Faludi hearts Hillary as barrom brawler

Susan Faludi, writing in the Times, constructs quite the creative narrative of how the Democratic nomination battle is playing out in the "subbasement of the national imagination"(The Fight Stuff, May 9). She gives us two "archetypes" -- female candidate as prissy moralist umpire (bad) vs. same candidate as bar-brawling, rule-busting pugilist (good). Never mind the demagogic backbeat of Faludi's implicit cheerleading for the latter (under the guise of simply reporting what white working class men respond to). One question: where's her evidence that any voters of any ethnicity or gender are responding, positively or negatively, to these alleged archetypes? Or that those archetypes even exist in voters' minds?