John picked his running mate.
Her name is Sarah Palin.
You don't know her? That's okay, nobody does.
She was elected governor of Alaska two years ago. Before that, she was the mayor of an Alaskan town. Can't be big.
That's her resume.
If John dies in office -- well, he is very old, it could happen -- the two-year governor of Alaska will be president of the most powerful country of the planet.
Let me see, what else?
Oh yeah, she is very conservative, she is a woman, she has five kids and she is hot.
Is that sexist? Yes, of course, it is sexist to pick a running mate because she is a woman and because she is hot. But hey, you've got to do what you've got to do if you want the women who supported Hillary to vote for you.
That's not the reason why he picked her? Oh yeah, why then? Because of her experience as commander-in-chief of the polar bears?
Oh, did I mention she went back to work two days after she gave birth? It's true, they said so on the telly. If they said so, it must be very important to be Vice-President. It means she works hard. And it also means her baby is also very hard-working and independent. Coping alone with the hard Alaska life at two days old!
It's sad. This election was on its way to be very interesting. But when one of the candidates takes his voters for morons so early in the campaign, it is kind of anticlimactic.
John wants to make history as much as his opponent. If he wins, Sarah will be the first woman Vice President. Something Barack refused to do by picking Hillary. All this is implied by this VP choice. Nothing else -- apart from her strong conservative ideology -- can justify it. But her ideology is not enough. He could have picked someone else with the same ideology. Mike Huckabee for example.
John's pick is not only insulting to Sarah, it is also insulting to all women and to all Republican voters.
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2 comments:
I agree completely, and I am just terrified that such a stupid stupid move will somehow end up winning the election.
I can't help but compare the way I feel about this nomination to the way I felt when I believed that blatant racism and religious bigotry would end up hurting the GOP back in 2004. So g-damned naive I was.
When I first heard of Sarah, I thought, "Well that's it then; We've won."
But I've been burnt too many times by this stupid country to believe that.
In fact, I know of one woman I work with, right now, who is probably just loving this nomination. She probably sees this as a great step forward for women everywhere--a Stepford Wife as VP. (V.P.I.L.F. as some are calling her.)
If that woman I work with says anything about this to me, I will scream at her. I will not be able to stop myself from screaming at her.
Probably what I'll scream is "Condi?! Why for God's sake did he not pick Condi?! Did he think it would be going too far? Black AND female? I mean, come on! The keen, analytical eye of the American public would surely see right through that little ploy, and it would backfire? Or, quite simply, was he aware that he would lose a good portion of his base by acknowledging that Blackness might be an asset?"
Afterall, it was Karl Rove's "What if McCain fathered a black child" phone campaign that helped to lose him nom in 2000.
Maybe he did the whole thing to make Obama eat his promise to not "suggest that Senator McCain takes his positions for political purposes."
In fact, that is clearly all McCain has done for the past year. Surely he knows. Surely McCain suffers because of everything that he has sacrificed for this nomination. He's human. He thinks and feels. I wonder if he's deliberately sabotaging the election. That would be great. But I know too many stupid people to dare to hope it will work.
It is nice to see your input on this, Lionel.
Thanks for your comments. I have been slow to respond because much has been happening every day since the VP pick.
And after Palin's speech last night at the convention, I completely understand your fears. In her speech, there was basically nothing addressing the issues that should be addressed in such a campaign, and that's why it was a brilliant speech. She gave the speech that the Republican base wanted to hear. She's a hockey mom and she understands other hockey mom. That's all.
I think some of the buttons I saw at the convention are very telling about how women are considered by the Conservatives with this nomination: one said "We have the hottest VP", the other said "Indiana with the hot chick."
Political discourse at its best.
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