Latenight mansplaining

March 25, 2016 9:43 AM

Jimmy Kimmel explains the fine art of mansplaining to Hillary Clinton
posted by sardonyx (100 comments total)

Love her or hate her, that was a great bit. I especially loved the "well actually" in correcting the very definition of mansplaining. This could have been really awkward or felt forced, but was surprisingly funny and well-executed.
posted by explosion at 10:03 AM on March 25, 2016 [24 favorites]

Irony can be a very fine line to walk. Not sure if this made it to the right side for me.
posted by crumbly at 10:04 AM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

I thought she did a good job with an obviously over-scripted bit. It would have been funnier to use actual things said to her though.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:10 AM on March 25, 2016 [10 favorites]

i loved this
posted by nadawi at 10:10 AM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

Mod note: Comment removed. I swear to christ if even an abjectly silly thing about one candidate like this is gonna descend into Bernie vs. Clinton griping I am grounding you all until school starts.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:16 AM on March 25, 2016 [510 favorites]

That was great. Whatever you think of her, you can't deny that she's had a put up with an unbelievable amount of crap thrown at her over the years.
posted by octothorpe at 10:17 AM on March 25, 2016 [31 favorites]

Bad day to swear to Christ, man, he's really not in the mood for it today.
posted by bondcliff at 10:22 AM on March 25, 2016 [170 favorites]

He's still hungover from Purim.
posted by maxsparber at 10:27 AM on March 25, 2016 [58 favorites]

I thought Clinton came across very likeable, in the "would love to have a beer with" way. That's some charisma. (And I say this as a crabby euroleftie who generally thinks that what USA needs at this point is a good old fashioned revolution.)
posted by sively at 10:31 AM on March 25, 2016 [5 favorites]

This was SO perfect.

It would have been funnier to use actual things said to her though.

They are all are actual things that have been said to her! I mean, they weren't verbatim, because it might have been hard to shoehorn that into the skit in a way that seemed natural, but these exact things have been said about her over and over and over and over and...
posted by triggerfinger at 10:31 AM on March 25, 2016 [19 favorites]

Shrill™ for Men, a new fragrance from Hillary Clinton.
posted by phunniemee at 10:32 AM on March 25, 2016 [34 favorites]

That was fantastic. I really like Hillary anyway, and she is killing it on the charm offensive lately (her cameo on Broad City a couple of weeks ago was also great).
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 10:33 AM on March 25, 2016 [8 favorites]

They are all are actual things that have been said to her! I mean, they weren't verbatim, because it might have been hard to shoehorn that into the skit in a way that seemed natural, but these exact things have been said about her over and over and over and over and...

Yeah, I know, I meant using clips.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:33 AM on March 25, 2016

Mansplainectomy, stat!
posted by y2karl at 10:37 AM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

If had vote would; despite Trump being more effective entertainmently - close call otherwise.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 10:41 AM on March 25, 2016

I always want to hate on Jimmy Kimmel, don't know why, but he's often just spot on.

Only problem I have with this clip is the problem I have with any candidate that does the talk show circuit, it seems unseemly, but I've thought this since Bill Clinton did MTV. Personally, I find it sad and ironic candidates have to do an SNL stint to be taken seriously.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:44 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'm not a fan of her, but she did a brilliant job there.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:46 AM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

it seems unseemly, but I've thought this since Bill Clinton did MTV.

Sock it to me?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:46 AM on March 25, 2016 [35 favorites]

the problem I have with any candidate that does the talk show circuit, it seems unseemly...

On the contrary, this is the only real outlet they have highlighting the abject failure of the "mainstream" media. If you hadn't noticed, the best news and information these days comes from satirical comedy shows.
posted by klanawa at 10:52 AM on March 25, 2016 [21 favorites]

Sock it to me?

I was born long after Nixon left office so my impression of him comes almost entirely from Futurama.

It's weird seeing him as an actual person.
posted by Sangermaine at 10:58 AM on March 25, 2016 [31 favorites]

it seems unseemly, but I've thought this since Bill Clinton did MTV.

For me, it's been since Ronald Reagan did Ronald Reagen.
posted by fairmettle at 10:59 AM on March 25, 2016 [9 favorites]

Could there be a better opportunity to share the glory of the Mansplaining Hotline, from Party Over Here?

"Our uninformed girls are waiting for you to explain simple concepts in a super condescending way."
posted by redsparkler at 11:00 AM on March 25, 2016 [51 favorites]

To be fair, Nixon was as close as we've come to having an actual cartoon villain as President.
posted by scrump at 11:00 AM on March 25, 2016 [14 favorites]

Jimmy Kimmel is great at taking a fairly obvious joke and nailing it. And Clinton's timing was good.
I like that candidates get to do talk and sketch shows. It's better than more speeches.
posted by mattamatic at 11:01 AM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

I think Obama opened the door forever to do talk shows. He's danced on Ellen and Michelle danced on Kimmel multiple times. He was on Between Two Ferns discussing Obamacare. He manages to do all this and still look plenty Presidential, so I don't think it lowers the office at all.

Also Kimmel is really impressively progressive especially given his usual audience. He does really subtle things, like his man on the street videos that reveal people's total ignorance.
posted by zutalors! at 11:04 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

JFK did Jack Paar in 1960. President Obama and President Bill Clinton are great... neither of them started anything in this regard.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:07 AM on March 25, 2016 [7 favorites]

It's a little-known fact that during the pre-war years of his presidency, FDR appeared regularly on the Paddy O'Sullivan Duz Soap Radio Hour as Tip, the fat drunken bartender. His famous catchphrase was "One for the customer, and one for good old Tip!"
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:07 AM on March 25, 2016 [25 favorites]

I don't think Obama started anything, he just made it very commonplace. And he went on a webseries to talk about Obamacare, that's pretty different. Culture evolves.
posted by zutalors! at 11:08 AM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

To be fair, Nixon was as close as we've come to having an actual cartoon villain as President.

I'll see your Nixon (passed the EPA) and raise with W (disbanded the Iraqi army, which populated ISIS.)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:10 AM on March 25, 2016 [13 favorites]

I was too pedantic, I guess, to think this was all that funny (beyond Kimmel's opening correction about the definition of mansplaining, which was perfect). True mansplaining would have been if Kimmel had explained "how healthcare works" or "how American foreign policy works" to a women who is manifestly a top-level expert in such matters.

Hillary did a great job rolling with it all, though. I appreciated that.

I swear, I really do have a good sense of humor. Just ask my friends.
posted by mondo dentro at 11:11 AM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

And yet there's "Nixon invented the drug war to attack black people and anti war protestors."
posted by zutalors! at 11:11 AM on March 25, 2016 [17 favorites]

I used to just respect Hillary for being a very strong leader but I really have to hand it to her, her ability to still approach this stuff with a sense of humor despite being a perpetual target by constant smears is great. I'll be more than happy to have her as the leader of the free world even if she decides to stick with pantsuits...
posted by vuron at 11:14 AM on March 25, 2016 [19 favorites]

Yeah this was great. I don't think it actually mattered who was up there speaking, because that's the kind of shit women hear all the time regardless of who they are.
posted by numaner at 11:16 AM on March 25, 2016 [6 favorites]

Yeah, I like when candidates/presidents appear on things like this and I don't think it necessarily *has* to lower the office at all. So many people (I'd guess a majority) pay little to no attention to things like debates/townhalls/whatever, even when we're on the main ones near the end of the election season. But a LOT of people have their opinions formed and shaped via popular culture, including social media. If candidates being on late night gets people interested and involved in a way that they otherwise would not have been then I'm all for it.
posted by triggerfinger at 11:21 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

To be fair, Nixon was as close as we've come to having an actual cartoon villain as President.

I'll see your Nixon (passed the EPA) and raise with W (disbanded the Iraqi army, which populated ISIS.)

Bush was Ned Beatty in Superman -- less a villain than a guy who was hanging out with a villain and didn't have the capacity to object. Cheney was Luthor.
posted by Etrigan at 11:21 AM on March 25, 2016 [26 favorites]

Kimmel is my favorite of the current broadcast talk show hosts. His progressivism is lower-key than Oliver's and Colbert's but it's every bit as good.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:23 AM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

Also Obama went on Marc Maron, did a reddit AMA...that's what I mean when I said he "opened the door." Much, much more exposure to pop culture than late night talk shows with the formal clothes and desks. He went to Marc Maron's garage just like everyone else.
posted by zutalors! at 11:23 AM on March 25, 2016 [5 favorites]

I miss Craig so much
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:24 AM on March 25, 2016 [12 favorites]

Grrrr that was not mansplaining! Nevertheless I loved it. It just feels like such a relief to have this be so widely recognized as utter infuriating bullshit that we can have the candidate herself joke about it in front of a general audience.
posted by HotToddy at 11:25 AM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

I always want to hate on Jimmy Kimmel, don't know why, but he's often just spot on.

Same here. It's weird to think this very affable guy was once co-host of a show featuring girls in bikinis on trampolines.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:26 AM on March 25, 2016 [14 favorites]

He did date Sarah Silverman.
posted by zutalors! at 11:28 AM on March 25, 2016

He did date Sarah Silverman.

I'm not sure if you mean that's good or horrible.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:29 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

I think it's possible she helped him progress his views on women.
posted by zutalors! at 11:31 AM on March 25, 2016 [6 favorites]

Oh, okay, because Silverman isn't the most progressive person.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:32 AM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

It's weird to think this very affable guy was once co-host of a show featuring girls in bikinis on trampolines.

Makes sense to me. It's a very thin line between ironic pandering and ironic criticism.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:34 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Maybe i am too sensitive to this type of humour, but i cringed when i saw this.
I understand the intent, but there's an irony in the ironic humour, in that i don't think anyone would try equally "ironic" humour with the male candidates:

Would Kimmel ask
- Trump to try on new hairpieces and see which one he likes best?
- Sanders to be a spokesman for a antipersirant product?
- Rubio to do a robot dance?
- Christie to table read a script where he plays the role of a hostage?

I appreciate satire; i just don't think the next president should be the punchline, no matter how noble the intent
posted by bitteroldman at 11:35 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

I didn't say Sarah Silverman was the most progressive person. I never liked her "ironic racism" stuff. But I do think she's started to become better in recent years.

I also think people change and Kimmel might have changed on his own.
posted by zutalors! at 11:36 AM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

(Not USian, identify more with Bernie)
posted by bitteroldman at 11:38 AM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

Trump to try on new hairpieces and see which one he likes best?

This would be physically dangerous.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:38 AM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

I appreciate satire; i just don't think the next president should be the punchline, no matter how noble the intent

I don't think she's the punchline, I think mansplaining jerks are the punchline.
posted by zutalors! at 11:45 AM on March 25, 2016 [55 favorites]

I don't love Kimmel or Silverman, but I have great fondness for "I'm Fucking Matt Damon."
posted by Chrysostom at 11:46 AM on March 25, 2016 [19 favorites]

It's weird to think this very affable guy was once co-host of a show featuring girls in bikinis on trampolines.

Not to mention Can the Man Show Boy Help an Old Lady Across the Street?
posted by y2karl at 11:46 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Much, much more exposure to pop culture than late night talk shows with the formal clothes and desks. He went to Marc Maron's garage just like everyone else.

I think doing talk shows and engaging with Internet media is probably the most effective way for Democratic candidates to actually reach some conservative leaning independents and Republicans. Hilzoy wrote up a good theory how the rise of Donald Trump is from the GOP systematically having their base mistrusting every mainstream expert and the press, and how now that bridge is burned and the bridge the GOP had with them is burned because the base feels betrayed so it's nearly impossible to reach these folks.
posted by FJT at 11:52 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Would Kimmel ask
- Trump to try on new hairpieces and see which one he likes best?
- Sanders to be a spokesman for a antipersirant product?
- Rubio to do a robot dance?
- Christie to table read a script where he plays the role of a hostage?


These examples would only be analogous if Trump were in fact simultaneously criticized for having hair that's too good and too bad, if Bernie were criticized for sweating too much and too little, etc. Kimmel is poking fun at impossible-to-meet expectations of a woman candidate (and of all women everywhere), not at any actual characteristic that she has.
posted by HotToddy at 12:05 PM on March 25, 2016 [30 favorites]

I commented elsewhere on Metafilter that even though I don't think Hillary Clinton is much good at retail politics in general, I thought she might be effective against Trump. And this demonstrates some of why -- she's had a lot of shitty egocentric dudes attack and condescend to her all throughout her career, and she has gotten quite good at turning it back on them and remaining calm and amused while doing it. And I suspect Trump may not deal with that well.
posted by tavella at 12:10 PM on March 25, 2016 [21 favorites]

I have never watched Jimmy Kimmel and mainly associate him with commercials for The Man Show on Comedy Central. I do remember the "end women's suffrage" petition they once got women to sign on that show. It's weird for me to compare that bit to this one. I guess in the "end suffrage" bit, he did refrain from mansplaining to his marks about what suffrage means?
posted by OnceUponATime at 12:19 PM on March 25, 2016

I commented elsewhere on Metafilter that even though I don't think Hillary Clinton is much good at retail politics in general, I thought she might be effective against Trump. And this demonstrates some of why -- she's had a lot of shitty egocentric dudes attack and condescend to her all throughout her career, and she has gotten quite good at turning it back on them and remaining calm and amused while doing it. And I suspect Trump may not deal with that well.

Franklin Foer opining at Slate: “Donald Trump Hates Women: It’s the one position he’s never changed.”
posted by Going To Maine at 12:22 PM on March 25, 2016 [9 favorites]

I think Obama opened the door forever to do talk shows

i think it's more that he broadened the scope to, like you said, maron, between 2 ferns, etc. clinton going on a major network's late night show is pretty much standard fare though, not even reaching as outre as bill clinton playing sax on arsenio. i still like it, even if it is well worn territory. it's nice to see her in that spot, being good and natural seeming in it.
posted by nadawi at 12:53 PM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yeah, Kimmel wins me over pretty consistently (meaning: my baseline assumption for him is that he's kinda shitty, on a couple axes). He's the only one left on late-night who is doing classic talk show work and I think he's pretty good at it. Sharp, opinionated, good interviewer. I definitely don't trust him, politically (b/c the Man Show, I guess?), but he is quite good at his job.

I liked this bit. Hillary was good. Cool.
posted by wemayfreeze at 1:02 PM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Clinton was on Colbert Report in 2008 when he put on the show in Philadelphia for a week. She did a technical difficulties bit which was kind of cringing.
posted by numaner at 1:05 PM on March 25, 2016

"Mansplaining is a way that we men can help women be better." This line made me laugh, but it also makes me sad because it is what most men believe.
posted by Roger Dodger at 1:05 PM on March 25, 2016 [16 favorites]

Would Kimmel ask
- Trump to try on new hairpieces and see which one he likes best?
- Sanders to be a spokesman for a antipersirant product?
- Rubio to do a robot dance?
- Christie to table read a script where he plays the role of a hostage?

I do kinda get - or think I get - why you would feel this way about this particular thing, 'cause ironic sexism isn't always that distinct from regular sexism. Beyond this particular case though I gotta say your comparisons don't seem that implausible as sketch ideas to me. The Christie one is too obscure and messily targeted for TV but Trump wearing funny hairpieces I could totally see getting pitched but for the likihood that Trump would be utterly unwilling to laugh at himself on that point.
posted by atoxyl at 1:41 PM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think now is as good a time as any to share should you explain the thing to the lady again.
posted by triggerfinger at 1:44 PM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

Loved this. It was all those "cannot win while being a woman in public" jabs rolled up neatly.

I'd love to know if the sort of person who calls women "shrill" would be able to see the catch-22.
posted by hilaryjade at 1:50 PM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

I thought this was funny, and Clinton did a good job at playing along in a dignified way. And yeah, she's not the punchline here. We've had decades of punchlines about her clothes and hair and voice analogous to Sanders = antiperspirant ad, this is about the idiocy of that.

I feel weird about Kimmel too since I grew up with The Man Show on my favorite channel, making me feel unwelcome and weird. I guess comedy has evolved and public consciousness has too, at least a little. I do admire how relaxed he is about exchanging jabs with a potential presidential candidate.
posted by stoneandstar at 1:58 PM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

Would Kimmel ask
- Rubio to do a robot dance?

No, but Jimmy Fallon would.
posted by AndrewInDC at 2:34 PM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

Watching this, it occurs to me that, if I had the life Clinton has had any semblance of a sense of humor would be long gone. I would either be a quivering mass of jelly or a constant, fiery ball or rage.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 3:03 PM on March 25, 2016 [11 favorites]

HotToddy: "Grrrr that was not mansplaining! "

You mean: "Actually, that was not mansplaining."
posted by signal at 3:11 PM on March 25, 2016 [24 favorites]

Someone was making fun of Rubio's heeled shoes - I forgot which host - and he went along with it. It was pretty charming, sometimes he's not a bot.
posted by zutalors! at 3:11 PM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

I hold weird pop culture grudges for some reason. Like, it took me two seasons too long to warm up to Jon Stewart. This was pre-Internet Everywhere, sure, but still I should not have been Team Kilborn for as long as I was. I think I blamed Stewart for the death of Short Attention Span Theater.

Anyways, I held the same grudge against Kimmel for a long time - until I heard a story from my sister where she met him and Sarah Silverman on a train in Italy. My sister knew Kimmel by name and knew who Silverman was... but her name escaped her. Kimmel very, very kindly guided my sister to his girlfriend's name with a minimum of awkwardness. They chatted for the rest of the train ride and she got a glass of wine from them at the end.

Redemption!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:29 PM on March 25, 2016 [9 favorites]

Actuallysplaining

robocop: I was never really more than 80% on JS and I was a Kilborn fan (until I found out he was an actual jackass). Colbert, Carell, Bee, Nancy (Walls) Carell were an incredible cast that really smoothed over Stewart's tryhard tendencies and mannered presentation.
posted by rhizome at 3:56 PM on March 25, 2016

I enjoyed this immensely. Then pondered if the "let me judge-you-sweetie" is an extension, sublimation or male-sanctioned practice that is rewarded as socially proper because they are not NOT judging a woman on physical attributes like the dairy cow judge at the 4-H fair, which would be lowbrow, if not verboten.
posted by childofTethys at 4:06 PM on March 25, 2016

even though I don't think Hillary Clinton is much good at retail politics in general, I thought she might be effective against Trump.

My take is that she has the opposite problem -- she is great at retail politics and one on one, terrible speaking to crowds, in debates, etc. (FWIW I've read the opposite about Bernie, who certainly knows how to work an auditorium.)

This was set up as a (scripted) conversation between her and Kimmel, which may have moved her back into her comfort zone.
posted by msalt at 4:15 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

Yea she's much better one on one. Most of her campaign videos are one on one conversations.
posted by zutalors! at 4:23 PM on March 25, 2016

She's been witty and funny for a long time. For example this story cracked me up back when I was supporting her opponent, a guy named Obama. (Note how the story was she was scripted, not her sense of humor.) And in terms of the really phenomenal amounts of sexist garbage she's endured at this point, I have long been awed by her steely strength.
posted by bearwife at 4:41 PM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

It's weird seeing him as an actual person.

Nixon was about as far from an "actual person" as it is possible to get. Even he knew that.
posted by blucevalo at 4:47 PM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

because they are not NOT judging a woman on physical attributes like the dairy cow judge at the 4-H fair, which would be lowbrow, if not verboten

Would someone please let Trump know this?
posted by bearwife at 4:48 PM on March 25, 2016 [5 favorites]

Once again, Hunter S. Thompson's best book "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" has the ultimate take on Nixon as a person. In one of the most surreal moments of a very weird election year, Nixon finds out Thompson is a big football fan -- HST started out as a sportswriter -- and they meet face to face to talk a little gridiron.

This, after Thompson reaches his peak as a masterful writer of invective by spatchcocking Nixon for literally years.
posted by msalt at 4:51 PM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

This was great. I get why some on the Left don't like HRC's politics and even think she's done great harm in foreign policy, but I've never understood the hate for her as a person. She always strikes me as extremely likeable, if a little awkward sometimes.
posted by biogeo at 4:54 PM on March 25, 2016 [8 favorites]

"Bush was Ned Beatty in Superman -- less a villain than a guy who was hanging out with a villain and didn't have the capacity to object. Cheney was Luthor."

To continue the derail: Cheney was clearly The Penguin. Bush was some sort of Earth-99 President Jimmy Olsen.
posted by klangklangston at 5:35 PM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

Kimmel started out his TV career doing some of the most regressive "bro-humor" stuff imaginable, and even the early episodes of his late night talkshow had a lot of that going on as well. Like many men of my generation, he is becoming more progressive as he ages. This is stuff people on the far left have been talking about, a lot, in the past decade, and he goes and makes it mainstream with effortless charm and deep, warm humor. This is Hillary's "Playing Sax on Arsenio" moment, only more profound, as it touches on actual problems real people are having in our Great Union.

I'm still gonna vote for Bernie in the primaries, but this is the moment where it is established she will knock the block off of whatever clown the regressive right sends at her.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:51 PM on March 25, 2016 [10 favorites]

And remember, Kimmel was the announcer/sidekick to the Famous/Infamous Ben Stein on his embarrassing-for-all-concerned game show. I'd wonder if he's still on speaking terms with Benny, but after seeing Stein's recent flip-flopping on Donald Trump, it's hard to tell if he's on speaking terms with himself.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:27 PM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

Each election is a little more about the personalities and a little less about the actual issues - while at the same time the lingering issues are never solved and get a little more urgent each time.

This is a vacuous, content-free puff piece that is obvious propaganda. I suppose I'm a little glad that the Democrats are doing a little better at propaganda, but Metafilter shouldn't be covering scripted, softball photo-op interactions with politicians of any stripe - or if we do, it shouldn't be censored so as to only be polite.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 6:43 PM on March 25, 2016

Metafilter shouldn't be covering

Metafilter isn't a news aggregator, it's a place where people talk about things that interest them. This interests people for a number of reasons. If it doesn't interest you in any way, that's fine, you know you're not required to talk about it... right?
posted by palomar at 6:59 PM on March 25, 2016 [26 favorites]

This is how she's going to win. She and Trump have both been public figures for decades, so people already have an idea of who they are.

As we get closer to the election and it's formally down to him versus her, people will take a second look. With her, they'll think, "I thought she was a bitch but she's kind of nice and funny." With him they'll think, "I always thought he was kind of a blowhard, but I didn't realize how much of an asshole he is."

Advantage Hils.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:13 PM on March 25, 2016 [11 favorites]

I don't think it's vacuous at all. I don't know when else I've heard "mansplain" on national mainstream (big 3) TV and the "smile" thing has become a recognizable issue. This is much more than propaganda or making her likeable. It's putting things that have plagued women for years front and center, which is what I think an HRC campaign can consistently do through to November if she's the nominee.

Far from fluff, it's extremely important.
posted by zutalors! at 7:18 PM on March 25, 2016 [26 favorites]

This is a vacuous, content-free puff piece that is obvious propaganda.

Thanks for explaining to us why we shouldn't find it relevant to have mansplaining discussed openly in the media. I'm definitely enlightened now.
posted by frumiousb at 7:37 PM on March 25, 2016 [41 favorites]

it seems unseemly...

I have just fallen into a logical blackhole!
posted by srboisvert at 8:00 PM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

More HRC acting like a real person, please! I'm not really deep into Clinton vs Bernie, but I definitely get the sense that Clinton has had to learn and master the rules of conventional campaigning twice as well in order to succeed half as much as an equally qualified candidate. What I find lacking is what was such a breath of fresh air with Obama -- he talks to us like we're adults and doesn't hesitate to express his genuine thoughts and emotions through whatever media channels the public is using. I totally get that this is historically a dangerous thing to do when you face more criticism than an old white guy does, especially when my vote in the Clinton vs Trump election is a lock compared to the mythical "swing voter." But it would make us liberal smarty pantses feel a lot better about our Clinton vote if we saw her flexing her wit and personality more. As someone who is admittedly too busy to be paying more than casual attention to the campaign, this was one of the least scripted and honest things I've seen Clinton do, so yay.

good lord, I've become a "who would you rather have a beer with " voter in my old age
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:09 PM on March 25, 2016

Nixon wore a jacket and tie while watching TV, in case someone on a program might be shown eating.


Nixon would stand at attention when they played the national anthem before televised football games, even if no one else was in the room.


Nixon once tried to tip Sammy Davis Jr. at a country club.


Nixon thought soccer was "communistic."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:28 PM on March 25, 2016 [13 favorites]

Nixon wore a jacket and tie while watching TV, in case someone on a program might be shown eating.


what does this mean?
posted by zutalors! at 8:39 PM on March 25, 2016

Once upon a time, you dressed up for meals. All of the meals. You would literally go and change your clothes into something more formal if you wanted food.

This assumes you were rich, which you had to be as a Republican seeking national office. Or at least you had to dress up for the occasion. Which is all the time in case you were ever caught sustaining yourself on camera.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:51 PM on March 25, 2016

Is that hyperbole though? That he dressed up to watch tv?
posted by zutalors! at 8:54 PM on March 25, 2016

>True mansplaining would have been...

and

>Grrrr that was not mansplaining!

The minute I saw the link I wondered how long it would take for someone to come in and 'splain the 'splainin to us. Turns out that yeah, I'm cynical, but I'm not cynical enough...
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:54 PM on March 25, 2016 [7 favorites]

Obama... doesn't hesitate to express his genuine thoughts and emotions through whatever media channels the public is using.
With the very noticeable exception of one emotion. He very rarely permits anger to show. That's the whole reason the Anger Translator schtick works. I think the reason for that is very similar to the reason that Clinton doesn't let her guard down.
posted by bardophile at 1:01 AM on March 26, 2016 [8 favorites]

More HRC acting like a real person, please!

Check her out on Another Round! In a subsequent interview - this week I think? Or last? - Heben and Tracy mention that the Clinton Campaign approached them and made no stipulations on what could and could not be asked.
posted by Deoridhe at 1:43 AM on March 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

The same journalist who broke the story of John Edwards' love child has published a story in the National Enquirer asserting the Ted Cruz has had at least 5 ex-marital affairs. There are also rumors of a some kind of sex tape (referred to as "the thing") by various GOP talkers. If the situation were reversed and Hillary was the one people were gossiping about the media shit show would be 10x and the conversation would mostly involve calling her a whore/slut.
posted by humanfont at 7:05 AM on March 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

People have been trying to insinuate that she's a whore/lesbian because her husband had an affair, back in the '90s.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:28 AM on March 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

MetaFilter: grounding you all until school starts.
posted by Wordshore at 3:19 PM on March 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

Each election is a little more about the personalities and a little less about the actual issues

Oh, for the good old days of "I like Ike"!
posted by msalt at 3:50 PM on March 27, 2016 [5 favorites]