"His selection of Sarah Palin is so insulting...that I am starting to feel like the Geico Caveman."

[DeepModem Mom]

Baltimore Sun: A woman — but why this woman?
Susan Reimer
September 1, 2008

So. This is what being pandered to feels like.

John McCain picked Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and mother of five, to be his running mate to woo women like me. He seems to think that my girlfriends and I are so disappointed that an utterly qualified woman is not going to be president that we will jump at the chance to vote for an utterly unqualified woman for vice president....Does McCain think we will be so grateful for a skirt on the ticket that we won't notice that she's anti-abortion, a member of the NRA and thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution?

His selection of Sarah Palin is insulting on so many levels that I am starting to feel like the Geico caveman.

You want to look like a maverick and like you think outside the box? Pick a woman for a running mate. You want to look good to the evangelicals? Choose a running mate with a Down syndrome child. (When James Dobson, the conservative Christian radio host who fancies himself a kingmaker, jumped up to say that the selection of Palin means he can now "pull the lever" for John McCain, I almost felt sick. I don't know what I'll do if she trots out the story of her 5-month-old baby to shore up the Republican base.)...

***

McCain is 72. He has had at least four go-rounds with melanoma, a deadly cancer. Under the circumstances, the decision to choose this woman over the likes of, say, Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson looks less like a stroke of genius than a stroke. It looks crazy. It looks wacky.

And that's the other part of this decision that is so infuriating. If you are going to pick a woman for the sake of picking a woman, can you at least make it a credible choice?...

***

Palin might do just fine during the campaign. And she might do an excellent job of going to diplomatic funerals. (Which McCain once said is the only job description for the vice presidency.) But it is more likely that she will be in over her head, and all the women McCain thinks he is courting will be cringing for our sister instead. And then we will be furious at him for setting one of us up to fail.

It isn't just that Palin might look bad campaigning against the likes of Biden or Obama. It's that she already looks bad compared to the likes of Hillary Clinton.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-te.reimer01sep01,0,3951691.column

[Kerrytravelers]

1. That is one recommend and a kick.

Well written article.

[panAmerican]

2. Very well said. The ascenscion of an unqualified woman...

is an insult to those of us earning our merits.

[susanna]

3. Eloquently stated. I agree with you. n/t

[lapfog_1]

4. My theory is that this had a lot more to do with

pandering to the evangelical base than it does with pandering to Clinton supporters.

[progressoid]

7. Yep.

And the gun base.
And the pro-life base.

[im1013]

5. Women like her give women in general a bad name.....

How disgustingly insulting it is to think that women will vote for that nutjob
just because she's a woman!
This just goes to show how much old "womanizer" McCain and all of his "the women's place
is at home kissing the man's ass" evangelical supporters/bosses know about women!


"It was another memorable moment in the ascent of women in this country"

OH! And I have decided that if it's the last thing I ever do, I will make that crazy
bitch, Michele Bachmann's life a living hell!!! I REALLY want to stab her in her creepy eyes!!

Sorry, she just makes me so mad!!!!! :grr::grr::grr:


What the hell is WRONG with these people???????????

[ginnyinWI]

6. So mccain thinks he only needs a funeral attender.

What's he going to do, have his two sidekicks Lindsay and Lieberman on the phone all day telling him what to do next? Will they be his sec-state and sec-def? I suppose that's the plan. Just send the token woman on feel-good missions and don't die in office.

[electropop]

9. Well, you can't blame McCain if funerals are on his mind a lot these days...

Can you imagine a scarier thought than Palin standing beside McCain's casket?

[grace0418]

8. "the decision to choose this woman over the likes of, say, Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson"

This is starting to worry me. I'm starting to wonder if this isn't going to be a Harriet Miers situation, and when Palin withdraws her name from the ticket they WILL nominate Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Then everyone will be so relieved they'll vote en masse for the GOP ticket.

[crim son]

10. "...setting up one of us to fail."

Interesting perspective, but judging by McCain's treatment of his ex-wife and language toward his second, he already views us as failures, at least compared to our male counterparts. :grr:

[a la izquierda]

11. Anyone happen to catch CNN this morning? They had

some woman on, a Dr. no less. Hillary supporter. Voting for McCain because of his selection of Palin. I'll try and find a video link if I can.

I about lost my marbles.

[Skittles]

12. it's Kay Bailey Hutchison, not Hutchinson

other than that the article is right on

[tomp]

13. he picked her to mobilize the extreme right wing....

...and to make this election about wedge issues.