Friday, August 29, 2008

It is Sarah Palin

The Pandersaurus makes his play.

So, I thought Barack Obama didn't have the experience to be president? But Sarah Palin, who's been the governor of the second least populous state in the Union for a year and a half, does?

Pandering hypocrite much?

Chuck Todd inadvertently nails the GOP:
They really wanted to pick a woman, and there were no obvious choices.

Ouch.

I'm increasingly coming to the belief that, were I a Hillary supporter, this pick would infuriate me, not make me more likely to vote McCain. This pick is obviously an attempt to mop up the PUMA vote by saying, "You wanted a woman for president? Here ya go! Here's one for Vice President! That's close enough, right?"

But here's the thing: Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have nothing in common... except their gender. They have no policy positions in common and no common experiences. Hillary Clinton is a former First Lady and current US Senator who everyone (even Republicans) admit is an expert on health care and a hard core policy wonk. She went toe to toe with a bunch of deeply intelligent, powerful men in an endless litany of debates and kicked the s**t out of every last one of them. Clinton voters chose her over Obama because they wanted a sober, realistic, keenly intelligent, strong woman committed to universal health care with a great Democratic president at her side, not an anti-Roe pro-ANWR drilling creationist homophobe who only 2 years ago was the part-time mayor of a city of 7,000 people.

And here's McCain saying, "All you were really looking for is a woman, right? Here, take this one!"

1 comment:

Rene said...

i have very high doubts about Palin's ability to draw a single Clinton voter. As you've noted, and will become very very apparent - she's a young female version of the unelectable Mike Huckabee.

That said, she does pose a specific problem to the Obama campaign, in that attacking her ham-handedly will depress the fervor that his camapaign has running for it.

A note to Joe Biden:

Go after her hard, but when you do - never ever ever use the words "she" or "her". Always say her name. Always. It was the mere use of a feminine pronoun that had the Clinton backers crying sexism. Don't do that, and then you can go all out.

Also, compare her to the men whose politics she resembles. Men like Cheney, Abramoff, and Ken Lay.

this is a clear hail-mary. I don't think she's going to do anything stupid on the campaign trail, and she will rally the Republican base. Therefore it is up to the democrats to define her to the public before the McMedia does.