I’m just wondering, when Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for President last weekend, why did “can’t win” appear alongside her name in all the headlines?

Google News Search: Hillary Clinton Can’t Win

You don’t see this happening with Obama or any other nominees. This certainly seems intentional; I don’t think the democrats came up with this phrase for her, we can blame the Republicans for that, but the democrats have been dumb enough to internalize it. (”Gee, maybe she can’t win. I’d elect her but every time I hear her name, I think ‘can’t win’. I guess she can’t win.”)

Now, this isn’t an endorsement for Hillary Clinton, she’s not my favorite candidate and I don’t agree with a lot of her politics, but I do want her to have a fair shot, and there are clearly a lot of alarming cultural issues arising from her run for president. Mother Jones has a good article, Harpy, Hero, Heretic, that discusses the hatred towards her and how when a powerful woman is the topic of discussion, anything is game, including her weight, her breasts, her sex life, or any number of dehumanizing descriptions. And even this progressive article is caught doing something unfair, referring to her as just ‘Hillary’, when you hardly ever hear of articles just referring to Barack Obama as just ‘Barack’. I know that using her first name is easier to differentiate between Senator Clinton and former President Clinton, but news organizations should be professional enough to at least use her full name.
Barack Obama’s race is also bringing up ugly cultural issues, such as Fox News’ attempt to vilify and alienate Obama from being ‘American’. While I’m glad both issues are being discussed, I haven’t heard anyone talk about the subtle sexism of always associating a woman’s name with “can’t win”. While perhaps indeed America isn’t ready for a female president, a first step would be realizing that we’re still internalizing these associations, dooming us to perpetuate this vicious cycle.