The Huffington Post makes a pretty awesome point about President-Elect Obama’s National Security team. They noticed that 4 out of 6 of the folks Obama named to his National Security team could barely reach the microphone. Being that I’m a towering 5′1 it’s a point that I appreciate. Short people power!  It’s somehow great to think that the folks who are hopefully going to help give us a better standing in the world are all about my height.  Someohow it makes me feel powerful too!

Check out the slideshow at the Huffington Post for more evidence and takepart to learn more about the team - other than their height

Give a watch to Obama’s press conference and takepart with Change.gov to keep up to date on Obama’s team.

I’ve been thinking about Michelle Obama’s butt lately.

Well, sort of.

Last week I blogged about the recent Salon.com article by Erin Aubrey Kaplan about Michelle Obama’s booty.  Focusing on this Princeton-and-Harvard grad’s rear attributes offended me, and so I wrote:

Objectifying the female half of the soon-to-be-most-prominent black couple in American culture so uncomfortable in a lot of ways.  I point you towards Amanda Fortini’s wonderfully thorough piece in New York magazine about female stereotypes this past election, specifically “Bitch” Clinton and “Ditz” Palin. She touches on how Michelle struggled with the “angry black woman” stereotype earlier in the campaign, before becoming an easier-to-swallow “mom-in-chief” — cute daughters and puppy in tow.  What will happen if we turn our attention to her bootylicious ass?

Other writers agreed with me.  Dodai from Jezebel asked “Are we really having a conversation about the future First Lady’s bottom?”  Even Salon.com’s feminist blog, Broadsheet, questioned whether the article was a good idea. (Disclosure: I’ve blogged for Broadsheet before.)  But then an interesting thing happened.  But as we chattered away, a chorus of voices came to Erin Aubrey Kaplan’s defense.

Actually, I sense they had more appreciation for Michelle Obama than they did for Kaplan, but nevertheless, these women thought we should *not* not have discussions about the First Lady’s booty.  I honestly been oblivious to Michelle’s body type, but some women see the President elect’s wife — with her height and curves — as a breath of fresh air from the Mamie Eisenhower mold.  Finally a woman with curves!  Who isn’t a size 2!  Who looks like she’s been told to diet in her life!  Michelle Obama, it seems, is being imbued with the power to change the tone of body image discussion in America away from Eurocentric thinness.

Thank God someone’s talking about her normal-sized butt, these women said.  How empowering for us real women. Where I saw rudeness, they say a new, high visability role model.  And where I saw racial stereotyping, they saw racial pride.

I’m from a rather buttoned-up, WASPy part of Connecticut, where it’s “impolite” to talk about a person’s body, let alone a public figure’s body, this way.  I would freak out of someone talked about MY booty, for example.  Which is not to say that other people in other parts of the country are impolite, but to point out that different people have ingrained perspectives. My knee-jerk reaction to the Michelle Obama story was to think it was tasteless, because that’s how I’d feel if it happened to me.

I still mostly feel the same way about Kaplan’s article as I did when it first came out.  But my eyes have been opened a bit more and I know realize that talking about Michelle Obama’s butt…well, it might just be liberating.

Hillary Rodham Clinton will accept the post of Secretary of State in the incoming Obama Administration, reports the New York Times. The Junior Senator from New York will give up her seat in the United States Senate in order to take the position. A confidant of Mrs. Clinton told the New York TImes she had decided to head the State Department after ongoing discussions with President-elect Obama regarding her role within the administration and his foreign policy objectives over the next fours years.

I had my doubts about this appointment, but now that it seems all but set in stone - unless The Times has it all wrong and is forced to eat humble pie, which is always fun too - it’s time to wish Senator Clinton congratulations on her new job. She’s no doubt worked incredibly hard to get where she is today and put up with a lot of crap, so it’s nice to see all that effort pay off.

I shook hands with Hillary Clinton during a campaign stop on her husband’s 1992 Presidential campaign in York, Pennsylvania. I’ve met other politicians before and since, but none with the energy and enthusiasm of Hillary Clinton. The woman grabbed at my hand as though it had food in it and she was starving, and she did the same thing all the way up a line of hundreds of people. Let’s hope she brings that same kind of gusto to the State Department.

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With all the rumors swirling about President-elect Barack Obama offering Hillary Clinton the job of Secretary of State, I’m left with one question: Why? There is no doubt in my mind that Senator Clinton is a hardworking, highly intelligent and highly driven individual, however her taking over the “first amongst equals” position in the new cabinet seems to have some glaring drawbacks.

For starters, Hillary Clinton is a drama magnet when it comes to press coverage. This is not necessarily her fault. The press tends to construct its own narratives regarding public officials which then in turn are very difficult to break as time goes on and more examples of the pre-existing, self-fulfilling storyline are piled on. However, the very nature of the bitter, former rivalry between Senator Clinton and President-elect Obama during the primaries is highly dramatic in and of itself and the drama-tinged press coverage of their working relationship could prove a major distraction for an administration that needs to succeed during a very difficult time in American history.

Secondly, I simply don’t believe Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person for this job. While the former First Lady has unquestionably polished her foreign policy credentials during her time in the United States Senate to the point where she can be considered competent in the area, there are still much more experienced people hovering around the Democratic foreign policy establishment, most notably Richard Holbrooke and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. We’re talking about the difference between above average (Clinton) & outstanding (Holbrooke or Richardson) as far as the respective depths of knowledge and personal relationships with diplomats around the globe are concerned with these candidates. As trying as the coming years will be in regards to foreign policy, it stands to reason that the incoming administration should choose the absolutely most qualified individual available to shepherd our Department of State.

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Incensed by those Hillary Clinton nutcrackers, the “Iron my shirt!” catcall, and Tucker Carlson’s claims that he involuntarily crosses his legs whenever he hears the junior senator from New York speak?

Still pissed-off when men gushed all over themselves that the Alaskan governor was one hot babe — and meanwhile, her handlers kept her from answering questions from the media?

Then Amanda Fortini’s recent New York magazine article, “How the Year of the Woman Actually Set Women Back,” is a must-read.

Fortini’s thesis is that feminists might have been concerned by what the media did to Hillary “Bitches Get Stuff Done” Clinton, but it proved to be nothing compared to the ditz-ification of Sarah “I’ll Have To Get Back to You on That One, Katie” Palin. It’s bad to be bitchy, but it’s worse to be an incompetent boob.  “Among the darker revelations of this election is the fact that the vice-grip of female stereotypes remains suffocatingly tight,” Fortini writes.

The author argues that how close Palin came to shattering that ultimate glass ceiling, she set women back  — women in power, especially — with her “dim beauty queen” ways, as “the kind of woman who floats along on a little luck and the favor of men.”  In other words, too ditzy to be Commander-In-Chief.

[Palin's] blithe ignorance extended from foreign policy to the symbolic value of her candidacy. By stepping into the spotlight unprepared, Palin reinforced some of the most damaging and sexist ideas of all: that women are undisciplined in their thinking; that we are distracted by domestic concerns or frivolous pursuits like shopping; that we are not smart enough, or not serious enough, for the important jobs.

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Yes, yes they did.

(Disclosure: I’ve written for Salon.com’s Broadsheet blog in the past.)

The author, a black woman named Erin Aubry Kaplan, begins:

…what really thrills me, what really feels liberating in a very personal way, is the official new prominence of Michelle Obama. Barack’s better half not only has stature but is statuesque. She has corruscating intelligence, beauty, style and — drumroll, please — a butt. (Yes, you read that right: I’m going to talk about the first lady’s butt.)

Objectifying the female half of the soon-to-be-most-prominent black couple in American culture so uncomfortable in a lot of ways.  I point you towards Amanda Fortini’s wonderfully thorough piece in New York magazine about female stereotypes this past election, specifically “Bitch” Clinton and “Ditz” Palin. She touches on how Michelle struggled with the “angry black woman” stereotype earlier in the campaign, before becoming an easier-to-swallow “mom-in-chief” — cute daughters and puppy in tow.  What will happen if we turn our attention to her bootylicious ass?

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So a lot of people have a lot of opinions about the idea of Hillary Clinton as the new Secretary of State. Christopher Hitchens and Chris Matthews have some pretty strong ones:

Both sides make some good points, although I can’t help but agree with Hitchens on a lot of points. I don’t want a status quo White House, although Obama has made it pretty clear that he wants to fill his administration with friends and foes alike.  He’s doing in Lincoln style. 

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Turns out all the campaigning Hillary Clinton did for Obama (I saw her in Ohio!) might have paid off, officials today said that Obama offered her the Secretary of State position.

What does Hillary have to say about all of this?  Here is her comment (which of course says not much at all) made at a transit industry conference in New York today:

I have to start by saying I’m very happy there is so much press attention and interest in transit, especially guesses about my own. But on the off chance that you’re not here for this important issue, and are here for some other reason, let me just say that I’m not going to speculate or address anything about the president-elect’s incoming administration, and I’m going to respect his process, and any inquiries should be directed to his transition team.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see (blah blah blah).  What do you think about Hillary as the Secretary of State?

While you mull it over, takepart with the Clinton Foundation.

*photo from Barack Obama’s flickr stream (creative commons)

Early this morning I joined the Obama campaign at the Hyatt in Century City to make calls to swing states. It was glorious to speak with inspired and excited folks from Virginia. Here are some pics from the morning! (psst! Donald Sutherland was sitting in the front of the room!)

The call room

Blogger Sarah Newman

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