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NOW what? NOW''s endorsement of Carol Moseley Braun was a symbolic act. But some feminists wonder: is this the right time for symbolism?

Article Excerpt
WHEN CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN MADE her formal announcement on Sept. 22 that she was running for president, newspaper stories on the senator-turned-ambassador ran with a paragraph reminding readers that the announcement came on the heels of twin endorsements by the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the National Women's Political Caucus. The news of that support hit with such a soft impact--the aforementioned paragraph usually appeared well down in the piece--that it went all but unnoticed. The only major headline about NOW's endorsement ran on the editorial page of The New York Times, which chastised the "feminist outpost" for its "silly" choice of a "vanity" candidate. Kim Gandy, president of NOW, slammed the Times for "trivializing ... women and our concerns."

But some in the women's movement are wondering whether it wasn't NOW that was trivializing women's concerns. That the organization chose Moseley Braun as only its second endorsee in its 37-year history forces some tough questions about the logic of endorsing a candidate who clearly will not win the nomination. It also warrants some tough comparisons--to the organization's last presidential endorsement, Walter Mondale in the 1984 election, and to NOW's sister organizations, namely Emily's List, that have developed a more sophisticated approach to politics in...

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