Sexism, or just typical treatment of a Democratic candidate?

To quote a commenter on another blog who makes a very salient point:

Just because a woman thinks something is sexist doesn't mean it is. Just because a woman is treated unfairly, doesn't mean that unfair treatment is sexist. Hillary Clinton got treated poorly at times in this campaign, just like John Kerry was treated poorly in 2004 or Al Gore in 2000 or Bob Dole in 1996 or George H. W. Bush in 1992.

Hillary Clinton was a 30 points ahead front runner who got beat, and because she refused to drop out, her defeat was stretched out over several months. Anyone in that situation is going to get a lot of crap dumped on them. Did sexism play some role in that crap? Sure. But knee jerk victimization that exaggerates the role sexism played isn't really going to benefit feminists, women or men.

We are running against the media this November. The media is owned by Republicans, and will dump a ton of crap on Obama before it's all said and done just like they dumped a ton of crap on Hillary Now, granted, Hillary also got some crap from Democrats. Given that much of Hillary's support in late primaries was Republicans crossing over and voting for her because "I don't want a nigger running for President" and she pandered to those people shamelessly, she did get dumped on by Democrats too -- but that's what happens when you run as a Republican in a Democratic race, regardless of your sex, just look at how Democrats dump on Joe Lieberman if you don't believe me. Democrats don't dump on Joe Lieberman because of anti-semitism, they dump on him because he sucks up to Republicans.

But anyhow, back to the point: As the front-runner, Hillary got dumped on because the media would have dumped on any Democratic front-runner. Unfortunately she and her supporters didn't handle it in some way that would diffuse all the crap that was being dumped on her, all they did was whine and whine about how it was "sexist", all of which whining made her look weak, which made her look like a victim rather than a winner. That's not helpful in winning elections. But now all that crap is going to be laser-focused on Obama. Whining about it being "racist" is not going to do Obama any good either. All it'll do is make Obama look like a victim, which isn't the Democratic message. Remember, while the content of some of the crap is going to be blatantly racist, that's not why he's going to be getting the crap. He's going to be getting the crap because he is a Democrat running against the candidate preferred by our ruling elite. We better remember that and re-focus on the Democratic message every time the media tries their crap (which for better or for worse is "change" this election), or we can say hello to President McCain and probably the end of the Republic. Who, then, shall be our Julius Caesar? I think I'd prefer to wait for the next generation to find out, rather than find out first-hand in the fallout from electing a President who will continue leading the nation into utter economic disaster...

-- Badtux the Practical Penguin