The XX Factor: What women really think.

24 More Years? Not This Time

Ah, the irony of the sexy librarian inquiring whether it's legal to ban books.

What I was initially getting at was less how Sarah Palin defines herself and more how our culture has responded to those definitions. For example, in all the McCain blame-game conversations that are emerging in the press today--like this one by Slate's Christopher Beam--there's a total absence of hand-wringing of the were we ready for a female VP? variety. Of course, had Palin been more prepared for the job, that conversation may be a different one: Her inexperience and incuriousity have been a great leveler. 

I'm happy that the McCain flame-out discussion doesn't imply we wait another 24 years for a female candidate, as we have since Ferraro. Hanna suggests, and I agree, that Palin will gain mastery in the political game--at least as it plays out in mass culture if not in policy discussion. But the specter of a post-Palin America, as Hanna put it, with our most famous Alaskan annointed as the lone figure to be reckoned with? That strikes me as just the sort of future celebrity candidacy Obama unfairly had to shake. Normalizing the concept of women in our highest offices? It's about time. Normalizing Palin as the best shot at female leadership? Thanks but no thanks.

Perhaps before I get all worked up about 2012, I should get through tonight. But it's certainly intriguing to consider what this two-year campaign has laid out for the road ahead. Looking at the ballot in my polling booth this morning, I flashed back to the beginning of this relentless, seemingly endless trip.  Back then I wouldn't have believed the choices we have had the opportunity to make today.

More on the Conservative Shake-Up

I'm not at all convinced that Obama's lead is safe, and I think that the positive poll numbers of late could result in liberal complacency on Election Day. But what's indisputable is that Obama's apparent advantage, and the Palin pick, are creating fissures in the Republican Party. Whether these fissures lead to a healthy shake-up, or a crack-up, has yet to be seen. Jed Lewison has a list of the "Republicans and conservatives jumping ship, pointing fingers, or otherwise abandoning the McCain campaign." It includes some of the names we've brought up recently, including Heather Mac Donald, Christopher Buckley, and David Frum, plus some others we hadn't noted.

Heather Mac Donald, Maverick

What I draw from this latest anti-Palin diatribe is 1) Palin's effectively holding up a mirror to the Republican Party, and not everyone likes what they see and 2) a multi-party system with micro-parties for Palin-Republicans, fiscal conservatives, Clinton-Democrats, cheeseeatingsurrendermonkey-ophiles, etc. would be far less problematic then the big-tent two-party system we have now. I wish I didn't have to vote for Democrats who say "socialism" like it's a bad word, I wish Heather Mac Donald, David Brooks, and others didn't have to vote for Republicans who don't live up to their standards of "excellence," and, yes, I wish Palin supporters could back her without having to justify their opinions to people within their own party.

Sarah Palin's To-Do List

1. Learn about al-Qaida.
2. Learn about Washington, D.C.
3. Order Bristol's dress (Elastic waist!!! Is white inappropriate after six months?)
4. Fire brother-in-law.
5. Learn about Russia/Georgia/S. Ossetia (Locate Abkhazia???)
6. Nurse Baby Trig.
7. Order flowers for wedding.
8. Fire people who haven't fired brother-in-law.
9. Learn about ethics rules.
10. Fire at brother-in-law? (Option: aerial shooting?)
11. Nurse Baby Trig.
12. Learn about Iran.
13. Learn about U.S. Senate.
14. Learn about contraception. (Too late???)
15. Investigate homes for foundlings?
16. Govern Alaska.
17. Life insurance on J.M.?

The misogyny gap

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.

Never Underestimate a Woman With a French Manicure and the Smell of Fish

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.

It's a Girl!

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.

"Passed Over": One Great Bad Ad

Why I'm Pro-Joe

It's not just the foreign policy chops; he brings some blood (and flab!) and jaw-flapping to a sometimes too-cool-for-school campaign. Voters actually liked it when Bush tripped over his own tongue; when he failed in his battle with blurting, they could relate, and that is the beauty of the Biden choice: He's got the smarts, the experience, and without question could be president. (In fact, watching the Democratic debates during primary season, I always thought that a viewer who came to the exercise cold would have assumed Biden was the front-runner.) But he also brings the humanity that Democrats have not always seen as important. It is.

Though no one has a more heart-breaking personal narrative than he—his first wife and their baby daughter died in a car accident soon after he was elected to the Senate—he sure never talked about it during primary season, showing an Irish Catholic restraint that will be familiar to a lot of the voters Obama needs to win over. And his working-class roots aren't just nice; they're why I fully expect him to know how to play rough and be plenty comfortable in the role of bad cop, taking on the Republican ticket in a way the candidate himself cannot. A guy who commutes home on public transpo every day taking on Mr. Can't Keep Track of His Houses? As we say in the Democratic Party, pas de probleme.

Obama-Biden, Put Up Your Dukes

I've sat through too many Senate hearings to be excited about Joe Biden, of the long pontificating question (example), for vice president. Obama-Biden: a ticket of orators. I know that HIllary—or rather, Bill—would have been the snake in the presidential sleeping bag, as Slate's David Plotz said months ago. An impossible choice, the rationalist in me keeps reminding myself. But if Obama had taken the gamble anyway, I would have trusted his judgment in making that bet. And I'd be feeling one part elated and one part hugely nervous this morning. Instead of vaguely let down. And I wasn't even a Hillary supporter.

Yes, there is a sound argument for choosing an experienced white man, a party establishmentarian, a foreign policy expert. And it's nice that he's Catholic and has blue-collar origins. But mostly I hope this team knows how to fight, and fight hard. Watching the McCain ad that's already putting Biden's words to work against him, and then the dueling ads about McCain's can't-count-them houses and Obama's Rezko house deal, it seems to me that the Republicans are out-duking the Democrats. Denver will undoubtedly produce plenty of smartly staged smiles. I hope Obama-Biden also proves quickly that they're smart about showing their angry side.

Obama-Biden?

Just heard that Biden is "definitely the guy,'' which makes so much sense that I worry it might not be true. ... No sighting of a bumper-sticker, though.

Update: CNN's Candy Crowley reports that there is nothing today's young folk like more than text messages. Larry King advises viewers hoping to learn Obama's VP pick in this manner to "remember to check your things.'' Former McCain press guy (and more recently, Fred Thompson adviser) Todd Harris thinks Joe Biden would be a horrible pick because he's gaffe-prone and you never know what he's going to say next. Sort of like George W. Bush? And here I thought that's what people used to like about him.

Obama-Bayh

Does roll off the tongue, though I was sort of hoping they'd spell it Obama-Bi ...

Not sure I'm convinced by that Obama-Bayh bumper sticker Trailhead posted on, which looks a little like the one from ‘04 that said "Bush-Voldemort." Or that's what I'm hoping, anyway, because Bayh is somehow both too much the sort of Steady Eddie who's your fallback date to prom—and an unhappy reminder of his former jogging partner, John Edwards. And does Obama really want to make "Vanilla: Still America's Favorite" the motto of the change election?

A Bush-Woman as Obama's Running Mate?

Now this is interesting: Obama might pick a Republican woman as his running mate. It's hard to know how seriously to take a trial balloon like this; some of the people rounding out these lists are obviously there for courtesy's sake, or in the hope of attracting some of his or her supporters on the cheap. (And Sen. McCain, sir, if you are really considering that Joe Lieberman fella, I know someone you should speak to without delay—a guy you used to work with, actually. Joementum notwithstanding, I'm not sure he will hold up under pressure, is what I'm saying.)

If Obama did choose former Bush ag secretary Ann Veneman, who served during W's first term before going to work for UNICEF, it would definitely send a great message about bringing Americans together. Maybe it would close the sale with those Hillary fans who are still playing footsie with McCain, and draw in some independents, too. But according to Politico, Veneman "was close to food and agriculture industries'' and "clashed with farm-state Democrats and environmentalists,'' and I'm not sure how many people would view the selection of an anti-enviro, pro-industry Bush retread as the kind of "fundamental change'' he is promising. Wonder if Caroline Kennedy is considering putting herself in contention, as Dick Cheney did when he ran Bush's vet-the-veep team?