I appreciate her gender-bending approach and her use of American popular culture. It’s an historic moment, no matter what your political opinion is of either candidate. I’ve seen other comparisons made from U.S. history, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton vs. Frederick Douglass, as ways to contextualize the relevance of having these two candidates in 2008.

 

But for Clinton to create a pop culture duel between an Italian American, Rocky Balboa, and an African American, Apollo Creed, is for one, just plain interesting. Even more, her appropriation seems to trivialize the iconic underdog/working class Italian American image of (at least the first) Rocky.

 

And don’t forget, Rocky puts up a valiant struggle, but in the end, he loses.