Letters to the Editor

Voting for Obama does not make supporters sexist

I was outraged by Professor Maack’s “Clinton brings capability and strength, deserves more credit” (Feb. 4). As a female supporter of Sen. Barack Obama, I think her claim that the Los Angeles Times endorsement was “part of a familiar pattern of how women are treated” is completely unfounded. Is Joan Baez, a lifelong champion of female emancipation who recently endorsed Obama, sexist? Is Oprah? For that matter, am I? Certainly not, and to suggest otherwise, as Professor Maack does, is insolent and offensive.

I cannot wait to have a female president. But as Oprah Winfrey pointed out on Sunday, women are free to vote for any candidate, even if there is a qualified female candidate ““ as are men, including male journalists.

I would not want Hillary endorsed simply for being a female any more than I’d want Obama denied for being male. That is feminism at its best.

There are many reasons why I, and many other women, support Sen. Obama over Sen. Clinton: his opposition to the Iraq war, his stance of non-conditional diplomacy with Iran, his principles that reject politics guided by opinion polls and triangulation, his potential to unify the Democratic Party as well as the entire country, his lack of corporate entanglements, his ability to mobilize our generation to become involved in politics and public life.

Sen. Clinton’s gender has nothing to do with my decision to vote, or not to vote for her. If it is any consolation, I wouldn’t vote for Condi Rice either.

Ashley Tucker

Fourth-year, political science, English, Afro-American studies

President, Bruin Feminists for Equality

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