Sarah Palin—McCain's Ham-Handed Tribal Gamble and Continuing Arrogance
Sarah Palin (or Susan Palin, as a Fox News reporter kept calling her this morning in a sign of how truly out of left field—deep, deep north-left field, beyond the Canadian border—this pick was) represents a gamble by John McCain that the Hillary factor is more important than the "experience" issue. It also shows (I hope) how little he understands the women's movement, and displays the arrogance that has marked his campaign so far.
I drove to Denver Airport with two of my coworkers this morning. One asked the other two of us whether Palin is really the most qualified person to be president. The two of us—he an R, I a D—just started laughing. The Palin selection is a ham-handed play for disaffected Hillary Clinton voters. And it's an insulting one: It treats female voters as a single-issue (it's a woman!) special interest to be bought off. The assumption is that women will go tribal, voting for a sister in spite of what she espouses. It's rather insulting really—the kind of assumption that only an aged sexist would make (if I can borrow a smart formulation from a Democrat I communicated with today).
I wondered how the various women's advocacy groups would handle the nomination and got a first answer on my BlackBerry when EMILY's List sent out a press release blasting the Alaska governor. "How ironic that, on his 72nd birthday, McCain has raised the question of whether his running mate is prepared to be Commander in Chief and lead the country," the statement said. (Nice double play there: He's really old, and she's too young.)
John McCain has been running for president for eight years; Joe Biden for 20; Barack Obama has been running for 18 months. These three have thought through the big national questions. It will be interesting to see how Palin handles her crash course in "I'm ready to be president." (To be clear: I like Obama because of his judgment; nothing I've heard about Palin indicates to me that hers qualifies her for the big office.)
Maybe the McCain thinking is to paint as sexist anyone who questions her qualifications, generating a sisterly backlash.
Certainly the McCain team must understand that questions about Obama's experience are now moot.
Finally, this displays the preening arrogance characteristic of McCain's campaign. The same people who were surprised to learn that a campaign run by lobbyists might have trouble maintaining a maverick, outsider image now produce a vice presidential candidate who is under ethical investigation by the state legislature.
Classic.
Tags: presidential election 2008 | Republicans | running mates | John McCain | Sarah Palin
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Reader Comments
Knowledge
Isn't a VP supposed to know things? Sara Palin doesn't know anything. She doesn't answer questions because she doesn't know anything. She doesn't understand the questions. She should stop calling Obama a socialist because I am sure she doesn't even know what socialism is. She is clearly out of her league!
Sara Palin
She is definetly not Hillary Clinton; and if Mcain thinks we would vote for her based on her gender he is too deeply entrenched in the good old boy thinking to be President of anything. I supported Ms Clinton because she is smart, articulate, and knows the issues; I supported her because she is pro choice; believes people are responsible for global warming, and universial health care. Sara Palin will not get my vote. I now support Barack Obama; for all the same reasons I supported Hillary.
Sara Palin and Feminists
I am a 59 year old feminist with four granddaughters. I have been a political activist since the 60's. I am so happy to see how little my granddaughters think gender limits them. Because of the laws we passed in the 70's they have not equal but at least more equal access to achieving whatever they want. Both Hillary Clinton and Sara Palin are also a testament to our progress in assuring women more choices. I am however deeply offended by the selection of Sara Palin to be a heartbeat away from the office President of the United States. I don't like McCain and would not vote for him anyway but I think he is qualified to be President. Although Barak Obama is relatively young his accomplishments are significant, his intellect and ability proved in several arenas. He has the judgement and gravitas we need to make the very difficult decisions facing this country. Sara Palin on the other hand acts as if this is a show. She has exactly zero demonstrated knowledge nor did she even address the key issues facing this country. A woman with five children ought to be talking about the policies we need to make sure families can take care of their children so that women and men can achieve the American Dream. And frankly and honestly I am offended by her parading her pregant daughter and her obviously reluctant boyfriend as some kine of success. My 18 year old granddaughter is pregnant and while I will love and accept the baby, it is an unfortunate circumstance and I cannot imagine exposing her at such a difficult time to such public scrutiny. I was an 18 year old mother myself. I know how hard it is. It is a situation that calls for a lot of family support not political drama. If Sara Palin was a Democrat, conservatives would be ripping her to pieces for her lack of "family values." What I hate is the total hypocrisy of this choice and the total terror of the possibility of her becoming President and leader of the free world.
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