Affirmative Action does not mean "female and black or (insert Affirmative Action category here)".
Affirmative Action means "held to far lower standards because that person is (insert Affirmative Action category here)."
If you have no problem with Affirmative Action candidates, in politics or in any field where competence matters, ..... you should.
If all NBA teams are told by the NBA Commissioner that, for the sake of "diversity", all NBA teams must have at least one token white guy as a starter, regardless of abilty, then that white guy qualifies as being "Affimative Action".
In the NFL "Rooney Rule" mandates, the token person with the black skin that must be humiliated by an interview for a job everbody knows he will never get because Bill Belicheck has decided to leave as Coach of the New England Patriots is an Affirmative Action candidate.
By contrast, Tony Dungee, a Coach that most NFL teams would kill to have, will never be an Affirmative Action candidate because he is highly desireable because he is damned good at what he does and not merely because of the color of his skin.
Besides... America is tired of the old white guy politicians and pretty hair doos and tans and I am not talking about the women.
I, personally, do not like "pretty hair doos" and Perry's hair turns me off. But, you know what?
A Presidential election should not be about hair or about great legs or looks or about XY chromosomes or XX chromosomes or skin color.
A a Presidential election should be about the BEST QUALIFIED person available REGARDLESS of looks.
If Ronald Reagan, in his prime, were alive today and looked like this:
That, butt-ugly female should be the next President of the United States.
Once upon a time, America valued what counts instead of valueing "looks".
"Lincoln's voice was, when he first began speaking, shrill, squeaking, piping, unpleasant; his general look, his form, his pose, the color of his flesh, wrinkled and dry, his sensitiveness, and his momentary diffidence, everything seemed to be against him, ... " --William H. Herndon letter, July 19, 1887