Palin and her supporters boasting her 'historic' selection rivals Obama's ascent

[bigtree]

Anyone can 'pick' a vice-president. The fact that this one republican candidate decided to pick this woman from Alaska to run with him is no reflection of any 'progress' for women -- not even when compared to Hillary Clinton whose candidacy she tried to equate with her own opportunistic acceptance of McCain's offer.

She hasn't advanced to her candidacy by virtue of any of the votes in this election both Sens. Obama and Clinton worked for and achieved. She was just picked for the job. Not much history making there, unless you take the republicans' traditional disregard and disrespect for even the women who identify with their party.

Moreover, Palin's dismissal of and opposition to the issues that the majority of women support makes the comparisons as ridiculous and outrageous as Bush replacing Thurgood Marshall with Clarance Thomas and claiming he's advanced the cause of black America.

Palin opposes women's privacy rights (opposes the right of a woman to choose to terminate a pregnancy under all circumstances, even if caused by rape or incest in the earliest stages of pregnancy) and is a member of the radically anti-choice organization 'Feminists for Life'; she proposed cutting $1.5 million in child care subsidies in her first budget plan; she supports federal anti-gay marriage legislation; she believes schools should teach creationism; and, she's against equal pay for women.

Palin is just a pretender to the 'historic' imprimatur that republicans have constructed for her. Until she convinces a majority of voters to actually vote for the role McCain has assumed for her, Palin doesn't deserve the same credit for breaking barriers our leading Democratic candidates have already earned in this election.

Not unless we're just giving republicans unearned points for cynically departing from their indifferent attitude toward qualified women in their party they've been satisfied with in the past; or, somehow, validating their obstruction, neglect, and arrogance toward the issues women are concerned with as legitimate expressions of feminism.


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[BlooInBloo]

1. That's why Dee Dee Myers says it's a colossal insult to women....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dee-dee-myers/sarah-palin-the-double-x_b_122447.html

"But is she ready to be commander-in-chief?

Unlike Barack Obama, whom McCain has so emphatically condemned as not-ready, Palin hasn't run for or served in the Senate. Nor has she run for president, which would have required her to think through and take positions on critical issues from the war in Iraq to the war on terror, from Iran's nuclear ambitions to the Russian incursion into Georgia, from the emerging power of China to the march of globalization. She hasn't debated tough opponents a dozen or so times or faced aggressive, often downright hostile reporters on a daily basis. Talk about untested. Her slim record undermines one of McCain's most effective arguments against Obama.

Clearly, McCain thinks Palin will help him among women, particularly those disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters who are having so much trouble "getting over it." It just shows how clueless the McCain camp actually is. Unlike Clinton and Ferraro, Palin hasn't been a strong national voice on women's issues. She hasn't been at the barricades, fighting for women's health, equal pay, economic security. And she certainly hasn't had anything to say about the national-security issues that are also important to women across the political spectrum. Does the McCain camp really expect pro-choice Democratic and independent women to be swayed by a sleight-of-gender?"

[amuse bouche]

10. I am surprised to hear anyone cares what DeeDee thinks. hmmm

[DS1]

2. If you're comparing not doing shit and being plucked out of a small pool

to Obama working most of his life in politics, then I think you might just have a failed argument.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. It is kind of the "Bizarro World" equivalent.. In other words..the exact opposite.

[bigtree]

6. "Bizarro World"

for sure

[Jack Rabbit]

4. Palin and her supporters

Both of them, I'm sure.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

5. Omaba: transfered to Columbia from small, elite West Coast liberal arts school

and graduated from Columbia. Admitted to Harvard Law School (I graduated in 1988 with Michelle Obama, then Michelle Robinson). Elected Editor in Chief of the Harvard Law Review. Graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law. This is roughly the equivalent of flapping your arms and flying to the moon.

Palin hasn't got the brains the gods gave a bag of hammers. Let the combat begin and may there be mercy on her when she "debates" Joe Biden. I repeat, Joe Biden,

[LeftishBrit]

7. The implication is that all women are interchangeable! Most offensive.

In any case, the first female vice-presidential candidate was Geraldine Ferraro, 24 years ago!

[Kitty Herder]

8. I keep wondering if Republicans have exceptionally short memories.

They keep acting like Palin is the first woman to run as vice-president. Did Geraldine Ferraro just disappear in their minds?

[amuse bouche]

9. It must play out to understand what it all means

[Trekologer]

11. The only historic part will be the flame-out

And how the talking heads try to spin McCain being in striking distance and then selecting an unqualified, unvetted running mate to throw it all away.