芝加哥——她太有野心了。她道歉不够。她应该多微笑。
围绕乔·拜登竞选伙伴的辩论，最近在一系列常见的关于政界女性的刻板印象中打勾，民主党总统候选人和他的盟友们在一次他们曾希望会因其包容性和多样性而脱颖而出的搜索中步履蹒跚。
相反，副总统的审查重新出现了保守派和年轻一代之间的党内分歧，年轻一代对性别和种族偏见更加敏感，愿意直言不讳。一些人认为这只是拜登为什么需要一个女人在他的候选人名单上的更多证据。
前民主党全国委员会主席唐娜·巴西勒(Donna Brazile)说:“事实是，尽管我们在过去100年里已经取得了很大进展，但我们还没有走得足够远，让女性候选人得到与男性候选人同等程度的尊重。”
拜登，这位假定的被提名人，也是前副总统本人，已经表示他将挑选一名女性作为他的副手，他可能会在本周做出决定，尽管正式的声明可能会在晚些时候发布。
对他的选择的审查在最近几周变得越来越严格，与此同时，盟友也加入进来，有时会加剧紧张局势。
周一，《华盛顿邮报》援引前民主党主席、拜登的盟友埃德·伦德尔的话说，最近有关于前国家安全顾问苏珊·赖斯的传言。他注意到赖斯在电视上露面时面带微笑，“这是她不太乐意做的事情”，而且她“实际上有点迷人。”
76岁的伦德尔也对另一位候选人的行为发表了评论，他上周告诉美国有线电视新闻网卡马拉·哈里斯会“给人带来麻烦。”
一些人认为这种评论——对女性的攻击性进行评价，对她们的不可捉摸性如可爱程度进行奖励——是几十年来困扰从政女性的偏见。
伦德尔在周一的电话采访中说，任何关于他对赖斯的评论带有性别歧视的说法都是“可笑的”他说这是一种恭维，是对一个好候选人的描述，与人们在评论理查德·尼克松复出时的微笑没有什么不同。
“这个国家太疯狂了，”他在谈到对自己措辞的批评时说，并把部分责任归咎于媒体。“我们要疯了。”
《政治报》最近报道称，前康涅狄格州参议员克里斯·多德(Chris Dodd)是拜登审查委员会的联合主席，他担心前总统候选人哈里斯(Harris)对在初选辩论中攻击拜登没有足够的遗憾。其他人批评哈里斯，他被认为是最有前途的人，过于雄心勃勃。
前佐治亚州众议院少数党领袖、2018年州长候选人史黛西·艾布拉姆斯(Stacey Abrams)也因兜售自己的副总统候选人资格而受到类似的批评。她反驳说，不直率对有色人种女性和“有抱负的女性”是一种伤害。
她周日在MSNBC说:“当你做了一些不同的事情，当你达到了男人的标准，无论是作为女人还是有色人种，他们都不会对你有所期待，然后你就会受到批评。”
大米是非裔美国人。哈里斯的父母都是移民，父亲来自牙买加，母亲来自印度。
有人指出，一些评论和批评来自与77岁的白人拜登有长期关系的年长白人男性。
旨在帮助提高黑人女性政治权力的组织“美国更高的高度”的主席格林达·卡尔说，她认为这是男性领导人的一种反应——有意识的或潜意识的——他们“可能会觉得他们的领导类型在今天的选民中很难维持下去。”
卡尔把它们比作“濒临灭绝的恐龙”，但没有指名道姓。她敦促拜登竞选团队尽快结束这一过程。
她说:“我确实认为，我们做得越久，回报就越少，因为每个人都觉得自己需要参与进来。”
聚焦于性别的评论——以及媒体对它们的关注——是民主党人的痛处，他们害怕2016年的重演，当时他们认为总统候选人希拉里·克林顿被击败部分是因为性别歧视的态度。
他们指出，拜登本人是前副总统——有足够的野心推动他的第三次总统竞选——并表示没有人会批评共和党副总统迈克·彭斯觊觎最高职位。他们说，关于候选人的谈话一直集中在动机、举止或性格特征上，其程度远远超过了考虑男性时的程度。
南卡罗来纳州民主党资深战略家安图安·海沃特说，媒体一心想要挑起冲突，并找出正在崛起的领导人身上的污点。
他说:“我希望这一进程不要演变成某些人所想的那样——这将使两个对这个政党和这个国家至关重要的非洲裔美国妇女相互对立。”
芭芭拉·威廉姆斯-斯金纳牧师是敦促拜登选择黑人女性作为竞选搭档的100多名黑人神职人员之一，她说，然而，终身经历性别歧视和种族主义只会帮助潜在的竞选搭档成为一个应对全球大流行病、种族不公正和其他危机的国家的更好领导人
“对女人来说总是更难。当你处于那种权力水平时，你必须为这场斗争做好准备，你必须对此有所期待，”她说，并补充道，男性面临的审查“要公平得多。”
她说:“我们都希望有一天女性能得到更公平的对待。”“我们不在那天。”
Smile more? Some critics see sexism in debate over Biden VP
CHICAGO -- She's too ambitious. She's not apologetic enough. She should smile more.
The debate over Joe Biden's running mate has recently ticked through a familiar list of stereotypes about women in politics as the Democratic presidential candidate and his allies stumble through a search they had hoped would stand out for its inclusion and diversity.
Instead, the vice presidential vetting has resurfaced internal party divisions between the old-guard establishment and a younger generation that's more attuned to gender and racial biases and willing to speak out. Some contend it's just more evidence of why Biden needs a woman on his ticket.
“The fact is that although we’ve come really far in the last 100 years, we haven’t come far enough for women candidates to be treated with the same level of decency as the male candidates are," said Donna Brazile, a former Democratic National Committee chair.
Biden, the presumptive nominee and a former vice president himself, has said he will pick a woman as his number two and he would probably reach a decision this week, though a formal announcement could come later.
The scrutiny of his choices has intensified in recent weeks, while allies have weighed in, sometimes in ways that feed the tensions.
On Monday, Ed Rendell, a former Democratic Party chairman and a Biden ally, was quoted in The Washington Post noting that there has been recent buzz about former National Security Adviser Susan Rice. He observed that Rice was smiling during a TV appearance, “something that she doesn’t do all that readily,” and that she was “actually somewhat charming.”
Rendell, 76, has commented on another candidate's demeanor, too, telling CNN last week that California Sen.Kamala Harriscan “rub people the wrong way.”
Some see that sort of commentary — docking women for being aggressive and rewarding them for intangibles such as likability — as the sort of bias they say has dogged women in politics for decades.
Rendell said in a phone interview Monday that any suggestions his comment about Rice was sexist were “ludicrous." He said it was a compliment, a description of a good candidate, no different from when people commented on Richard Nixon smiling more on the comeback trail.
“This country is so nuts,” he said of criticism of his choice of words, blaming it partly on the media. “We’re going crazy.”
Politico recently reported that former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, the co-chair of Biden's vetting committee, was concerned that Harris, a former presidential candidate, was not sufficiently regretful about attacking Biden during a primary debate. Others have criticized Harris, who is considered a top prospect, as too ambitious.
Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and 2018 governor candidate, was similarly criticized for touting her credentials for the V.P. job. She pushed back, saying it would be a disservice to women of color and “women of ambition" to not be forthright.
She said Sunday on MSNBC, “When you do something different, when you meet the standards that are normative for men with a behavior that they don’t expect from you, either as a woman or person of color, then you’re going to get critiqued.”
Rice is African American. Harris’s parents are both immigrants, her father from Jamaica, her mother from India.
That some comments and criticism are coming from older, white men with longtime relationships with the 77-year-old, white Biden has been noted.
Glynda Carr, president of Higher Heights for America, a group that aims to help increase Black women’s political power, said she believes it’s a reaction — conscious or subconscious — from male leaders who “may feel their type of leadership will be hard to maintain” with today’s electorate.
Carr compared them, without naming names, to “dinosaurs in extinction.” She urged the Biden campaign to wrap the process up soon.
“I do think the longer we go there are diminishing returns because everybody feels they need to chime in,” she said.
Comments focusing on gender — as well as the the media’s focus on them — are a sore spot for Democrats who fear a repeat of 2016, when they believe presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was defeated in part because of sexist attitudes.
They note that Biden himself is a former vice president — with enough ambition to fuel his third run for the presidency — and say no one would criticize Republican Vice President Mike Pence for eyeing the top job. And they say the conversation about the candidates has been focused on motives, demeanor or personality traits at a level far greater than it would be, or has been, when men are being considered.
Antjuan Seawright, a veteran South Carolina Democratic strategist, says the media are intent on ginning up conflict and finding dirt on rising leaders.
“I hope that this process doesn’t devolve into what some are trying to make it out to be — and that’s pitting two African American women that are pivotal to this party and this country against each other," he said.
However, lifelong experience with sexism and racism will only help potential running mates make better leaders for a country dealing with a global pandemic, racial injustice and other crises, said the Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, one of more than 100 Black clergy who have urged Biden to choose a Black woman as running mate
“It is always harder for women. When you’re at that level of power, you have to ready for that fight, and you have to expect it," she said, adding that the scrutiny men face is “much fairer."
“We’d all like to see a day when women are treated more fairly,” she said. "We’re not in that day.”
