| (Cross posted at Daily Kos)
If you're a Republican woman, who is your idol in politics?
Apparently for Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin, she has two: Geraldine Ferraro, who was a 1984 vice presidential candidate, and Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Both, of course, are Democrats. Palin is a Republican.
There was mild applause when Palin mentioned Ferraro and reluctant applause for Clinton. John McCain gave a smirk at the mention of Hillary and gave a brief clap for the mention.
I also noticed while McCain was introducing Palin that there was a woman over McCain's left shoulder on television who was like a little girl at Christmas when it was said that the vice presidential pick was a woman. She was practically in shock and if you watch video of that moment again (at this time, nothing is available) you will see what I'm talking about.
In reviewing the women in Congress, I counted 67 women who are Democrats serving in either house of Congress (56 in the House, 11 in the Senate). Republicans only have 26 women in either house, with 21 of those serving in the House and five in the Senate. So this isn't like the Republicans are the best at getting women into higher office.
(NOTE: Included in that count is Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, who passed away recently. She was still included on the list, so I counted her among the Democratic women in Congress.)
(It is also worth noting that from my home state of New York, there are eight women in Congress - seven in the House and one in the Senate.)
Sarah Palin is an interesting choice as I discussed on my blog, The Albany Project, today. She has very little experience. Two years as governor of Alaska and serving from 1992 to 1996 as a city councilmember for Wasilla, Alaska. She became mayor of Wasilla in 1996.
Wasilla is a small town in Alaska. As of 2000, there were 5,470 people. A 2005 estimate suggests that the population has grown to 8,471. It's not a very big place, but Palin was in charge of it at one time. In fact, that is where most of her political experience is derived.
The reason I bring this up is that I believe this pick does a disservice to women and the cause to get more women into politics. In talking with women here in New York where getting more women elected to state government is an ongoing fight, they want to see the most progressive and most qualified women elected to office. The McCain pick of Palin doesn't give Republican women the most qualified woman (I think Carly Fiorina would have made a better VP choice for McCain, given his weakness on economic issues) on the Republican side nor does it give women in general something to be proud of. She's very inexperienced and unqualified for this post.
Palin invoking Hillary and Ferraro today was an indirect shot at the GOP and herself. The Republicans are not a very diverse group. If you want a Republican, just go around and ask any white male what their party affiliation is. This might explain the reaction of that woman I described above standing behind McCain and expressing shock that McCain had picked a woman. The 26 women on the Republican side also show this lack of diversity when their counterparts on the Democratic side have two-and-a-half times as many women in Congress than they do.
So why is Palin mentioning Hillary and Ferraro a shot at herself? The same women who supported Hillary and Ferraro would never dream of supporting a McCain-Palin ticket. Palin is a pro-lifer, pro-gun, a believer in Creationism and is against gay marriage. She also is in favor of the death penalty. In other words, Palin appeals to that same conservative Republican base that sums up the Republican base best: White males. She is not going to have any sort of appeal to women on the Democratic side of the aisle or give McCain a chance at stealing Hillary supporters away from Barack Obama. At least, not with those five issues in mind.
I believe Palin's pick was for two reasons:
(1) Age. Today McCain turns 72. What better way to distract the media from your 72nd birthday than by picking your vice president who just happens to be 28 years younger than you are. In thinking about this, I can't think of any other reason why they would pick this day - the slowest news day of the week, a Friday - to announce McCain's VP pick. Palin has probably been in the cards for at least a week or so and I also would think Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was as well. McCain needed someone younger. He got that with the 44 year old Palin.
(2) Conservative bona fides. Everyone knows McCain has a problem with social conservatives. Picking Palin gives him someone who is the model social conservative. Anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage, as well as pro-death penalty, pro gun and a supporter of Creationism.
In any event, the vice presidential debate between our man Joe Biden and Palin will be a fun one to watch. A guy with experience and foreign policy knowledge in his back pocket against a woman who has ran Alaska for two years and prior to that ran a small village, both as mayor and as a city councilmember.
As the saying goes, the Republicans are bringing a knife to a gunfight. |
