If Sarah Palin was a man being nominated for vice president she would be laughed
out of politics and so would John McCain.
About the woman thing: “We should all be proud,” Hillary Clinton
said in a statement, of this “historic nomination.”Sorry, but count me out. I found Palin’s selection, and her calculated shout-out
to unhappy Clinton supporters, insulting. In that sense, Palin’s selection
seems less like Quayle and more like Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court.
“She’s exactly who I need,” McCain said — but the notion that Palin,
like Thomas, is the best-qualified for the job is ludicrous.
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| It’s not sexist to call McCain’s Sarah Palin pick what it is. |
Count me out, too.
If Sarah Palin was a Democrat, she would be ridiculed by the right and forced
to remove her name from consideration, though it’s doubtful that Democrats would
make such a boneheaded, ignorant, insulting move, because Republicans would
let us have it if we did.
But now, all of a sudden, Sarah Palin is supposed to be taken seriously for
the vice presidency, because John McCain cannot be doubted? He panicked, deciding
he better make a deal with the devil he used to rail against rather than get
caught with his base disaffected. The “straight talk express” sold
his soul to the fanatics. Sarah Palin is what America got in return.
Maureen
Dowd is the president of the Clinton haters, but she nails Sarah Palin today
and the hypocrisy surrounding this choice. Elevating women the likes of Palin
to being one step away from commander in chief, but not calling this affirmative
action selection in go-go boots, diminishes all women of real competency.
At some point, women have to stand up and say no to insulting selections that
make a mockery of the rest of us who have not only had to pay our dues, but
wait our turn. It took Hillary Clinton 35 years to prove her prowess. It’s taken me decades, including honorable investigative work that is often ridiculed, plus years of working tirelessly to make a name for myself, to get where I am today. Women
need to be able to stand up against and separate themselves from a political
marketing plan based solely on packaging, as opposed to a worthy choice that
honors the expertise of women of real stature. The choice of Sarah Palin is
gender affirmative action and nothing more, which no independent woman should
support or condone. It’s nothing less than a slap in the face to all sisters
wanting equality based on merit, not marketing.
McCain’s choice of Palin reveals his reasoning for being against equal
pay, believing that women need more training before being eligible for pay equity.
If anyone needs more training to be a heart beat away from the presidency it
is Sarah Palin.
“She’s going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he’ll be around at least that long,” said Charlie Black, one of Mr. McCain’s top advisers…
Either women are going to be judged equally, which includes the requisite experience
for the same jobs, with men or we are not. If we are to be considered for serious
positions like the most important job of all, the presidency and commander in
chief, then we should be judged on the same criteria as men.
There’s a lot of talk now about sexist language and judgments being
leveled, with terms, phrases and graphics judged inappropriate. It’s not sexist
to call the selection of Sarah Palin what it is. She was chosen on purely gender
terms, her looks, and her personality, along with her hard reactionary right
wing views, so John McCain could buy the presidency through the pulpit wing
of the Republican Party. That’s how she will be judged around here.
Sarah
Palin is the Miss Vice President candidate, nothing more. She has been tapped
to be Miss Republican 2008. I have no intention of opining otherwise.
Palin’s selection, though, feels like a disappointing retreat to the identity
politics of 1984, when Geraldine Ferraro was picked solely because Walter
Mondale wanted a woman on the Democratic ticket. On Friday, Ferraro was on
Fox News, talking about how “people are looking for a historic campaign,”
and suggesting that the choice of Palin “might do it.”
No wonder I never felt simpatico with Geraldine Ferraro.
Sarah Palin has no foreign policy stance, writings, thoughts or experience
whatsoever. Palin also has no stance on jobs. National security and the economy
evidently haven’t crossed her mind as important enough to weigh in on. She’s
too busy pushing that dinosaurs and people lived on the planet at the same time.
That is when she’s not telling women that if they’re raped to suck it up and
have the child, including in cases of incest.
This woman isn’t vice presidential material. She should be nominated for administrator
to the creation museum in Kansas.
Yet we are supposed to ignore her resume, including her ethics issues and the
tawdry soap opera dogging her that has her being investigated, and not call
her what she is. An unqualified embarrassment to all women who have the requisite
experience to be seriously considered for leadership jobs of great importance,
as well as a potential danger to our country’s national security.
Hillary Clinton was supported because she was qualified. Nobody voted for her
because she was simply a woman. Those who did make up the unhinged fringe, having
no credibility or numbers whatsoever, now being relegated to the sidelines only to whine, because they can’t take defeat like a man.
Sarah Palin wasn’t chosen by 18 million voters in a primary. As Paul Begala
said on CNN, she was chosen by one man to be the vice presidential nominee and
be one fatal moment away from the presidency. Why John McCain did this is beyond
all rationale, especially since Palin brings the age issue into stark view,
something people had been tip toeing around before. We want this woman next in line to the presidency?
Yet McCain, after looking
into her Miss Vice President soul, channeling the Bush strategy for leadership once again, evidently saw someone he thinks can be
commander in chief if he drops dead. I wrote it first, Ruth Marcus seconds it
today.
How dumb do they think women are? So dumb that former Clinton supporters
would defect to McCain-Palin, even though the candidates’ agendas — including
their agendas on issues of particular importance to women — could not be
more different?In the estimation of this woman, anyway, McCain’s standing went down, not
up, with this cynical choice.
It also proves that John McCain does not have the judgment or the seriousness
to be president. His first important decision as the Republican nominee was
to choose a running mate not close to being up for the job. Of course, that
doesn’t mean McCain-Palin can’t get elected. It just means that if they do we’re
risking the safety of this nation, our military, and the prestige of the United
States of America, in the process.
