March 8th was International Women's Day, a commemoration that the United States has only recently begun to observe. And, not surprisingly, Barack Obama decided to mark the occasion with a speech.(Yes, Barack Obama marks just about every day with a speech but let's not be distracted by that point just now.)
One would think that the President would certainly emphasize the "international" aspect of International Women's Day -- he himself being a citizen of the world and all -- but he didn't get round to mentioning women in other countries until very near the end of his remarks. No, before that he was praising American women, and with only a few exceptions, he praised Democrat women.
Indeed, most of those specfically named (after a sop thrown to history by mentioning Abigail Adams, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem) were the women of Team Obama: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hilda Solis, Kathleen Sebelius, Janet Napolitano, Susan Rice, Christy Romer, Lisa Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, Valerie Jarrett, and Lynn Rosenthal. Of course, also starring in the President's monologue were his wife, his daughters, his mother, and his grandmother.
And naturally, himself. The First Feminist.
"I think about this because it reminds me of why I’m here. I didn’t run for President so that the dreams of our daughters could be deferred or denied. I didn’t run for President to see inequality and injustice persist in our time. I ran for President to put the same rights, the same opportunities, the same dreams within the reach for our daughters and our sons alike. I ran for President to put the American Dream within the reach of all of our people, no matter what their gender, or race, or faith, or station."
When the President finally finished slapping himself on the back for having all these lovely, learned and liberal women at his side, he then found time to mention women who work somewhere other than Washington, D.C. And what did he have to say? Did he talk about poverty, malnutrition, persecution, slavery, sex trafficking, or the brutal subjugation of women in Muslim cultures around the world?
Nope. Not a word about these horrors.
Instead, President Obama returned quickly to two of his favorite themes: abortion and himself.
"And since today happens to be International Women’s Day, it’s also worth mentioning what Secretary Clinton, and Ambassador Rice, and this administration are doing on behalf of women around the globe. We lifted what’s called the global gag rule that restricted women’s access to family planning services abroad."
That's International Women's Day as celebrated by the President of the United States, a paean to Team Obama and its dedication to a purely leftist-oriented version of feminism while turning a deaf ear to history, the achievements of conservative women and, most tragic of all, to the calls for deliverance by suffering women all across the globe.
