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Social Networking Sites Provide Unprecedented Forums for Hillary Hating

Politics is not for the weak at heart. It has to be rough being any candidate, just waiting—and in many cases, cringing—to see what will be said next, or what unflattering photo of you will appear. Yet Hillary Hatred is more than just the mudslinging of the rough and tumble world of politics. Though Barack Obama and other candidates get their share of criticism, the snarkiest comments seem reserved for Clinton.

Rush Limbaugh observed: “There is this thing in this country that, as you age—and this is particularly, you know, women are hardest hit on this, and particularly in Hollywood—America loses interest in you…So the question is this: Will this country want to actually watch a woman get older before their eyes on a daily basis?" MSNBC host Chris Matthews described Hillary Clinton’s voice as “fingernails on a blackboard." Tucker Carlson said, "There's just something about her that feels castrating, overbearing and scary." John McCain’s response to a woman at a political rally who asked, “How do we beat the bitch?” got more than one million viewings on YouTube.

Even more insidious than television hosts, pundits or mudslinging candidates are some of the millions of people logging on to social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. The Hillary Haters in these forums are waging an uncivil war of words that would make the Statue of Liberty blush.

The “group think” mentality of these social networking sites seems to bring out the worst in posters who want to share how they feel about Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency. Their online hatred reminds me of the missives sent via the fake MySpace profile of a 16-year-old boy created to start an Internet relationship with Megan Meier, the Missouri teen who hanged herself after receiving hurtful messages. If Hillary Clinton felt “piled on” by her male debate opponents, nothing could match the piling on of thousands of posts by Hillary Haters able to hide behind the semi-anonymity of the Internet. Though their names are posted, they are among thousands posting. One Facebook site, called “I Bet I Can Find One Million People Against Hillary,” is hoping for a million members. With Facebook’s network of 58 million active users and its status as the sixth-most-trafficked web site in the United States, it is possible to attain.

Former congresswoman Pat Schroeder commented that “people lie” when they say they will vote for a woman for president. That might be true, since interviews are often conducted in person or over the phone, and voters are loathe to appear, well, loathing. But there seems to be no need to hold back feelings on the Internet. You can let all of your rage take full bloom, and you’ll probably never be singled out for a word of it. A quick look on the Internet for Hillary Clinton and you will find words I’ve been raised too well to print in this column.

This is new territory for a presidential candidate. Never has the technology for vitriol been so accessible. Communication scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson notes: "Part of the way a culture asks, 'Where are the boundaries?' is somebody makes it the topic of a meta-conversation—let's talk about the talk." That's what happened after Don Imus called the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos." "It's a discussion we are going to have if Hillary Clinton is nominated," said Jamieson.

Hillary Clinton has become fodder for social networkers wishing to “face off” against the candidate they hate without ever actually having to face her or anyone else to account for their comments. Facebook, popular with high school and college students, has dozens of anti-Hillary groups. One, a site called "Hillary Clinton: Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich," has more than 23,000 members and 2,200 "wall posts"—Internet graffiti in which discussants have fantasized about Clinton being raped by a donkey. Another Facebook group, “If Hillary Clinton Becomes President I Will Jump Off Of a Cliff,” has more than 1600 members. MySpace has a site titled “The Prevention of Hillary Clinton for Prez” with a logo that says: “stop communism” and features a picture of Hillary Clinton. The site has almost 1500 members.

Do such postings matter in the 2008 contest? The impact of social networking sites on political elections has yet to be determined, and much of the research being conducted on social networking sites has yet to be published. For Hillary Clinton at least, the hate sites far outnumber those that are supportive of her candidacy. And with the legacy of Clinton haters from the Bill Clinton years combined with the misogynist spewing reserved just for her, Hillary Clinton seems to bring out the worst in many online social networkers.



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