Here is Hillary's Op-Ed in today's NY Daily News: Why I Continue To Run

And I recommend TalkLeft as a good blog to read covering the Clinton campaign from a rational perspective, particularly this post.

And I linked to a great post by Erica Barnett that cites dozens of examples of media misogyny in this post on my personal blog.

Finally, Morra Aarons-Mele over at BlogHer has written a couple of great posts lately about how everyone seems much freer to talk about sexism now that they've counted Hillary out and about how some Obama supporters are making the strategic error of being so vicious they are turning off not only Hillary supporters, but those that aren't as rabidly pro-Obama as they are. In my digerati-laden world I can tell you this last one is true. In the rarified halls of twitter, for example, Obama supporters who are normally rational geeks are behaving like schoolyard bullies.

If/When Clinton loses it will be by a slim margin and after having accomplished some pretty amazing vote tallies in some pretty important states.

I have to agree with the folks who are very worried about the Obama camp under-valuing that and underestimating the passion of Clinton supporters. Everyone talks about the risk of alienating Obama voters should the nomination somehow manage to land in Clinton's lap.

We should also be talking about the risk of alienating Clinton voters should anyone act too dismissive of what she and her supporters accomplished.

I truly believe that most Democrats who turned out for the primaries will, in the end, turn out in the general election and stay Democratic. Especially once they get to know McCain a little better, and as more than that old guy with a sense of humor who goes on the Daily Show.

But why risk it? Eyes on the prize, people. As Hillary says in her Op-ed:

But no matter what happens in this primary, I am committed to unifying this party. Ultimately, what Sen. Obama and I share is so much greater than our differences. And I know that if we come together, as a party and a people, there is no challenge we cannot meet, no barrier we cannot break and no dream we cannot realize.

Can't believe I forgot to post this here last week.

Starting 9 months ago my company, BlogHer, worked with our community of thousands of (mostly) women bloggers to develop a series of non-partisan, policy questions that wanted every presidential candidate to answer if they wanted to earn our votes. We called it the BlogHer Voter Manifesto.

And for 6 months, none of them bit.

We were offering to give them the questions in advance, hell they're public on our web site. We were offering to send a BlogHer rep from their own side of the aisle to do the interview and ask the questions. We were offering to show up wherever and whenever the candidates preferred.

Not a bite.

Some of them offered spouses. Or asked us to promote their online site sections for women. We got a little discouraged, but we asked our community...well, would that be enough. Should we stop there. The community overwhelmingly said "wouldn't mind hearing from spouses, but we definitely do NOT want you to stop badgering the candidates to answer our questions."

So, we didn't. we kept reminding the ever-dwindling number of candidates that our community now reaches over 9 million unique visitors a month. That's a lot. By anyone's measure.

Finally, and amazingly, the Obama campaign agreed, and one week ago today we posted the video of that one-on-one video of a BlogHer political editor interviewing Obama in Roseburg, Oregon.

You can also check it out directly here:



Power to the people! It was bloggers of every ideological stripe, and most of them NOT political bloggers and political junkies, who helped shape these questions.

Some have said the questions are too simple, not visionary enough. But I think it's a pretty clear indication that regular people just want to know what the candidates are going to DO about what they say they believe in,

We hope McCain and Clinton will soon follow.

In the meantime we also did get an exclusive audio itnerview with McCain campaign chair (and former HP CEO) Carly Fiorina, which you can listen to here.

People are just a bit too squeamish about "negative" campaigning and "attack" ads for my taste Seriously, I think everyone needs to get a grip.

I forget now if it was on Twitter, or on BlogHer, or on someone's own blog, but I recently saw a discussion where someone was incensed over what she perceived to be Hillary Clinton's negative campaigning.

And we all know there are lots of discussions going on about how Hillary should drop out because it will just perpetuate all of this fighting between the Democrats instead of focusing on the real issue of beating John McCain.

I myself have been extremely annoyed by the rather arrogant and, I think, subtly sexist tone Obama is taking every chance he gets.

But when I think more about it I really have to say: we all need to check our overreactions at the door and ask ourselves: Exactly what horrible, terrible, vicious attacking are we talking about?

That "phone call at 3AM" Hillary ad that has some people so steamed? Harmless. Doesn't say a word about her opponent. Harps on her experience as she's been doing for months and months.

Obama's comments about Hillary getting "desperate" and lashing out when she's "feeling down". Ok, I agree with Jon Stewart, seems like he'd be a dickish boyfriend, but this is an old political put-down...think Ronald Reagan and "There You Go Again."

Both of them having their staffs get worked up in a lather over comments from various opposing campaign workers and supporters? Getting campaign workers and supporters to step down, resign, back off, apologize?

I don't know. They're both doing it. And none of it, frankly, seems incredibly awful.

It's OK for Hillary to question Obama's experience, and for her to imply that he's all hat, no cattle. All inspiration, no perspiration. Even if you think it sounds a bit patronizing. Yes, I do think she'd be taking the same tack with anyone else who was 15 years her junior and had a similar resume.

It's OK for Obama to question Hillary's electability, "establishment" position and reputation as a polarizing figure. Even if you think he's basically spouting Republican talking points. He'd be talking about change no matter who he was running against.

I actually do not buy the media talking point that this race has been or is getting ever-more nasty. It actually hasn't...at least as far as I've paid attention. And for all you political junkies out there who are obsessed with every single detail of this race: I may pay less attention than you do, but I pay closer attention than about 99% of the electorate. So I'm betting that if I haven't noticed any actual egregious nastiness, then most other voters haven't either.

We don't need to perpetuate this Republican and Mainstream Media talking point that having Obama and Hillary continue to run is bad for the Democrats. I don't buy it.

We do need to stop expecting this to be a tea party and let the candidates make their damn case.

So, let me have it. What are the examples of campaigning that you think are incredibly nasty? Educate me.

Cross-posted at my personal blog