Are you an Obama Mama or Hitched up to Hillary's Post?

Women in the US this year wield a tremendous amount of political power as far as the Democratic race for a Presidential nominee goes. While some women favor Hillary for purely feminist reasons, others are turning to Obama for...sex appeal or Oprah? It seems that part of the Oprah endorsement is in fact tied to a greater female appeal that the Senator from IL, himself, simply can't muster against Mrs. Clinton. Oprah brings with her a mix of the modern day woman: unmarried, career-driven, monied, older, urban and well educated. Its a new form of feminism - something that Clinton's Wellsley educated feminist leanings can't hold pace with. The upper crust feminist elites versus street cred, if you will.

Asking women in this town about their preference between the two candidates is enlightening. While some women (mostly educated-suburban) claim Clinton's campaign as a triumph in old-school "girl power", the Obama Mama's instead push the new vision of their candidate over any feminist dream. Many of Obama's female supports by-pass the feminist issues altogether in fact and head straight for "the vision thing" as the reason to support him. But these women are no less career driven than their Wellsley sisters. No less educated as well. Its just that the feminist virtues of Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan never made case in their own real lives - they are too young to notice much of the work of these women altogether.

Obama's real trick however will be uniting the party. Can he pull a Stephane Dion? For all of M. Dion's political foibles, one must give him credit for uniting the Left within the Liberal party - something Mr. Harper has yet to accomplish on the Right in Canada (yes Mr. McKay we see your scowls). Dion's greatest victory has been pulling together the Martin-ites and non-Martin-ites on to the same team. This is something I noticed early on when the most divergent of my friends from both camps were able to agree on Dion.

Can Obama pull the feminists, the old-school Democrats and even the undecideds together? Why not? Hasn't he already assembled a divergent group of backers and supporters. And there is no telling how far and broad an appeal a message of hope can bring. Isn't hope the real message of any good feminist anyway? Hope, in its most non-political but completely social ideal, is something that even Steinem or Fiedan could support.