Political punditry is largely a white male sport. The dynamics of this particular election, however, mean that it’s probably going to come down to people who don’t normally get much attention paid to their opinions — women, African Americans and Hispanics (about whom Rahm Emanuel famously said, "forget about ‘em — they don’t vote").

Right now we’re largely being pundited at by said white males who are prognosticating about these constituencies like they’re juggling Crazy 8 balls. And it’s not that their opinions aren’t of value, they are. But it should be interesting to see, as time goes on, if the changing face of the Democratic party will be reflected in the makeup of its Monday Morning quarterbacks. And specifically I wonder — if women are indeed going to be accepted into the Hardball ranks, are they going to be free to tell Matthews and the boys that their humor isn’t funny, or is the price of admission going to be an Andrea Mitchell/Maureen Dowd willingness to pick apart other women and give the Good Gyno Seal of Approval to a bunch of frat boy misogyny?

I don’t support the corporatist hacks that fill out the Clinton roster and I don’t exactly think Nancy Pelosi has done a bang-up job of House leadership, but I do know that to let them fall prey to blatant misogyny (no matter how it may be disguised) means that it will be okay to dis-empower other progressive women candidates thusly on down the line. The place you have to take a stand doesn’t always come perfectly packaged.

And what I’m hearing privately from a lot of women is that they are seeing misogyny dressed up in quite a bit of politically correct finery but it’s very thinly veiled, and they’re afraid to come out and say anything for fear of getting attacked (and as running a blog with a large female audience has taught me, they frequently don’t have the stomach for flaming and online combat that men often do).

But you can feel a palpable rage building. Chris Matthews just happening to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So before we find ourselves in polarized camps and the only resort seems to be slash-and-burn tactics with people who should be friends and allies, it would be great to find a way to discuss this without becoming enemies for life. I’ll start.

Mark Ambinder, I’m a fan of your site. I read it all the time. I’ve never found you saying or doing anything that I find to be sexist or dismissive of women, and some women may find this video "cute," but I have to say that on seeing it I found the underlying message to be really dismissive and dis-empowering to a woman who is making a serious bid for the highest office in the land. It’s disrespectful and sends a bad message about women seeking power in general.

And as someone who is highly regarded in this election for your insight, your blog roll is a bit pale and male. I don’t imagine this is intentionally so.

Other than that, love your stuff. Keep up the good work.

See, no singe marks…how’d I do?