Posted on 08/29/2008 11:21:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Republicans dropped a news bomb on Friday morning, shattering the mile-high reverie of Barack Obama's Thursday night speech with news that John McCain has picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate.
The first thing you may notice about Palin is that she is a woman, the first female governor of Alaska and, at 44, its youngest. This is big news on a presidential stage: It makes her only the second major-party woman vice-presidential candidate in American history, the first in GOP history, and presents this forehead-smacking reality: Come January 2009, this country will have either a black president or a female vice president.
Palin is a former sports reporter and housewife who became mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, in 1996, and was elected governor in 2006. She is the mother of five children (named Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig -- top that, Gwyneth Paltrow!), the oldest of whom will be deployed to Iraq on Sept. 11 (seriously) and the youngest of whom was born four months ago with Down syndrome. Palin's decision to continue her pregnancy, despite the fact that the illness was detected in prenatal genetic tests, will be a rallying point for the religious right.
Palin presents some stomach-churning possibilities for Democrats and for the Obama campaign, which has spent the past summer, and especially the past week, wrestling disillusioned women into line after the disappointment of Hillary Clinton's supercharged but failed presidential bid.
Of course, even a cursory glance at Palin's positions should be enough to warn Democratic women (and men) to stay far, far away. The governor's Web site states: "I am pro-life and I believe that marriage should only be between a man and a woman." Palin is a member of Feminists for Life, and said during her gubernatorial campaign that she is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest. Palin is a lifelong member of the National Rifle Association, and when it comes to healthcare, she says, "I support flexibility in government regulations that allow competition in health care that is needed."
For the true Hillary holdouts, the handful of so-called PUMAs who spent this week jawing about how they were going to vote for John McCain, these antiwoman stances aren't likely to make a dent. These agitators will not consider that picking Palin, a politician with only a few years of experience, is a pandering and condescending sop toward them, one that suggests that by dint of her gender alone, Palin could stand in for Clinton, who spent years being fire-forged for her place in history.
Then again, after a week in which Clinton did everything short of standing on her head and humming the Battle Hymn of the Republic to get women fired up and ready to go for Obama, and in which Obama and Joe Biden did their part to provide some thrilling political theater for both sexes, nothing was going to shake these stalwarts, whom Rachel Maddow recently called "post-rational," from their self-immolating mission.
But even among more reasonable Democrats, the Palin pick does create worries for the still-tender party, not the least of which is that it will reopen a debate about whether Barack Obama should have picked a female vice president, or more specifically, Hillary Clinton.
Biden is a strong candidate for Democratic women, with a good record of supporting reproductive rights and opposing antichoice nominees to the Supreme Court. Biden also wrote the groundbreaking Violence Against Women Act, and is great on the lunch-bucket economic issues so vital to so many American women.
But there was pressure on Obama, especially after the energy (and votes) generated by Clinton's run, to consider as a running mate Clinton herself, or women like Kathleen Sebelius and Janet Napolitano. He reportedly did not formally vet Clinton, and none of his final top three candidates for the job were female.
The selection of Palin makes it easier to see what the advantages of putting a woman on the Democratic ticket might have been for Obama. McCain likely tapped Palin specifically to battle Obama's perceived woman problem, and her selection blunts the Obama camp's argument that McCain has entirely lost his maverick edge. It also keeps Obama's from being the only history-making candidacy in the voting booth, and allows those undecideds who might have been queasy about Obama's differences (i.e. race) to funnel guilt about their hesitation into a vote they can tell themselves is socially progressive, and even -- ugh -- feminist.
During her speech, Palin gave a shout-out to Geraldine Ferraro and cited Clinton's rallying cry about the 18 million voters who cracked the White House glass ceiling, chillingly promising to break it for her. It was hard not to consider that if elected, Palin will be one health emergency away from becoming our first female president, and to feel frustration at Democrats not only for letting this particular piece of history slip through their fingers but for allowing the work that Clinton and her supporters did to get co-opted by their Republican opponents. If the Palin selection brings female voters to the McCain camp, there is likely to be a round of second-guessing about whether Obama read the tea leaves wrong and missed an opportunity to shore up his divided party more effectively by going with, or at least seriously considering, Clinton.
Palin's spot on the ticket will also mean the diffusion of feminist energy. Those who monitor gender bias in popular culture and the media are still icing their heads after the exhausting season of Clinton-baiting by the press, and (too) slowly rousting themselves to take on the ugly treatment of Michelle Obama. Now there will also be Sarah Palin to consider, a candidate who represents none of what they believe in, but whose nomination is already highlighting the fact that the Clinton candidacy apparently taught the news media nothing.
Over at CNN, John Roberts on Friday morning was talking about how the major function of a vice president is "to go to funerals," when he changed his tune about exactly how taxing the position might be. Discussing Palin's infant, Roberts noted, "Children with Down syndrome require an awful lot of attention and the role of vice president, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time. It raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?"
Dana Bash responded only that while Roberts' was "a very good question," she assumed that the McCain camp would wonder whether "if it were a man being picked who also had a baby with Down syndrome, would you also ask the same question?" Bash did not note that moments before, Roberts had been describing the vice presidency as a purely ceremonial position, or point out that Palin has for some time been pulling off the feat of governing a state while lactating (not to mention gestating!).
Meanwhile, over at the supposedly progressive MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell was consumed with one key question: whether Palin would neuter big bad Joe Biden. Forgetting, apparently, that the Delaware senator didn't seem to be frozen with fear while debating Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, Mitchell wondered about how Biden, known for his attack-dog debate style, "can be tough against a woman. Doesn't it give her a gender advantage?" This was clearly Mitchell's keenest insight into McCain's pick, since a few minutes later she repeated, "You can't be too tough on a woman in a debate, or can you?"
And then there's the fact that Palin is a very attractive woman, a Tina Fey look-alike who was a runner-up for Miss Alaska in 1984 and, who even before getting picked by McCain, had already been tagged online as a GILF (think MILF except for governors!). And the Wall Street Journal quickly put up a piece about her workout routine and diet. "My ideal fantasy is to be running on a hot dusty road just wearing running shorts and some kind of top that wicks away sweat," she tells the paper, as well as that "a skinny white-chocolate mocha is my staple in the morning."
Welcome to the 2008 presidential race, folks, where history gets made about as prettily as sausage.
Liberals are starting to break ranks and open fire on their women voters. They don't know how to compute this new turn of events, and their poor discipline and thinly veiled misogyny is rising to the surface. And right now, Obama is owning all of the blowback.
I would surprise me not one iota to hear that this dingbag pulls the lever for McCain/Palin come November.
Think about even more fear for the Libs: Palin will be in the catbird’s seat if McCain quits after one, (or two) terms. Just think Libs, you could have a female ,Pro-life, President for one or two (gasp)terms. “O Tempora, O Mores!” No more dead babies. What will they do!
Buyers remorse, no problem. Do you think it’s too late for the dems to change their vp pick? Not the dems, Ole Joe can always come up with some kind of ailment. Don’t put nothing past the scumbags.
What’s interesting is that I saw Geraldine Ferraro on one of the news shows yesterday (can’t remember which one) and she had nothing but encouraging things to say about Governor Palin.
She is a feminist in the true and original sense
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WORTH REPEATING
I know that Ferraro was on with Cavuto and she was very satisfied with the pick.
There can always be some sort of scenario they’ll come up with, and I wouldn’t put it past them to try and turn the tables.
aND, the votes that McCain will recieve from those Hillary voters will not just be a plus for McCain but they will be a minus from the Obama numbers.
Thus Puma are double votes. 10 percent means obama goes down 10 while McCain goes up 10. That turns..................48 42 into 38 52
Can you smell what The Palin is cooking?
Not to worry. It's clean. Online since 4-Aug.
You overestimate both \their power and any negative feelings they may have for Hillary. The establishment was strongly for her in the beginning.
Obama won due to the far-left voters of the caucus states (and blacks in Southern primary states) preferring him to Hillary and the superdelagates reticence to shafting the black guy when he had won more delegates.
I recall it being used by college men back when I was one myself in the late 80's, along with "GLM" (Good Lookin' Mommy). It's crude, but not an invention of the pornographers.
In a word no. She’d unite the rats but bog him down with the Clinton scandal stink and motivate Republican turn out.
Places like the Daily Kos and DU are full of crude, unpleasant invective against Sarah today. There are accusations she slept with McCain for the job, sneers about her looks and her beauty-pageant background, jeers for choosing to bring a baby with Down syndrome into the world, and a whole lot more. It is ugly and nasty, and amongst all the venom, you will see a few posts from feminists who are really upset at the way all the metrosexual Donk men are turning out to be knuckle-draggers too.
And women voters outnumber black voters... hehe...
The feminist leftists have tried to elevate women by denigrating men.
American men are fed up with being ridiculed and disrespected by angry, bitter women.
Can you imagine Hillary Clinton giving a speech in which she announces Bill Clinton is the man she most respects in the world?
Yes, only in far-left Libdom is defending the second amendment and liking babies being anti-woman. I don't think these nuts know how many middle-America Dems have guns and are not crazy about abortion "rights".
YES! Instead, he goes with some washed up chia pet. Is it too late for Hussein Obomber to change his mind?
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