Wow that madcap, maverick GOP! They're just gaga over Alaska's Harley-riding, huntin' and fishin', Jesus-lovin' , tough-talkin', wife-and-mother-governor!
Talk about a crafty pick out of a crowded field of GOP female leaders and star players.
Well, OK, sure many have proven themselves too willing to become what the mis-managers of that grand old party call libruls -- like the Maine Senators, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins, and that renegade from NJ, Christine Todd Whitman.
Still, they've got lots of loyal women with polished resumes and decades of policy work and achievements to crow about. But boring! And the GOP knew it; so they found a surprise. (You know who. But come along for more about who's smart and who's boring after the jump.)
What can you tell about a future leader from a resume, anyway? Just the boring stuff like lots of fancy university degrees. (One isn't enough?) And honorary degrees. ("Newsflash: just silly window dressing," Sarah would say in that girlie-folksy style she unveiled for us in her speech last night.) And tedious lists of job titles with 5-7 words to each title; books written; articles published. Too much information to try and make sense of ! Who needs it?
That's what those mavericks helping old John McCain understand. And they knew they'd found a winner -- someone that REAL people can relate to -- when they found Sara Palin for him. Wow; just wow!
Just for fun, though, take a look at some of the dull and boring details attached to the resumes of the tired, old choices they MIGHT have made (If they were stupid. Which they're not.)
Start in Bush's Cabinet and there are five women with decades and DECADES of boring policy experience among them: Mary Peters (Transporation) , Margaret Spelling (Education), Elaine Cho (Labor), Ambassador Susan Schwab, (U.S. Trade Representative), and of course, Condi! Although I'd almost certainly never waste a vote on any of them, (unless it was one of them vs. Sarah Palin) that doesn't mean I don't admire the depth of their credentials.
While I don't believe that Susan Schwab has been on anyone's short list for higher office, she's done more than a few things that might qualify her. A former Dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland (1995-2003), a trade policy specialist, an author, Schwab has been educated at Williams College, Stanford University, and George Washington University where she earned here PhD in public administration and international business. In addition she has long experience working overseas, and she grew up in a Foreign Service family, living in Asia, Africa, and Europe. This is someone that GOP handlers probably think the voters would run from!
And don't we all know the mind-numbing details of Condi's qualifications? No point in rehashing those. Or her 9 or more honorary degress. Or the dozens of boards of directors she has served on. Another over-qualified woman no republican strategist could imagine any red blooded American male actually voting for!
The Republican women in the U.S. Senate -- besides the libruls already mentioned - include a political veteran (Elizabeth Dole, elected from NC in 03) and Lisa Murkowski, an interesting newcomer who just happens to be another Alaskan and a political opponent, in a way, of Sarah Palin.
Murkowski was appointed to her Senate seat in 2002 by her father, then Governor Frank Murkowski, to fill the Senate seat he had vacated to run for governor. She earned a six year term for herself in 2004, but charges of nepotism clung to her father and he, of course, was defearted in his bid for relection in 2006 by the brassy young mayor of Wasilla.
In addition to her Senate seat, Lisa Murkowski's resume includes a B.A. in economics and a law degree, a law practice in Anchorage, wife and mother credits, 5 years in the Alaska House of Representatives, and - - a huge problem for would-be stars of the GOP -- support for stem cell research. Another woman who could bring nothing but trouble to the McCain ticket!
But wait, what about Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison? Once thought to be on a list of GOP women who might possibly consider a run of their own for the Big Prize, she was certainly thought to be on everyone's short list for the VP slot. A veteran senator (but not TOO old), smart (but not TOO smart; she was a cheerleader, after all, as an undergrad), Hutchison is popular at home in Texas, and powerful in the Senate. First winning a special election in 1993, she garned more than 60% of the vote again in 1994, 2000, and 2006. She currently holds the fourth highest leadership position in the caucus of the senate republicans. She is a loyal conservative republican by almost any measure; however she has occasionaly crossed party lines, thereby, crossing herself off the list of contenders in the GOP of the 21st century!
Too bad maybe; because she is someone who might just possibly have had some slim chance (well....very-very slim) of courting some of those Hillary votes McCain and his handlers claimed to covet. Of course the truth -- and they must have known it all along -- is that they never really had any chance of getting them.
And they probably never wanted them either. They just wanted a nice huntin/fishin/prayin' red-meat girl like Sarah Palin to fire up their crazy conservative base. That's all they think they need -- well that, and a craven, corporate-owned media -- to steal another election from the American people.
Well we'll see about that. Here's what we've got:
* a smarter electorate that has learned to value expertise in its public servants,
* an engaged electorate that is demanding solutions to healthcare, oil dependence, and the problems that are resulting from climate change,
* a wide-awake grassroots that is well organized and supported, and
* our stellar candidates.
That's all. And it's going to be more than enough.