I continue to be astounded at the vitriol aimed at the Clintons by Democrats.  You'd think they were the spawn of the devil, the worst thing ever to come into the Democratic Party.  You don't dare speak up in their defense or then you are personally attacked--I was told by these people that I'm stupid (I have a PhD in American history) and racist because I support HIllary.  Really makes me start gravitating toward Obama, y'know.

Call me jaded. Call me a conspiracy-theorist. But I see absolutely no use for these people suddenly finding sexism hurled at Hillary. Where were they?

But of course, if sometimes did. In very calculated ways. One of the most obvious examples being Jesse Jackson Jr's (an official spokesman of the campaign) outrageous statement after the NH primary that Hillary Clinton "did not cry for Katrina."

This was a tactical, consultant shaped appeal to both misogyny and racial resentment. A masterly bit of politics -- playing on gender prejudice and race baiting all in one breath.

Those who don't see what was at play in that statement from the campaign, and others like it, most likely don't do so because they share the prejudices and resentments that were so masterfully and intentionally being appealed to. Or, they are closing their eyes and ears to reality because it would diminish their notions of their candidate's purity and transcendence of politics.

But, whether Obama is personally a misogynist or not, is beside the point; there is no denying that his campaign played to those who are -- and willingly benefitted, without protest or condemnation, from the sexism displayed by his supporters in the media and online.

Is that a reason to vote for McCain? No. Nor is it necessarily a reason to vote against Obama -- although I am personally morally repulsed by his campaign's tactical exploitation of both gender and racial (and to a lesser extent class, as well as generational) insecurities, prejudices, divisions, resentments and fears. As repulsed as I have long been by the Republican party's use of such tactics.

I simply cannot excuse in Democrats what I have for decades denounced in the other party.

But there is a bigger reason why all of this is important; the revelation of the depth and breadth of misogyny in the Democratic party, and the willingness of a major contender for party leadership to exploit it, goes a long way in explaining the lack of progress, and on some issues, back sliding, women have seen on issues of vital importance to them -- issues of both political and economic equality -- over the last 30 years.

In other words, misogyny in both parties has had and continues to have consequences, real political and economic consequences, for women and the often especially vulnerable others (the young, the elderly) who depend on their support and care. Consequences that many of us believe the nation simply can no longer afford to let stand.

Given that, the important question for people like me isn't party "unity." It has now become something much larger; how do we get these vital issues addressed outside of, regardless of, in spite of, the obstacles to doing so that BOTH parties represent.

Obama has promised to address these issues of course. But so has every other Democrat who has run at any level over the last 30 years. Yet, they haven't done so.

What this campaign has revealed is how empty that rhetoric is and has always been. The Obama campaign, unfortunately, because it was the first to be seriously challenged by a woman, provided an opportunity that earlier campaigns did not -- the opportunity to see the vast chasm between the party's rhetoric and its actual view of and concern for women and their issues.