How many women senators do we have?

[angee_is_mad]

How many black senators are there? Where is the sexism? I do know that this primary season, racism has played a bigger part in the process than sexism and the democratic party is at fault. Racial politics is a gop trick!

If hillary was a man she would have been out of the game in February.

If hillary was a man, Barack wouldn't have to tip toe around an obvious fact in order to not hurt her feelings.

If hillary was a man the pundits would have called her out on constantly changing the goal post.

If Barack was white, we wouldn't be hearing about all of this dream team nonsense.

People might admit to not voting for a woman, but if you have 20% of the electorate saying that race mattered in who they voted for, you better at least double that percentage. Most people will not openly admit to being racist in this day and time.

[ananda]

1. Kay Bailey is technically a "senator" and..

.. in reality a Reep troglodytess.

[gabeana]

2. I'm pretty sure it is 16 n/t

[Diane R]

3. The blatant racist strategy from the Clinton camp is extremely depressing. I just want her gone.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. and I think it's sad

that Obama has had to make up charges of racism.

[VolcanoJen]

12. Oh gawd.

Tired, tired, tired and more than a little whiny, false and desperate.

[cali]

13. I think it's flat out dreadful that you've had to make up the story

that Obama has charged anyone with racism. He hasn't. Unlike Hillary who's constantly charging sexism.

[MonkeyFunk]

16. his campaign has

and you know it. He even apologized for it.

[cali]

21. no. mischaracterizing again. His campaign put together a

memo of the racially divisive stuff that's come out of Clinton's campaign. He apologized for that, but the memo was accurate. Furthermore, how many times has Hillary had to apologize for the crap coming out of her campaign? How about Bill's apology tour of AA churches in your state? And don't forget the comments of her pollster out in NV who stated that latinos wouldn't vote for a black. Not to mention her hardworking white Americans comment and the numerous veiled comments hinting that blue collar whites won't vote for him.

In any case, she's done. If she's on the ticket, fine. On or off she has some work to do to undo the damage she's caused.

[mkultra]

29. so do you say the sexism charges are made up as well?

[Bicoastal]

4. Hold on. I did this calculation before....

Counting all black and female members of both houses...

While not even, the number of African Americans in congress is MORE proportional to the 12% they consist of in America's population....

...than the number of females in congress is proportional to the nearly 51% they represent. Women don't NEARLY make up half of our congress-not even close.

So that argument is unfortunately ill-fated.

[angee_is_mad]

8. Black women politicians

are you putting them in the women category or the black category?

[Bicoastal]

9. Naturally, I'm counting them twice.

[VolcanoJen]

14. House elections are local, while Senate elections are statewide....

... you know, kind of like statewide primary elections. It's been historically far more difficult for an African-American to win a statewide election than it has been for a white woman.

Your metric isn't really consistent with what the OP is saying.

[Bicoastal]

15. OK, well, let's look at just the Senate then.

1/100 (1%) of the Senate is black. 12% of the country is African American. A disparity of 11%.

16/100 (16%) of the Senate is female. Around 50% of the country is female. A disparity of 34%.

I'm an Obama supporter through and through, but I don't buy this argument. African Americans are a minority in this country and in the Senate, but women are clearly NOT a minority in the country, yet they ARE in the Senate.

I wouldn't vote for Hillary for only that reason though...

[VolcanoJen]

19. That's fair.

But as far as I recall, Barack Obama was only the fifth black US Senator. If we went back and looked at the years starting with suffrage up until today, wouldn't we likely be able to make the argument that blacks have waited far longer for any kind of parity?

Your analysis makes sense in the present day, but over the course of history, there is certainly a different perception, for what that is worth.

[Bicoastal]

22. I'm beginning to loathe the victim game. Black oppression vs. female oppression--it's HORRENDOUS!

I'm just glad Russ Feingold never got into the race. Add us Jews into the equation, and all hell would break lose, and we'd wake up the next day with Pat Buchanan in charge.

Can't we just judge our candidates on their merits, instead of inflating them into universal symbols?

[angee_is_mad]

24. Barack hasn't played the race card

but it has definitely been played on him. Can hillary say the same thing?

[Bicoastal]

27. No, but DU supporters in both camps have played every card in the deck...

...including the jokers and the card with all the poker hands on it.

Sorry, tonight's my "Defend Hillary" night. She probably won't and shouldn't win the nomination, but Kentucky's results have me on edge.

[VolcanoJen]

28. I think we are judging our candidates on their merits, though.

Or else, our primary race wouldn't have come down to a black man and a white woman. There's something beautiful in that, but Our Awesome Liberal Media gets off on dividing us as much as possible.

:-)

[whistle]

5. 15 or 16 but it really should be 50

[RL3AO]

30. If you round, it should be 51 female senators.

[CalGator]

32. How about 50-50 with a female Veep (tie-breaker as President of Senate)?

Unless they're all DLCers, you can bet there would be no more wars or Scalito justices.

[MonkeyFunk]

6. 'Where is the sexism"?

Are you serious?

[angee_is_mad]

11. Where is the Racism?

Are you kidding?

[VolcanoJen]

10. The Reverse-Ferraro!!!

Love it!!!

Great post, angee. :-)

[Upton]

17. I've got two women senators and a female Governor

at least in Wa., where's the sexism?

[angee_is_mad]

18. Exactly my point

How many black governors do we have?

[NewHampshireDem]

20. Two female Senators in Maine

But, shhh .... we don't want the white men to begin shouting 'reverse discrimination'!

[angee_is_mad]

23. In Maine?

Maine has 2 women senators? WOW!!!!! There are more women senators in one of the smallest states in the union, while the entire country only has one African American senator. Amazing.

[NewHampshireDem]

31. Olympia Snow and Susan Collins

Two good women, IMHO, even though they are Republicans.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

25. Two female senators in WA. and Obama won.

[BlooInBloo]

37. Our state rocks. And Darcey Burner is gonna win this fall too!

[EmeraldCityGrl]

38. Damn Straight !!

[Beacool]

26. We have 16 females senators and that in itself is a disgrace.

We are the only industrialized nation with such small female representation in Congress or Parliament. Women are over 50% of the population, while AA are 13% and Hispanics are 15%. So, they should be at least 50 women senators.

Did it ever occur to any of you that many people are not willing to vote for Obama because he has very little experience????

[CalGator]

33. that is one reason why

But why do voters in most states overlook that, while any southern state without a large AA population (Ark, Tenn, WVa, KY) give him a loss?

[Beacool]

35. Because they don't trust him.

I knocked on enough doors and made plenty of phone calls in several states. They don't relate to him, they see him as a guy with tiny experience who looks down on them. Yes, they do think he's an elitist. It's his attitude, not his background or in most cases his race (obviously there are some people who will never vote for an AA candidate), but I never heard anybody bring up his race. They did bring up with regularity Rev. Wright, "bittergate", the flag pin and questioned whether he's Muslim. Though, the most recurrent objection was his lack of experience.

[CalGator]

39. "elitist" and "bittergate" was a manufactured issue by HillaryCo

And like roaches, I bet you for every one person questioning if he was Secret Muslim Man or wouldn't vote for him because he's black there were really 5 who thought so but felt like saying so would rightfully make them look stupid.

[angee_is_mad]

34. No, but I admit

some are using that as an excuse (not a reason) to vote for hillary instead of admitting it is because of bill or that she is a woman who will have bill to help her. I wonder if laura bush will be running for office in 2012. Hell if hillary can do it why not her? hummmmmm

[Beacool]

36. That's B.S. reasoning and you know it. n/t

[Hippo_Tron]

40. Hillary's greatest advantage is her last name, not her gender

If Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham were both white men I'd give the advantage to Obama. If Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were both white men, Clinton would have knocked Obama out on Super Tuesday.

People don't realize just how big of a deal that last name is. That's the only reason she's still winning primaries even though she's bankrupt.

[ccharles000]

41. ...

The sad thing is there are no GLBT senators and only two GLBT congresspeople.