"Governor Palin ... will remind women that if they are not welcome on the Democrat's ticket, they have a place with Republicans," - Gov. Mike HuckabeeJohn McCain picked Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate today. I've made it pretty clear that I'm an Obama supporter over the past few months, and his VP choice wasn't going to change my mind, but I can't help feel I've been cheated. Maybe it's just how transparent this whole scheme is that's really bothering me. It seems so clear that this has nothing to do with anything but trying to steal votes by luring women to John McCain.
It must have been Limbaugh that really tipped me off to the absurdity of this all. As I was running some errands today, I had Rush on the radio, as is my wont. (Yes, I'm liberal, but the man is good listening.) Right at noon, with no qualifying statements, Rush jumped right on to the Palin bandwagon. This is the man that popularized the term "feminazi", praising a decision made for the sole purpose of attracting feminists to the ticket. I know that Rush has to play along, because he has to push for his guy to win, but that kind of turn around is upsetting. Maybe it's fitting, though. I personally think that choosing Gov. Palin is an anti-feminist choice.
First, let's go into why Palin is an absurd pick for VP. McCain makes such a fuss about experience, so it's asinine that he's picked someone with so little of it as his running mate. She was the mayor of a small Alaskan city for a few years before ascending briefly to the governorship of a state which is barely important: the only reason it's even a state is oil. And that's another thing: for a candidate that talks about energy independence and getting off fossil fuels, picking a candidate with such strong oil credentials is offensive. But more than any of this, John McCain is old and has a history of cancer; if there was any candidate in recent memory that needed a VP ready to take over at any time, McCain is the guy. I don't see that ability in Sarah Palin.
So why is Palin an anti-feminist choice? Because this decision makes clear a lack of respect for women. Sure, she fits into the "reformer" image McCain's trying to push. And, of course, Palin deserves respect for being a high profile working mother and for her achievements. She does not, however, deserve to be used. The quote from Gov. Huckabee above is essentially a neon sign boasting about the pandering to women embodied by this choice. Much of Palin's speech was devoted to drawing to link between the women who flocked to Hillary Clinton and the significance of this choice. Republicans are so obviously aiming to exploit a voting block already thrown into chaos by the Clinton campaign. (Plus, they're exploiting the misconceptions that Clinton would have liked to be VP or that she had the nomination "stolen" from her.) Additionally, if Palin is to be a feminist icon, she is a curious one. By my own calculations, she was no older than 19 when she had her first child. She is anti-choice and an avid huntress.
If John McCain and the Republicans think this is "change," there may be no better indicator of just how superficial their idea of change really is. Gov. Palin is a worthy woman, but she's been unfairly reduced to a cheap gimmick.
Update: Either I'm losing it, or the boundless wisdom of Wikipedia lead me astray. As it happens, Sarah Palin's oldest son did not turn 18 in 2001 but in instead in 2007, meaning that she did not have her first kid at 19. But apparently, she will be a grandmother at the ripe old age of 44 or so.
