Go Read It: A Girl Named Stanley

Ellen Goodman makes a great suggestion to Senator Obama--that he start having a "gender conversation" with voting women of America who would otherwise support Senator Clinton.

I agree. Put it right out there on the kitchen table: let Obama show off what he knows about women's issues. Skeptical women may yet wonder, will he need spoon-feeding (so unattractive in anyone over the age of toddlerdom or younger than ninety-nine), or does he "get it" on his own? Support can mean 'not being an impediment', or support can mean 'taking proactive measures to ensure opportunities are yours.' Why is opposing "dumb wars" a women's issue (or a Latino issue too, for that matter)? How is the foreclosure crisis or the credit crunch a women's issue? The SCOTUS--a women's issue?

We don't need the demographic parsing of the presumed interests of every last possible constituency--instead, I'm guessing voting women who have yet to support Obama really like Clinton's specificity and detail, and would need to see more of that from the nominee before they can truly get aboard the Obamarama train.

For Goodman, a starting point would be to weave his policy insights with having been son to an independent-minded, self-reliant, resourceful and loving single-mom: Stanley Ann Dunham.

Nancy Barry, who was the head of Women's World Banking and knew Ann well, has been bewildered by the way she's been reduced to a stick figure.

"She was stubborn, hard core, decisive, convincing, deep-thinking, rigorous in her analysis," says Ms. Barry. "When I hear Barack talking about how we are not red states, blue states but the United States, I think he gets that from his mother. The other core capability he gets from her is the desire for healing."

For me, as an Obama supporter, I'd like to see him start connecting the dots for Americans so we understand both his reframing of the problems and the fixes he believes are the right ones. We're living in a complicated world where the price of corn in Iowa can impact the price of wheat elsewhere; for too long we've had an intellectual lightweight at the helm **cough Bush! cough** whose grasp of the hazy imaginary geopolitical alignments of yesteryear is weak, not to mention the multipolar, reality-based world we live in now.

Part of what Obama's task in the general election will be to convince us he's got the better grip on reality. (It should be easy, given that McCain seems to be living on Planet Bush Continued.) He's laid out a series of compelling proposed programs and policy issues.

What he hasn't done as much of is shown how seemingly broad "universal" issues have particular impact on women that may differ in emphasis or nuance. And the example for this approach lies in his mother's work, not her life story: she helped third world women access micro-credit formerly aimed at male entrepreneurs--studies revealed it was the women who thrived and lifted their families out of poverty when given a chance to start a small business.

Clinton is absolutely right to say that policy has a gendered effect in its implementation. Where she goes wrong is when she looks at it from the other end of the telescope: every woman is affected in the same way and has the same interests when confronted with a policy--no. It's time for Obama to make explicit how he understands how his policies speak to the needs of working and middle class women, whether by promoting responsible fathering and creating more skilled labor jobs, or his plan to protect and educate consumers on lending practices and assist with foreclosure relief, to take two examples.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k.

Comments

[Glennia]

I agree. He can start with the MOMocrats.

[Lawyer Mama]

I completely agree. Fabulous post, Cyn. I want to hear this stuff too.

Although when you mentioned "spoon feeding" of the elderly, I couldn't help but think of McCain. Teehee!

[jaelithe]

Yes, Senator Obama: Feel free to write a tribute to your mother here on MOMocrats! We'd love it.

(Sometimes I wonder if part of the reason he doesn't talk about her so much is because it's hard for him, given that cancer took her at such an early age. It breaks my heart that she never got to witness her son running for President. I'm sure it breaks his heart, too.)

[PunditMom]

This has been one of my hesitancies about Obama, specifically when it comes to "women's" issues -- I am smart enough to connect the dots, but if he wants my vote, he's got to start doing that, too. I am worried he will not be as committed to issues that impact families -- or to the women's issue of who's going to get appointed to the Supreme Court -- so he'd better start talking.