political campaigns

Cougars, move over. Here comes Alpha Kitty.

I’ve been a fan of the White House Project’s partnership with CosmoGirl over the years. I’m all for mixing politics and pop culture, and meeting teens where they are. (And do check out the latest poll from this partnership, on whether the next generation is ready for a female president, and whether they’d be more likely to vote if a woman was on the presidential ballot,via Women’s e-News. The answers, not suprisingly, are yes and yes.)

So I just learned that CosmoGirl’s founding editor-in-chief, Atoosa Rubenstein, who I met once at a Barnard function (and was impressed by, in spite of being underwhelmed by the magazine) has now left Seventeen to pursue other ventures–and is currently circulating a proposal for a book called Alpha Kitty: I Made My Dreams Come True, Despite What the Haters Say, So Can You. Says the New York Times, “Ms. Rubenstein’s alpha-kitty philosophy is the electronic version of the girl-power gospel that Ms. Rubenstein’s mentor, Helen Gurley Brown, advocated at Cosmopolitan.” Rubenstein describes an alpha kitty as a fearless, fashion-conscious woman, who pursue what she wants. Go girl. I just hope that Atoosa keeps the politics somewhere in her prowl.

(Thanks, Mom, for the heads up.)

I know I’m starting to sound like a Hillary supporter over here. Full disclosure: I am still undecided, as my feelings keep evolving. But I’m just riveted by the spectacle of her running. Not merely *her* running, but the fact that a viable woman candidate is.

So check this out: According to the most recent Newsweek poll (61,093 responses, 51% believe American voters would elect a woman to the White House in 2008, while 41% do not (8.4% aren’t sure). Everyone I talk to around this town these days (and granted, I’m talking about a rarefied urban island) seems to feel a woman can’t win. The Newsweek poll is (as they themselves note) not scientific. Has anyone seen a recent one that is?

My blogger friends in Chicago are asking folks to please visit the new Planned Parenthood Aurora blog and comment. The blog should be a place where pro-choicers can gather to discuss the situation not just in Aurora but around this country. Please join me in passing on the blog to friends & other pro-choice allies. Psst – pass it on!

OMG – if the video below doesn’t work (trying to figure it out…) go here and hit play! Hit it!

O happy day! At last, an article on Hillary that focuses on our problem, not hers. Well, actually, their problem — “them” being older, affluent, highly educated women. Younger women seem to be supporting Hillary in droves.

The October issue of More magazine has a great dialogue between veteran political analyst extraordinaire Donna Brazile and Deborah Tannen, linguistics prof and author most recently of You’re Wearing THAT? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation. The two pundits speculate on the age gap that’s emerged among Hillary’s female supporters (hint: younger women, women with no more than a high school education, working class women, and women of color support her in droves) and ask an important question: Just what is it that ambivalent, older women — women who say they want to want Hillary but don’t — want to hear?

I remember the comment from a panelist at a political session during BlogHer — that women Hillary’s age feel lesser because Hillary “has it all.” (I repeat my reaction: with all due respect, barf.) Brazile says that the older contingent are less excited than the younger gals are about the mere fact that a woman is running. Tannen adds that we always expect more of Mom than we do of Dad. Is that why W has gotten away with what he has? But I digress. Age gap aside, Brazile and Tannen very smartly sound off on the ridiculous double standards imposed on female leaders by men and women alike. This is indeed my own answer whenever I get the question during my readings about what I’ve come to casually refer to as “Hillary Hate.” There is only one of her, and we expect her to be so much.

I’d love to hear others’ thoughts, though, about Hill and the age gap. Do tell. Why are younger women seemingly more prone to support her so far, while older affluents are hedging their bets? (And for more, check out TAP’s recent article on it all, here.)

A must-read over at Brain, Child magazine: In “Soccer Mom Loses Her Kick,” Tracy Mayor asks whether, starved after decades on the sound-bite diet, mothers might get some meat from politicians in ’08.

Think moms are apolitical? Think again. Check out these posts from one of my favorite political moms, here, here, and here. And definitely, always, stop by Pundit Mom, MomsRising, and the Mothers Movement Online, too.

(Thanks to Steve Mintz, Stephanie Coontz, and Veronica Arreola for the heads up!)

And speaking of heros, Naomi Wolf has a new book out called The End of America: Letter to a Young Patriot. As Naomi recently asked on HuffPo, “Is it still America if the president ignores or deliberately eviscerates the Constitution?”

Along with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, MoveOn.org, and
True Majority, Naomi is spearheading a new grassroots and grasstops democracy movement, the American Freedom Campaign, and has asked us all — as well as each of the presidential candidates — to sign the American Freedom Pledge. The pledge reads:

“We are Americans, and in our America we do not torture, we do not imprison people without charge or legal remedy, we do not tap people’s phones and emails without a court order, and above all we do not give any President unchecked power.

“I pledge to fight to protect and defend the Constitution from assault by any President.”

Now if a candidate can’t sign that, then I for one sure as hell can’t vote for her (ok, ok, or him). I heard on MSNBC the other day while on the treadmill that the campaign has already had 20,000 hits. Go Naomi, and go America. The America that believes in the Constitution, that is.

Join us in signing the pledge!