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Is this what strong women do these days?

In yesterday’s Guardian Jill Abramson asked,

“Are we seeing signs of a Democratic wave in the primaries?”

The article optimistically discussed the Democrats’ chances in various upcoming US electoral contests, including the next presidential election:

Though winning control of the House of Representatives in 2018 is their focus, my Democratic sources say that there are already 20 credible presidential challengers giving serious thought to opposing Donald Trump in 2020. The list, unsurprisingly, includes a raft of Democratic senators, and, perhaps surprisingly, at least three strong women, New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren.

My eyes had been glazing over at the mention of “strong women”. Then I read this:

It’s easy to look at what’s happening in Washington DC and despair. That’s why I carry a little plastic Obama doll in my purse. I pull him out every now and then to remind myself that the United States had a progressive, African American president until very recently. Some people find this strange, but you have to take comfort where you can find it in Donald Trump’s America.

Ms Abramson is “a political columnist for the Guardian. She is visiting lecturer in the English department at Harvard University and a journalist who spent the last 17 years in the most senior editorial positions at the New York Times, where she was the first woman to serve as Washington bureau chief, managing editor and executive editor.”

Something of a prototypical strong woman herself, then. And if she wants to carry around a little plastic Obama doll to hug when she feels sad, far be it from me to deny her the right. Though I do not believe I ever went through the phase of needing to have a “blanky” or other “comfort object” constantly around me, many toddlers do. I am sure the right to keep and bear blankies is in the penumbra of the US Constitution somewhere. It just… somehow… is not what I expected of a former bureau chief, managing editor and executive editor. (Visiting Lecturer in the Harvard English department, maybe.) Is that what strong American women (who by definition are all Democrats) do these days? Maybe I’m just out of touch. Maybe it is accepted that among the accoutrements of the modern strong woman is a doll representing a male authority figure that she can clutch for comfort. Maybe New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren all have little plastic Obamas that help them cope with their fears, and that’s OK.

33 comments to Is this what strong women do these days?

  • APL

    According to Wiki a note worthy thing about Jill Abramson is that zhe ..

    ” has four tattoos on her body that she describes as “telling the story of me.” ”

    Deffo a strong independent woman, and not a nutcase.

  • Mr Ed

    Is this Obama doll a ‘talkie’? Pull a string and it proclaims ‘Yes we can!’ or ‘If you like your doctor…’ and ‘57 States’. Just looking for a gap in the market.

  • Lee Moore

    Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar

    This lady never figured on my radar until I saw a talk on Youtube by a Minnesotan businessman who had been outrageously stitched up by a corrupt prosecution, the point of which seemed to be “we need the scalp of a rich businessman to make a good political show; here’s a rich businessman; let’s scalp him.” The investigation and prosecution took ages. The jury took about twenty minutes to laugh the charges out of court. Along the way this fellow (whose name escapes me) contacted his Senator – La Klobuchar – to ask her to look into the prosecutorial abuses he had detailed. She declined.

    It turned out that he had known her at college (not that way, no.) He was underimpressed by her efforts on behalf of her constituent. In his talk he produced the excellent line :

    “Amy Klobuchar is popular in Minnesota. 60% of voters like her. The other 40% know her.”

  • Natalie Solent (Essex)

    Mr Ed,

    You jest, but…

  • ap

    Lee,
    The man’s name was Howard Root. His book was Cardiac Arrest: Five Heart-Stopping Years On the Fed’s Hit List, which was interesting to listen to, but I doubt I’d bother reading.

  • Mr Ed

    Natalie,

    Marvellous. They don’t ship to the UK, but I may be able to get one to the Sage for his birthday, some way or other…

    Now, is there a Shelob action doll with a Bleachbit kit, cloth and toy shredder? Or is there no equality?

  • Gene

    There’s a viddy on YouTube of Howard Root telling his story … will give you as much as you need to know of it:

    https://youtu.be/6M3P8sT4IFg

  • Sam Duncan

    “little plastic Obamas”

    Band name.

    (Yes, I could post a serious comment, but when it comes to fools like Abramson, what’s the point?)

  • Is that what strong American women (who by definition are all Democrats) do these days … carry a doll representing a male authority figure that she can clutch for comfort

    Well, since these “strong American women … are all Democrats”, she can’t very well carry a gun, can she?

    I hate to give the gun-control lobby ammunition, but since even our mutual friend in Washington state thinks that, since the election of Trump, her acquaintance in the ACLU and similar “are hysterical”, maybe a purseful of Obamadoll (sounds like the latest calming drug) is a safer thing for Jill to concealed-carry. The question is: will it cure her symptoms or make them worse?

  • neal

    And the doll talks back!

    Not that there is anything wrong with that.

  • bobby b

    Obama – a hack thieving tool of Chicago machine politics – serves as the perfect totem for these people. With him they can ward off the evil of the current Visigoths seeking to halt rise of their perfect State.

    Give it time, and you’ll see them making the sign of the “O” much as priests make the sign of the cross.

  • ‘He talks! At the push of a button, hear the President’s own voice speaking unforgettable phrases like “We will continue our journey forward,” “We are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people,” and “God bless you. God bless these United States” and many more’.

    They found the most vacuous and boring platitudes Obama ever uttered. If they’re going to use one of his (many) platitudes, they could have at least gone for one of the ludicrous ones that the left used to swoon over, like “I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal”.

    Although personally I’d like an Obama doll that says ‘You didn’t build that’. Would be a good laugh in the workplace.

    Democrats are now faced with the problem that the only people left in the party are loons and crooks, most of the halfway-sensible people have been driven out by the insane ultra-progressive politics. They’ll have a hard time from now on putting someone presentable before the public. (Mind you, the same thing is happening to the Labour Party in the UK, and their poll numbers are back up.)

  • Sean

    I’d go for the simple explanation – she’s just making it up (it is the Guardian after all).

  • bobby b

    ” . . . New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren.”

    Gillibrand has picked up too much baggage in the last year to be a serious contender. She angered the Left mightily when she opportunistically called for Senator Al Franken’s resignation almost immediately following the release of his infamous breast-grab photo. Everyone knew she was angling to run for President, and he was seen as her strongest rival. She was a prime mover in his resignation, the first voice, and the left, which now regrets that he quit, places a lot of blame on her.

    She’s seen as outrageously switching sides on any question for political gain. It wasn’t that long ago that she had a decent NRA rating, and was anti-abortion. Once she got her Senate seat (she was appointed to fill Hillary Clinton’s NY seat when Clinton ran for Prez), she completely flipped on several large issues. Strong? Like an octopus, maybe, but with the same lack of any discernible spine.

    Warren? Maybe. She’s appeared to be on her way down, too, at least in the last year. Completely socialist, but as much as she’s tried to deflect attention, she’s wealthy, and lied about her (nonexistent) Native American heritage in order to secure spots in schools and government, and finally got called on it publicly. A significant portion of the left disapproves of her on these grounds, and the right dislikes her on general principle. If more people knew of her machinations concerning the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – the first administrative agency set up specifically outside the control of Congress – she’d be even less popular.

    Klobuchar is the strongest of the three. Pleasant, smart, self-effacing, comes off as clean, sober Older Sister. But she’s one of the most passive-aggressive underhanded operators you’ll ever hope to meet. Minnesota loves her, in no small part because her late father was, for decades, a beloved social commentator/columnist in the Minneapolis paper, with a pro-labor, leftist bent. Everybody loved Jim Klobuchar, and so his daughter is a lock here. But her presented persona could well win the Presidency. Her I fear.

  • According to one angry Amazon review, the picture of that Obama doll is just a picture of Obama, and the doll looks nothing like it. Which is a pity, because I was thinking that the doll could run for President itself.

    “I did not yet make a purchase this is more informative as I did do some scoping out!
    For inquiring minds the answer is NO!
    This is not an actual image of the DOLL it is indeed a PICTURE of the real President OBAMA!!!
    My jaw dropped when I first saw this “living” doll!
    I have collected them so from the standpoint of a collector I had NEVER seen such an actual likeness in ANY doll before!
    The shock & awe lasted all of about 5 minutes and until I Googled THE TRUTH!

    The real ACTUAL doll ITSELF looks more like a chocolate version of President Bush with botox & cheek implants! ..HA! hows that for irony!!!”

  • This one’s even better, he talks when you press his legs together:
    https://www.amazon.com/President-Obama-Talking-Action-Figure/dp/B00FDUGJUC/ref=pd_sbs_21_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00FDUGJUC&pd_rd_r=97BQ0EXRFPDJ14FX58CS&pd_rd_w=BBbZL&pd_rd_wg=I0HKe&psc=1&refRID=97BQ0EXRFPDJ14FX58CS&dpID=41nm7J-%252Bt%252BL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=detail

    And one of the three things he says is from the Declaration of Independence. They couldn’t even find three things that he (or his speechwriters) wrote that were worth using (not surprising when you read the other two).

    (I’m sorry, I’ll stop now, and put this rubbish on my own blog.)

  • Mr Ecks

    I could supply the effigy-buying public with a piss-soaked pipe-cleaner man for a fraction of the cost of the talking Obomba dolly.

    Senator Klodbuggar could also use it to clean her pipe.

    I wonder if Amazon would be interested?

  • Alisa

    Does the doll come with a teleprompter?…

  • … the President’s own voice speaking unforgettable phrases like … “God bless you. God bless these United States” (Hector Drummond, Vile Author, March 8, 2018 at 8:58 pm)

    I thought Obama attended the Wright church where “God damn the United States” was the pastor’s more usual invocation.

    bobby b (March 8, 2018 at 9:25 pm) although Fauxahontas works, I would think Fauxahaha would be a more appropriate nickname for Warren, after Minihaha, Hiawatha’s wife in Longfellow’s poem. Like Warren, Minihaha is a work of fiction and, in today’s jargon, an example of white cultural appropriation of the native american heritage.

    (Of course, Minihaha works as a nickname on its own.)

    The point about 60% of Minnesotans loving Amy and the other 40% knowing her suggests efforts to increase knowledge of her should be pursued.

  • Michael Gillespie

    Niall, the good people of Minnesota elected Keith Ellison to Congress. It is entirely possible they are ineducable.

  • Klobuchar does look electable. Let’s hope the hard-left decide she’s not woke enough and turn on her.

  • Fred Z

    Perhaps there is a larger market for Haitian made dolls of Obama properly cursed by a vodouist.

    Especially if they come complete with a high end set of pins, bone-crushers, mini-tasers, acids, garottes and so forth.

    Properly marketed to Republicans, especially NRA members, they should sell very well.

  • Eric Tavenner

    Naill

    Well, since these “strong American women … are all Democrats”, she can’t very well carry a gun, can she?

    You might be surprised about how many of the Dhimmicrat nonemklatura do carry while working hard to make it illegal for the serfs to do so.
    As for Warren she already has the nicknames Fauxcahantas and Lieawatha.

  • bobby b

    Michael Gillespie
    March 9, 2018 at 12:17 am

    “Niall, the good people of Minnesota elected Keith Ellison to Congress.”

    No, the good people of Minnesota opposed him. The other ones elected him.

    😕

  • Thailover

    It helps to have some idea of how to speak and interpret Orwellian Backward Left-Speak.

    To “empower” others means to agree that you are mean and powerful and the right color and sex…which is just wrong. As one of the people hogging all the privilege on the planet you are therefore obligated to “empower” the “powerful” weak and pathetic. You should therefore agree to “allow” others who are not the right color and sex to have their wishes and whims without push-back, comment, eye-roll or audible scoff. That is, to “empower” others means these “strong” people are begging for your permission to pretend to be effectual without you spoiling their fantasies. These are the sort of milquetoasts wallflowers that speak of “giving themselves permission” to do or feel (fill in the blank).

    (Anyone that has to beg for permission to act, has no power, no matter how much they wish to deceive themselves about it).

    In short, ‘you owe me empowerment’ means they want shit without earning it.

    When the Left speak of “Strong Women” what they usually mean are self-entitled prigs who whine and bitch about everything not-their-way and who are bullies pretending to be victims, because there’s power in victimhood. Often they are liars and even sociopaths.

    And yes, when the Left speak of empowering blacks, women, gays…they are being racist, sexist and homophobic. This is the “soft racism/sexism…” of low expectations.

    If they think we need a dedicated month to remember you, they think you are otherwise pathetic.

  • Keith Ellison – isn’t that the guy who is reminded of Hitler by everyone who disagrees with him but not by the president of Iran or by terrorists.

    Guess I’m with bobby b (March 9, 2018 at 2:08 am) on that one. Ellison comes across as the kind who’d urge Kim Wrong’un not to meet with Trump lest it “normalise him”.

  • Snorri Godhi

    Sometime in 2016, before the election of Trump, i remarked on this site that the US Democrats have become (a front for) a suicide cult.

    That Obama dolls are selling, is further proof (if any was needed) that they are indeed a cult.

  • llamas

    Regarding the tattoos that tell ‘the story of me’ – the more I see of nonsense like that, the more I think that the person is fundamentally narcissistic and not to be taken too seriously. Who has to write ‘the story of me’ on their own body? It’s a projection, forcing their narrative onto others and trumpeting the person’s own insecurities.

    I recall seeing a Q&A with Katie Hopkins interacting with some completely-tattooed body-modified freak loudly insisting that ‘this is an expression of my individuality, because I’m unique and wonderful and empowered’ who then turned around and insisted that he should be treated ‘exactly like anybody else – this is the new normal’. No, tackle-box-face – it isn’t.

    A teenager with tattoos walking down the street is merely exhibiting poor decision-making skills. A successful, professional middle-aged woman boasting about her tattoos in a supposedly-serious media outlet is exhibiting something quite strange about herself and her psyche.

    IMHO.

    llater,

    llamas

  • John Galt III

    Obama doll is probably a vibrator. No wonder she carries it around.

  • Laird

    “Maybe New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren all have little plastic Obamas that help them cope with their fears, and that’s OK.”

    Bless their hearts.

  • Paul Marks

    Mr Ed – if you get me a Obama Talking Doll for my birthday, I will get the engineers in the park to build a little guillotine and we can film the event. Not much point in getting me a sword – as I am sword snob and would only say (to myself) “it is wrong because….”

    Ouch – I forgot, we live in Britain. So if we did a beheading of a plastic doll Obama we would all (anyone involved in the event – no matter how remotely) be sent to prison for “racism”. And little guillotines are most likely illegal anyway – as everything is illegal in modern Britain. “If something is not compulsory, it is forbidden!” is our modern motto. Hang on a second…..

    These ladies do not have to run for President – they can just come to Britain, as the program of the Democratic Party (at least the moderate wing of it) has already been carried out here – accept for Corporation Tax which is only 20% in Britain, but if that is doubled (a Company Tax of 40%) then these ladies would be fairly happy – although the dream of 100% taxation would still motivate them to be politically engaged.

    Oh by the way…..

    Can the lady from Minnesota explain why business enterprises keep leaving Minnesota to go to South Dakota – it would not be to escape Shake-Down-Artists like herself, now would it?

  • Mr Ed

    Mr Ed – if you get me a Obama Talking Doll for my birthday, I will get the engineers in the park to build a little guillotine

    By that point, I had assumed that the guillotine was intended for me, the ‘little’ being a term indicating affection, not size.

    And the barbarism might be a one-off visitor attraction, a pilot perchance.

  • Paul Marks

    Mr Ed – it would indeed be popular with visitors, but that would undermine the objective of the leadership. The objective having been for some years to financially undermine the park (Ockham’s razor comes into play here – the idea that they are deliberately trying to financially undermine the park being the simplest explanation that fits the facts).