nomination.

[lapfog_1]

2. While I agree completely with your assessment..

find a different source for this story. The NY Post is not exactly reputable.

[grantcart]

24. Steinem Says McCain's POW Cred Is Overrated

http://www.observer.com/2008/stumping-clinton-steinem-says-mccains-p-o-w-cred-overrated?page=2
Stumping for Clinton, Steinem Says McCain's POW Cred Is Overrated



Steinem raised McCain’s Vietnam imprisonment as she sought to highlight an alleged gender-based media bias against Clinton.
quote
“Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. , ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience.

McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five and a half years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, “I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.”

Steinem’s broader argument was that the media and the political world are too admiring of militarism in all its guises.

“I am so grateful that she hasn’t been trained to kill anybody. And she probably didn’t even play war games as a kid. It’s a great relief from Bush in his jump suit and from Kerry saluting.”


But she also opined that “a majority of Americans want redemption for racism, for our terrible destructive racist past and so see a vote for Obama as redemptive.” Then, using a term for the mass killing of women, she added, “I don’t think as many want redemption for the gynocide.”

Other than Austin, she said, “there is no community in the whole world that understands how to include everybody, how to be serious and have a good time at the same time, how to be fan-fucking-tastic” quite so well.



To The Observer, Steinem insisted that “from George Washington to Jack Kennedy and PT-109 we have behaved as if killing people is a qualification for ruling people.”

end quote

Asking Steinem to camapaign to for you is risky but having her go to Texas is a lot like asking a chain smoker to guard the TNT. Another major campaign blunder.

[karynnj]

29. Nice little slaps at Kennedy and Kerry as well

Even though I am a woman and a feminist - Kennedy and Kerry have both done more good in their lives that Steinem or HRC for that matter.

[lapfog_1]

44. Thank you... a much more damming piece than a screeching headline

from the Fox News of Newspapers.

Really, I don't know how they keep buying so much ink at the NY Post, given the size of their headlines.

[GoneOffShore]

3. I agree with her - He got shot down, he was a POW

Is that something that's going to make him an expert on defense?

Maybe an expert on getting shot down and incarceration, but not on ANYTHING else.

"This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don't think so," The New York Observer quoted her as saying.

It was a job - that he didn't manage to do.

[yourguide]

8. It certainly makes him an expert on torture.

which he has been very outspoken against.

bad form for Glory to discount his POW status in any way

[niyad]

16. excuse me, but he actually voted to authorize torture.

please cite where he has been "outspoken against it"

[leftynyc]

20. He wasn't always

pro-torture. Just since he's the (probable) nominee. Here is an article about his former views.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2007/10/_mccain_sharply_rebukes_rudy_for_protorture_comments.php

[niyad]

27. sorry, he wasn't the putative nominee when he voted last year to authorize torture.

[leftynyc]

35. If you think I'm defending McCain

you couldn't be more wrong. I just know he has switched his position on this issue as the article I linked to pointed out. Now go get your knickers in a knot someplace else.

[niyad]

40. nice slam, but you stated he was "outspoken against it" as though

he had never voted for the authorization of torture.

maybe YOUR knickers need to be untwisted, since you don't seem to be able to handle somebody pointing out a very basic fact to you.\\pace

[leftynyc]

41. Excuse me

I never used the words "outspoken against it". You're confusing me with someone else. I'll take that apology anytime.

[yourguide]

26. He's been outspoken against it in multiple places

however he bended and voted along party lines on this issue. Google McCain and torture and you will see exactly what I am speaking of.

[GoneOffShore]

28. So, he was a POW - Lots of people were.

Doesn't qualify him to be President or give him any special insight into foreign policy. Ah and his "I hate gooks" line should be coming to sting him in the ass.

The glorification of military service and the mythic mystique of the warrior never ceases to annoy me.

Read Wilfred Owen and maybe you'll understand.

[CTyankee]

11. That may be true, but that wasn't my point. Politically, this was a stupid thing to say.

Someone very wise once said "We do not say everything that is so."

[nels25]

12. I am not sure about this

I am tempted to ask if you ever wore a uniform, however your GoneOffShore may indicate that you in fact have.

McCain commanded men as a squadron commander (and I also believe a wing commander).

While I agree he would not be a good choice for CIC at the present time, to just dismiss him as having not potential to be one is insulting at the very least.

If one has to give Hillary her due that she could answer the phone at 3am then one must also give McCain the same.

Understand that each would handle it in a different manner, but is that not what this election is about in the first place.

As a USN vet I feel that Steinham was way out of line.

We should learn early on that insulting McCains service will not go over well in the wider portion of the population we are going to try to attract to vote for us.

Not everyone holds serving in the military in disrepute, if we state we want to support the troops than insulting a man held in a North Vietnamese POW camp for 5 plus years and also tortured (and has lead a fight to some degree against it), then we cede ground to the GOP that need not be ceded.

McCain is very, very beatable but not by insult.:hi:

[GoneOffShore]

32. My handle refers to the fact that I spent the Vietnam era in England.

He was doing a job, he got shot down and captured. Does this qualify him in ANY way to be President?

I don't think so.

The myth that soldiers are any better than anyone else really grates.

As I stated in another post - read Wilfred Owen, particularly Dulce est decorum

"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori."

[Cha]

37. To me it shows Gloria Steinem's

tone deafness in recent speeches about whatever to get hilary elected.

[Baby Snooks]

33. And where was Bill Clinton?

So where was Bill Clinton? Admiral McCain could have kept his son out of harm's way. And didn't. And Admiral McCain's son didn't ask him to.

Gloria Steinhem assumes a lot. Mainly that the women of America will rise up and vote for Hillary Clinton. Just because.

Someone needs to explain to Gloria Steinhem that so far, that just hasn't happened. Mainly because of Bill Clinton. There is a mixed message with Hillary Clinton with regard to Bill Clinton. It is not okay to abuse women. It is not okay to excuse his doing so. Even if Gloria Steinhem thinks it is. Which apparently she does.

Tammy Wynette was more liberated than Hillary Clinton or Gloria Steinhem in the end. She did not allow a man to abuse her. She started singing "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" very quickly.

[Avalux]

4. I agree with her. Being a POW does not qualify a person to be president.

I've said this many times to people I know. I admit it took courage to get through the ordeal, but it certainly doesn't prepare someone to be president. If anything, it damaged McCain emotionally and I'm sure he suffers from PTSD. Do we really want a president who has a flashback, flies into a rage and pushes the red button?

Also, being a POW doesn't make someone a decent person. Bad people were POWs too.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Dumb.

[theboss]

6. The more troubling part is the idea that we would attack and belittle a female POW

I have no idea where she is going with that thought.

[Iris]

34. Stick around here.

The blame the victim mentality when it comes to women is alive and well around here.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. Hillary must now "denounce and reject" Steinem for mocking McCain's torture ordeal

or else that means Hillary is pro torture.

Denounce and reject, Hillary!

[Lucinda]

17. She already did.

[theboss]

9. It is rather interesting that Obama seems to have made a complete break with the Civil Rights Era

While Hillary's campaign is still very much in line with the 60s Era Feminism.

You don't see Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton on the stage with Obama. And the legislative stalwarts from that era - John Lewis among them - were at least originally behind Hillary. Obama appears to have made a conscious decision to say, "A new leader is here."

Hillary, on the other hand, still seems attached to a view of "Feminism" that seems a generation behind the times. I've seen Gloria Steinam in the news more in the last month than I have in the previous ten years.

[CTyankee]

14. I'm from that "60s era Feminism" and I would never say what she said.

Somewhere Gloria has gotten off the track. Saying stuff like this just makes Dems look bad.

Why oh why do we keep asking for trouble?

[Hepburn]

21. No fucking shit....

...I, too, am a 60s libber and there is NO way even maybe I would mock someone having been a POW. No way...!

[martymar64]

45. Steinem must've been too busy being rich to care

At least til rich lady Hillary came around. It's purely sticking up for your "investor class" friends. And steinam has saad nothing about hillary's support of cluster bombs that kill children disproportionately. Some feminist, Feh.
Hillary, RELEASE YOUR TAX RETURNS.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. Whether or not it's true, it was impolitic.

This is a political contest, after all.

[Kaylee]

13. Ouch! That won't play well.

[NorthernSpy]

15. Gloria Steinem does not support Barack Obama.

Thank God for that!


:rofl:

[THUNDER HANDS]

18. Gloria Steinem, Hillary's Al Sharpton

[NorthernSpy]

22. woohoo -- Hillary gets old fashioned girl power in Texas!

Remember those articles over the weekend?

Funny how this little bit didn't make it into the original write-ups. Poor Hillary. She gets all the worst press.


:eyes:

[karynnj]

31. Girl power - is she opting for scary spice with that ad?

[Hepburn]

19. Oh, brother......what a totally WRONG thing to do!

I cannot stand McCain...but to mock what he went through as a POW??? Holy shit, GS must have lost her fucking mind. That is so totally out of line that it is sick! Afer 2004 and all the bullshit about destroying Kerry's service to our country, sorry...but this just makes me ill even if it is being done to a TOTAL Pubbie asshole like McCain.

JMHO

[nomorewhopper]

30. i am a dem and i am very impressed with mccain's pow story

in life, we encounter great moments of change when we are all able to capitalize on a different course of action than before.

for hillary, it was her war vote. seemingly a good idea at the time, yet it came back to bite her.

for obama, it was his speech at the boston convention, when he burst onto the national scene.

for mccain, it was during his service and pow status. this man was able to secure his own release yet decided to stay as a prisoner so that he avoided special treatment. this is an incredible personal sacrifice, and i wonder how many of us would be strong enough to do the same. is it qualification to become president? no. but it's certainly honorable and very impressive. gwb weaseled his way out of service to our country. mccain took the dismal opportunity and made the most of his time there, gave it his all. and that IS important, especially to the families and friends of our young servicemen. having somebody in the WH who understands the true horror of war is a bigtime positive.

i'm not going to vote for mccain, but to trash his military service is kind of ridiculous.

remember people, it's not the soldiers who are wrong, its the administrators who are pushing this war crap down our throats.

[Independent-Voter]

23. Another boomer feminist making a fool out of herself.

I'm ready for ladies like my niece to take over from this washed-out folks. Steinem hasn't been relevant for at least 15 years.

[Iris]

36. So, what's stopping her?

I'd love to see that too, but many of today's young women seem more interested in looking sexy on facebook and climbing the corporate ladder than they do about making things better for people in general.

[Independent-Voter]

42. Nothing. She's a freshman in college and already kicking ass. I'm proud of her.

Member of a couple volunteer orgs, full-ride scholly, musician, etc. She's the shit as far as I'm concerned.

[zulchzulu]

25. Gloria...time for a vacation somewhere far, far, far away for a year

That is just plain stupid.

[Tatiana]

38. Did she say this in TEXAS of all places? Ft. Hood... hello? Lots of military folk there.

Well, at least Clinton disavowed those comments. But this looks awful.

[Arkansas Granny]

39. Yes. Regardless what her feelings are on John McCain's

qualifications, it is bad form to mock him on his ordeal as a POW. I don't agree with his politics, but I respect him for his service to his country. After seeing how Kerry got swiftboated, I'm surprised that anyone claiming to be a Democrat would speak disparagingly of any veterans service.

[catgirl]

43. Hillary was trained to kill animals though

She proudly pointed out her hunting outings while campaigning in WI (I believe?),
thinking it would pull in votes.