Controversy Alert (to the tune of 'Oh Susanna')

The Nation magazine is going to get in trouble over its weekly cartoon again. I got the new issue in the mail and saw this. I laughed, but I know others won't. I know they won't when I read comments on the letters page like this from Celia Menczel of Walnut Creek CA, who writes that "I believe it is Obama's 2008 bid for the presidency that has divided us" because "he should have waited until 2012," -- or the charge from Andi Thomas of Santa Cruz that "Obama has been subtly working the gender angle as deliberately as Clinton has been working the race angle," or the similar comment from Audrey Roth of Medford MA that "his campaign played (brilliantly and seamlessly) the misogyny card." By such standards, Grossman's cartoon is bound to seem misogynistic, perhaps brilliantly and seamlessly so.

Meanwhile, on the same letters page, Sam Phelan of Newport RI asks why feminists aren't as solidly behind Clinton as black appear to be behind Obama. His suggestion:

It has to do with the relationship between men and women, and it essentially dooms the feminist movement to be split in any contest between a relatively young, attractive man and an older woman. All else being equal, younger women voters consciously or unconsciously are attracted to the man, whereas there is no attraction between men and the older woman candidate. This is borne out by polls that show a large majority of the women supporting Obama are young, while those supporting Hillary are older.

Incisive analysis or Idiot of the Week candidate? Figure it out for yourself.