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In a Republican of McCain's vintage, I found it hard not to hear a patronizing tone as he introduced Sarah Palin today, though I'm sure he was bending over backward to avoid it: "Hey, what a feisty young gal I've got here." And something tells me this isn't a ploy to lure undecided women, much less unaligned Hillary supporters: A pro-life NRA babe isn't going to do it for them. Isn't McCain's real target the Evangelical vote? The gambit is already working. James Dobson of Focus on the Family announced earlier this year that he wouldn't and couldn't vote for McCain. Today he pronounced himself converted, thanks to a ticket that now includes someone for whom "the sanctity of life isn't just a political position." Now maybe Dobson will get busy mobilizing the faithful, because it's not just age, but organizational skills, that the McCain campaign has to worry about.
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Not that I wish him ill, but wouldn't the most surreal outcome of McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate be that McCain gets elected, shortly afterward he dies in office, and the president of the United States becomes a 44 year-old breast-feeding, moose-eating mother of five?
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Sarah Palin has, if nothing else, generated a lot off buzz for the McCain campaign. And a lot of mixed reactions. Dahlia didn't like her speech, but I was charmed. Now we have higlights of the speech available, so everyone can see for themselves.
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Dahlia, you direct your rage at The Man and The Media whereas mine goes in another direction. This is the game conservative women politicians have played forever: grab power but know just when to defer. If they play it exactly right, they can shield themselves from the disdain of the Rushes and Tuckers of the world. Sometimes they use the mommy card, or the good wife card, or just a few good tears. I remember in the early nineties writing about Enid Greene, one of the right wing warriors of the Gingrich generation whose campaign, it turned out, was mucked up in scandal. So when the time came to apologize, she just stood up onstage and wept, and talked about her baby daughter. Danielle Crittenden used to complain about women not using their husband's name (shes married to David Frum) Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham are masters at it. Palin could be photographed pointing a shotgun at Ted Stevens and no one would ever call her a ballbuster. She would just conveniently drop a diaper out of her purse, or blink those beauty queen browns, and that would be that. When I was younger, I used to rage at the hypocrisy of the Scarlett O'Hara strategy. But that was when I was sure it was doomed. Now, I just marvel at how successful its turned out to be. Maybe this is the Fourth Wave?
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Back in the late 1980s, there was a moment when British newspapers suddenly started hiring women—columnists, editors, whatever—en masse. The explanation for this change was not that Rupert Murdoch, Conrad Black, or the other British press barons had somehow become feminists: The explanation was that the newspaper market had suddenly become unbelievably competitive, and some marketing genius had worked out that women like to read articles which are written by other women. Women readers being just as good as male readers—better, even, since advertisers reckon they are in charge of household budgets—the British press fell about itself trying to hire women who would entice other women to buy newspapers. The job market for women in journalism exploded.
Seems to me that with the nomination of Sarah Palin we are witnessing a similar phenomenon. Hillary didn't get the presidential nomination herself, but her primary campaign did demonstrate something that the political marketing geniuses had hitherto denied: Women, at least some of them, will vote for other women. Neither John McCain nor the Republican Party had to be converted to feminism in order to draw the next obvious conclusion: If women vote for women, and women's votes are just as good as men's votes, then a female vice president could be a hugely important addition to the ticket.
The point here, of course, is that a thousand speeches about women's rights couldn't achieve what John McCain's cold calculation of his political interests managed to achieve. Women make progress in today's world because they are needed and wanted, not because they can succesfully pass equal-rights legislation or stage a protest march. Perhaps the job market for women in politics will now explode, too.
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Sarah Heath Palin is not the only resident of Wasilla, Ala., who got a career boost from the McCain campaign’s announcement that she will be No. 2 on the GOP presidential ticket. Alaska writer Kaylene Johnson’s biography of the two-year Alaska governor titled, Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down was recently released by Epicenter Press, a “leading publisher of books about sled dog racing.” Johnson, a neighbor in Wasilla, where a younger Sarah was once Miss Wasilla, has written a largely flattering biography but exposes a few telling character traits. For example, among the details about Palin’s “boisterous and busy family,” Johnson mentions the little-known cover-up the future nominee had with her siblings (“We had a pact,” one sister admits, “If any of us … broke something, we promised not to tell.") The de facto campaign biography also reveals that though “everyone pitched in” for the mandatory "weeding … or stacking firewood,” Palin's father admits only Sarah displayed an “unbending, unapologetic streak of stubbornness.”
Although the $19.95 hardcover does not yet appear on the publisher’s list of best sellers, chances are, after today, sales to journalists will skyrocket. For those who can’t wait for their copy, the first chapter, “Growing Up Sarah” is posted on the publisher’s website.
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Something that keeps running through my mind as the blogs light up with posts about whether Sarah Palin is a serious candidate or presidential arm candy: What would Chris Matthews and Rush Limbaugh be saying about Palin had she been Obama’s veep choice instead of McCain’s? Would we be seeing Sarah Palin nutcrackers by the weekend? Would Fox News be airing a segment next week about her “nagging voice” in which so-called experts opine that ‘“men won’t vote for Sarah Palin because she reminds them of their nagging wives.” Would Chris Matthews liken her not-yet-ready for primetime voice to “fingernails on a blackboard?” Having watched Palin’s tribute to Hillary in Dayton this afternoon would Matthews accuse her of “playing the woman card?” Will he repeat the great wisdom that “"modern women" like Palin are unacceptable to "Midwest guys?” Will Tucker Carlson cop to the fact that every time he sees Palin, “I involuntarily cross my legs?” I don’t doubt Sarah Palin will face brutal misogyny in the coming weeks on the trail, and that infuriates me. But I’m willing to bet she won’t be called a “she-devil” or “bitch,” it won’t be happening in primetime, and it won’t be considered hilarious.
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And I thought I was a big deal for doing this post with a four-day-old baby in my arms! To me, Palin is a much more familiar type—one for whom I feel something more complicated than awe. She is obviously not a homeschooling mom but reminds me a lot of the Christian homeschooling moms I met when I was reporting my book about young evangelicals. Palin is Christian mom on steroids, what the best homeschooling mom could accomplish if she'd only had five kids instead of 10. She's peppy, hyperconfident, the ultimate multitasker. She registers voters with one hand while changing diapers with the other. She knocks down bridges and then gives birth.
Her pretty little eyes twinkle behind those librarian glasses as she repeats a string of American cliches with no irony ("heroes," "profiles in courage," "commander of the national guard"). So strong is her conviction, so unwavering her faith that she could take down the whole dark army on a Monday afternoon, if only her middle one weren't running a fever. So busy is she that she never stops to contemplate the obvious contradictions: that she believes in the patriarchy but doesn't live it, that she disdains feminism while taking full advantage.
In those moments when you are feeling awe, I just caution you all to remember where that limitless energy comes from: not uppers or Diet Coke but that same steady source that led Bush into Iraq and kept him from ever questioning his decision: Faith, Without a Doubt.
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Can we just stop for a moment and consider how amazing it is, in more than one sense of the word, that we have a vice-presidential nominee who has a son going to Iraq AND a baby? The time span itself leaves me flabbergasted. That is motherhood extended, motherhood practically eternal. It makes me want to know a lot more about Palin, but it also makes her seems awfully different than almost any woman I can think of.
You're right, Melinda, that Palin's demonstration of putting her anti-abortion views into practice will add a twist to the debate. Though I'm not sure I want the personal story of the vice-presidential nominee to overshadow the larger question about policy choices for the rest of us. Actually I am sure--it would be a mistake, and so the Democrats will probably try to tread as lightly as they can here. The more important question has got to be the one Dahlia raises, about whether this will come to seem like the catapulting forward of a woman who can handle the leap up the ladder and then some, or like the shaky choice of a campaign desperate to seem younger and hipper and daring. Since she's been in the national spotlight so little until now, Palin's performance over the next week or two matters a lot more than most VP choices would. She's got to seem like more than the sum or her quirky, unorthodox, bedrock conservative parts.
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I need to amend my earlier post about Sandra Day O’Connor. There’s a difference between being a less-than-perfect candidate and a painfully under-prepared one. Watch the Dayton speech. I am all for pandering to women, but not this way.
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In nature and on presidential tickets, symmetry is attractive. So both parties are offering us something old; something new; and something red, white, and blue, since both veep nominees have sons shipping off to Iraq soon.
Though I think it's smart that Sarah Palin is overtly pitching to the Hillary Holdouts—duh, isn't that the point?—it will be interesting to see how strong supporters of abortion rights react to a woman who really did a lot more, as Rachael said, than just talk about the value of every life; she consciously decided to take responsibility for the life of a child she knew would be born with Down syndrome. Apparently, she's so hard to fluster that after her water broke, she finished giving a long address before heading to the hospital. So it was perfect that her baby, born just last April, slept sweetly through the hoopla in Dayton today, in her sister's arms.
Giving her speech, Palin wasn't the second coming of Cicero, it's true. But she did put me in mind of my Kentucky grandma, who could do everything from plow a field to braid a rug, and taught me to fish with a cane pole. That's the sort of warm association that will be way more helpful to her party than a fourth senator would have been. At first glance, at least, this fishing, (basket)shooting, can-do kind of gal is not just a frontierswoman, she's bloomin' Daniela Boone.
On the personal level —where voting decisions are actually made—there is a lot to like about this PTA mom, high-school jock, and former union member, who can see Joey Biden's working-class roots and raise him, what with her high-school sweetheart of a fisherman hubby and her eau de saumon aroma. "We both grew up working with our hands,'' which have a French manicure now, I notice. She even coaxed what seemed to be a genuine smile out of McCain, who often looks like he has a toothache on the stump. She embodies his "reform'' message better than McCain himself does, since she actually waved off the famous bridge to nowhere: "I told Congress thanks but no thanks,'' she said today, to wild applause. "If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves.'' And with her emergence on the national scene, I can hardly wait for the Northern Exposure reruns.
On the other side of the ledger, it seems that we could wind up with another president who can't pronounce nuclear. But for some reason, it doesn't grate as much coming from her.
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Absolutely agree that this was an inspired, brave and buzz-y choice for veep. Everything the Joe Biden pick was not. I think Team McCain has gamed this age we live in better than the Obama camp, for which they deserve serious credit. Now this is gonna be an election. And here I was getting ready to retire my girl-cleats for the rest of the fall. I couldn’t be more excited.
One quick thought on the “inexperience” charges against Sarah Palin. I have no problem at all with a candidate who is slightly less tested than some of the white male contenders she beat out. For one thing, I am not sure what "experience" even means when it comes to the vice presidency. For another, one of the single best decisions Ronald Reagan made was the nomination of an unknown and (relatively) inexperienced woman to the Supreme Court, just because she was a woman and it was high time. I can’t imagine what this country would look like for women today if he hadn’t.
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All right, now I'm excited. Back in March, I cast my primary vote for John McCain with confidence. His values, his stance on the issues matched mine better than those of any other Republican. His campaign was on a roll, the reports of its death the previous summer having been greatly exaggerated. He seemed to have the best chance of winning. But once he got the nomination, he just seemed ... lackluster. Granted, almost no one is going to look charismatic compared with Barack Obama, but when I saw an episode of The Daily Show with McCain talking to the press at a supermarket, standing in front of a large display of Dole orange juice, I knew what the joke was before Jon Stewart could open his mouth. . John McCain = Bob Dole.
But now he's gone and picked Sarah Palin, the young governor of Alaska for his running mate, and I could not be happier. Aside from her political bona fides, she is one cool woman. She's married to her high-school sweetheart, an Eskimo fisherman and "champion snowmobiler," according to her Wikipedia bio. They have five kids, all with slightly hippie-ish names, like Track and Willow. (No Prestons and Whitneys in that bunch.)
She's bound to appeal to fiscal conservatives, because she's as far as you can get from her fellow Alaskan Ted Stevens, the GOP senator recently indicted for "false financial disclosures" (read: corruption). She unseated Gov. Frank Murkowski in a primary and has both pushed through ethics reform and trimmed the fat from the state budget. She even killed the infamous "bridge to nowhere" project that brought Congress and Alaska so much ridicule.
Politically, it's a great move by McCain to appeal to the disgruntled Hillary voters that Obama might not have successfully wooed during the convention this week. Yes, she's pro-life, but she's not just talk. Faced with the heartbreaking news that her fifth child would likely have Down syndrome, she continued on with the pregnancy and gave birth to a son while in office, a son she calls "perfect." And like Hillary, she's one tough cookie. You don't take on an entrenched pol like Murkowski and succeed in a rugged state like Alaska if you're a lightweight.
She might have been a dark horse, but in hindsight, we should all be asking why that was so. A candidate who's going to appeal to the base, energize the campaign, and potentially reel in some Hillary supporters. Why would it have been anyone else?
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Just yesterday, I was thinking how waiting for John McCain to choose a running mate was like watching St. Peter's for white smoke; your little baby heart is hoping that the choice will be outside the box, sending a message of inclusion and care for other people's problems, but in the end ... hey, who woulda guessed, it's Cardinal Same-old, Same-old.
Now that he's chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, however, I am delighted to have been proven wrong. A naked grab for the Hillary vote? Yeah, and so what? Does progress ever happen for other-than-pragmatic reasons? Palin is a smart, reforming, 44-year-old pro-life mama of five who will bring energy to the ticket and help McCain with conservatives for sure.
The downside, of course, is that given McCain's age and history of health problems, it was extra important for him to pick someone who really could be president tomorrow. And by so explicitly demonstrating that he thinks Palin is ready, I'd say that undercuts the idea that Obama, who is three years older and far more experienced than she, is somehow still too green.
There's also that investigation into whether she did or did not try to get the state trooper her sister is divorcing fired ... but even if true, a lot of women in particular might not be outraged.
In the end, none of Palin's competition for the vice-presidential nomination would have worked: Romney? You can't have a guy who makes the candidate wince every time he looks at him. Lieberman? So many Republicans and Democrats would have been alienated by that choice that I never understood what he was thinking with that one. And Pawlenty and Ridge: Not exactly game-changers. Which Palin could be.
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Emily Bazelon will be online today at noon with Slate's Christopher Beam to discuss what Barack Obama should do now that the convention is over, what he can expect from the opposition, and what possible pitfalls he needs to avoid. Send in a question!
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There was no Britney in Barack Obama's convention speech, which was a loaded triple-bacon burger of substance, quite restrained in its use of emotion, lest anyone accuse him of blinding us with mere rhetorical skill born of clear thinking, in a text he wrote himself. There were a few funny lines but a bunch of important ones, and several that distilled the election:
On energy policy, it was brave of him to say, as he did, that "Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last 30 years, and John McCain has been there for 26 of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office. Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.'' A lot of people don't want to hear that, but it's true and must be said.
And on terrorism, it was bold to suggest that John McCain—who, as you might have heard, was a POW in Vietnam—is going to follow the Bushie playbook of talking tough but marching off in the wrong direction: "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow Bin Laden to the Gates of Hell—but he won't even go to the cave where he lives. ... You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in 80 countries by occupying Iraq.''
But for me, the most important passages of all were these: First, he said that he welcomes a big fat fight over policy differences (and even "temperament''—meaning that all of you who worry he's gonna be too nice to McCain can put your shoulders down). "But what I will not do,'' he said, "is suggest that the senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism. The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America—they have served the United States of America. So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.''
Which is not only right but smart, because he's calling McCain out and at the same time reminding us why he caught our eye in the first place, at the convention four years ago, when he talked about how blue and red (and green and orange) voters really are tired of those tired and wasteful divisions.
Then he went beyond that generality of "c'mon, people now, smile on your brother ...'' and spelled out what common ground would look like: "We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.''
Each of these sentences contains hot-button words that most political consultants would urge clients to avoid at all costs, but that's what was so impressive; he is betting that voters really are smart enough and grown-up enough to want the common-sense approach they always say they want.
Then, in what I took to be a wry underscoring of this theme that patriotism isn't a red or blue thing, the note he ended on, literally, was from a country song, Brooks & Dunn's "Only in America," which George W. Bush played constantly on the campaign trail in '04. Even as a fan of country music, however, I hope this was a one-time joke; "Boot Scootin' Boogie'' just holds too many bad memories.
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He kept it down to earth tonight, which was the plan and a good idea—too much making people swoon would prove John McCain's charge that what Obama really is is a celebrity. And Obama nicely turned away the celebrity dig with a description of how he came from striving people who worked for everything they ever got. But he is at his most interesting, most compelling when he talks about himself, which is an unusual gift. When he switched to his policy plans, the specifics of what he wants to actually do for the country—he will make us energy independent in 10 years, for example—I just thought, "Sure you will." During the past couple of days, as both Bill Clinton and Joe Biden tried to talk about what Obama has done in his life to make us believe that he is ready to be president, you can't help but be struck by how little that adds up to. In the biggest speech to the country he has ever made, he didn't even try to list the accomplishments that make him qualified for the presidency. Yet, as you listen to him, strangely, that doesn't seem to matter.