McSame's clearly cynical strategy is to use this young woman to play for women's votes. It's transparent. Well, I guess he desperately needed something to jolt the race a bit, and he got that in spades. She'll be a good campaigner. What's more, she's immunized against attacks from anyone with a Y chromosome (at least for now).
Still, on balance she's an awful pick. So who needs to be on point on this?
Women
I know lots of people are lining up to unload on this, but women need to go to the front of that line.
Today, Barbara Boxer held up the standard:
The Vice President is a heartbeat away from becoming President, so to choose someone with not one hour’s worth of experience on national issues is a dangerous choice.
If John McCain thought that choosing Sarah Palin would attract Hillary Clinton voters, he is badly mistaken. The only similarity between her and Hillary Clinton is that they are both women. On the issues, they could not be further apart.
Senator McCain had so many other options if he wanted to put a women on his ticket, such as Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison or Senator Olympia Snowe – they would have been an appropriate choice compared to this dangerous choice. In addition, Sarah Palin is under investigation by the Alaska state legislature which makes this more incomprehensible.
We have to keep this going. It's critical for our wonderful, powerful female politicians to rock them back on their heels RIGHT NOW!
Palin is a regressive choice for women's rights. But, she speaks very well to important women's issues nonetheless (such as balancing family and career).