MCCAIN'S SEXIST VP PICK.
Ann Friedman explains why women should be insulted that John McCain thinks all he has to do to win their votes is put a woman on the ticket:
Last month, Bill Kristol was predicting that McCain would choose Palin because "Republicans are much more open to strong women." (He also decried the "horrible sexism and misogyny" Hillary Clinton faced in the Democratic primary, but somehow failed to mention his own comment during the primary that, "white women are a problem, that's, you know -- we all live with that.") As recently as last week he was railing against the "Democrats' glass ceiling." And today, FOX News was already crowing, "Looks like the glass ceiling hasn't been broken by Hillary Clinton, but by Senator McCain."Palin's addition to the ticket takes Republican faux-feminism to a whole new level. As Adam Serwer pointed out on TAPPED, this is in fact a condescending move by the GOP. It plays to the assumption that disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters did not care about her politics -- only her gender. In picking Palin, Republicans are lending credence the sexist assumption that women voters are too stupid to investigate or care about the issues, and merely want to vote for someone who looks like them. As Serwer noted, it's akin to choosing Alan Keyes in an attempt to compete with Obama for votes from black Americans.
I can't help but be, oh, a little bit skeptical of Republican's sudden interest in the glass ceiling. After all, this is the party that threw women like Lilly Ledbetter under the bus, in favor of businesses that practice wage discrimination. The party that stymied the Equal Rights Amendment. The party that not only wants to force women here and abroad to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, but also wants to deny them access to a range of contraception options.
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COMMENTS (15)
I personally think it's insulting to lump all women together, whether by the Republicans or the Democrats. I am very pleased a woman will still be on one of the tickets, after Hillary was obviously thrown under the bus by the Dems. Make of that what you will.
Posted by: Jaycee | August 29, 2008 4:40 PM
I'm just wondering if any of the people denouncing this pick as condescending to women (because women wouldn't TRULY just vote based on gender) have actually talked to some die-hard Hillary Clinton supporters? While this is admittedly anecdotal, the ones I've met have been primarily obsessed with the idea of getting a woman elected president. I didn't hear any of them discuss how much in sync they were with Hillary's policy positions - it was all she's a woman, it's time, etc. After she conceded, I attended a meeting of our county's Democratic women's club and I was horrified by the spectacle of women crying and yelling about how this was a women's rights issue, how we owed it to the suffragettes to get a woman - or perhaps Hillary yet - at the top of the ticket. No one was complaining that we were less likely to see universal health care or the like; it was utterly gender politics. I would not doubt that some of them will find the idea of voting against Obama and for a ticket with a woman an alluring prospect. These women (and a few men, I might add) felt truly scorned somehow by this Dem primary process, and well...hell hath no fury...
Posted by: Jenni | August 29, 2008 4:48 PM
If I had wanted Geena Davis in high public office, I would have watched that lousy show she was on, "Commander in Chief." Palin has even less talent, beyond the obvious charms for dirty old McSame.
Posted by: Phipps | August 29, 2008 4:54 PM
Under the bus, riiiight...
Obama's campaign was honest, strong and smart. He simply managed to break a different glass ceiling, with a few more "hammers."
Posted by: Jaycee | August 29, 2008 4:59 PM
I totally disagree! McCain understands something that Obama does not: Americans are ready for (at least 18 million) and wanted a woman in a leadership position. McCain gets it. Palin is an excellent choice, and it casts my vote for McCain even though I'm a lifelong Democrat. I'm ready to see what a woman can do in the Oval Office other than coordinating the Easter Egg Hunt.
Posted by: katherine | August 29, 2008 5:09 PM
I read the headline on the piece as "McCain's Sexiest VP Pick." Which, of course, is hardly irrelevant to why he picked her too.
Posted by: ColoZ | August 29, 2008 5:59 PM
For Palin to break the glass ceiling, doesn't she actually have to win? Otherwise, what puts her ahead of Ferraro?
Posted by: Scott P. | August 29, 2008 7:09 PM
Katherine you weren't a lifelong Democrat' because if your voting on gender reasons only that makes you closed minded. Good luck with that.
Posted by: david | August 29, 2008 8:55 PM
McCaine is like 100 years old if he kicks the bucket in office I wouldnt want any person with just 2 years governors exprience with their finger on the button. She is not qualifyed to run the country and McCain is a dinosaur!
Posted by: Colorless | August 29, 2008 9:10 PM
Palin's perfect for this country--she's all fluff and glitz, nice as all getout, trashy, trigger happy, dumb as a snowball, deeply fascist in her tendencies, lilly white, a greaaat mommy don't you know and picture perfect wifey who can bring home that bacon and fry it up in a pan and never ever let McInsane forget he's an old man....
Posted by: Cuz I'm a Woman W-O-M-A-N | August 29, 2008 9:53 PM
"As Adam Serwer pointed out on TAPPED, this is in fact a condescending move by the GOP. It plays to the assumption that disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters did not care about her politics -- only her gender. "
My mother says it's like if your goldfish died and your parents bought a new one and thought you wouldn't notice the difference. Well said on her part, I think.
Posted by: kyle | August 29, 2008 11:02 PM
"In picking Palin, Republicans are lending credence the sexist assumption that women voters are too stupid to investigate or care about the issues, and merely want to vote for someone who looks like them."
Um, how do you think Hillary Clinton came even close to beating Obama?
Posted by: Rockwell | August 30, 2008 12:25 AM
Could someone remind me what Obama said last night in that talk? I watched it but just can't remember anything he said. Everyone in the media is talking up this GOP veep pick, so I can't find any stories about the O in the media. The country has just moved on. Maybe the Omeister can do another big talk or something, book a big stadium, hire a band. It just might work.
Posted by: Rumplemeier | August 30, 2008 4:26 AM
"somehow failed to mention his own comment during the primary that, "white women are a problem, that's, you know -- we all live with that.""
I always found this comment sneakily sardonic. White women *are* a problem, Katie Scarlett, or didn't you get That Memo? And we *do* all live with that.
I always thought that the Democratic Party was plenty foolish for descending into identity politics during the Primary. HRC wisely started out really trying to emphasize her "experience" and capabilities, but YOU Anne Friedman, and many of her supporters kept insisting that it was a PLUS that HRC (and/or Obama) were of a particular identity, we were supposed to benefit from "the woman's perspective." In the end, when HRC was really trying to pull it out, that's what she ended up going with.
Well, Palin is a woman and has different perspectives, some of which may be shared by other women who are not YOU. Maybe even women who vote Democrat, regularly or occasionally.
Somehow I don't think this particular line of attack--calling her a "faux-feminist"-- is going to work.
No one really care because there simply isn't a person over 22 who hasn't had their own "faux-feminism" impugned by The High Priestesses already.
Give this eternal shit a rest and change the goddamn subject. The Republicans are playing you like the well studied fiddle you already are.
Posted by: Anonymous | August 30, 2008 11:15 AM
Senator Clinton and Governor Palin are proof that women can and do diverge on important issues.
The 'women's vote' is a myth!
Suffragettes were opposed by many women who were what was known as 'anti.'
They believed women were incapable of selecting or becoming political leaders, even as they themselves took leadership roles against votes for women!
The most influential 'anti' lived in the White House. First Lady Edith Wilson was a wealthy Washington widow who married President Wilson in 1915, six months after the death of his pro-suffrage wife Ellen.
She endeared herself to her future husband, who had consistently opposed votes for women, when she declared at their first meeeting that she didn't even know who the candidates were in the 1912 election, and felt that women had no business whatsoever in politics.
Her precise role in the jailing and torture of Alice Paul and hundreds of suffragettes will never be known for certain, but she was outraged that they picketed her husband's White House.
Most people are totally in the dark about HOW the suffragettes won, and what life was REALLY like before they did.
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Posted by: Virginia Harris | August 30, 2008 12:48 PM