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Because there are no ambitious male politicians, right?

January 28, 2009 9:05 am ET by Eric Boehlert

Looks like the media's soft spot for sexism when covering women in politics was not a 2008-only deal. (We didn't really think it would be.)

Last week, the press brought back the unlikeable and overly ambitious Tracy Flick character, from the film Election, to describe Kirsten Gilibrand, the new senator from New York. Flick was also used last year to make fun of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.

Meanwhile, this week Chris Matthews revealed his latest bout of insight while discussing the debated stimulus package, and why any money set aside for family planning would be pointless. Wrote Melissa McEwan after watching the Hardball host:

It's like a crêpe of misogyny, double the deliciousness, with a flaky pancake of ignorance wrapped around a gooey inside of unapologetic enmity.

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    • Author by mk3872 (January 28, 2009 11:06 am ET)
         
      Ugh. Our U.S. press is so bad. They just have no idea how to handle women in power, a black prez, change in DC or a prez who breaks the law. They only want to cover salacious details of politicians as if they were TMZ or People mag. Yuk.
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    • Author by shaggles (January 28, 2009 12:02 pm ET)
         
      It's not just women.  It's all Democrats.  Al Gore, John Kerry, both Clintons, even Barack Obama has been hit with this.  You never hear the press talking about any Republicans blind ambition.  The way they tell it the Reps just stumble in to positions of power by accident.
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