Palin Around

So McCain announced a running mate, surprising most by picking Sarah Palin, a first term governor of Alaska.

Interesting choice, and two reactions:

One - just imagine how pissed you would be if you are Hilary Clinton right about now.  Here is a lady, Palin, that is vastly, vastly under qualified compared to Hilary, yet she got the repub VP nod while Hilary was snubbed by Obama for an older, male version of herself (who is less qualified electorally, than her).  Palin even co-opted some of Hilary's inspiring talking points in her first public speech as the VP candidate.  How much does it suck to be on the receiving end of unbridled, and undeserved hate, from one's own political party.  I mean, there are folks out there who heartily advocated for Obama because they hated Hilary and now they're undecided in an Obama-McCain matchup.  How simply repugnant is that?  Sure, Hilary supporters have to be convinced to go Obama now that she's nowhere on the ticket, but they would never have deserted her for McCain.  Makes one wonder how much of that Obama support is merely anti-Hilary, and how well that would hold up in November.    

Two - the political media are just a nasty, mean, petty bunch of SOBs.  I started to care a bit about politics once I moved into the maelstrom that is Washington D.C.  I started to pay attention more, and did more than simple cursory reading, after the 2000 election - I mean, who didn't, right?  

From 2000 till Obama, or perhaps till Dean's Scream, the views on the lefty press and the lefty blogs probably dovetailed decently with my own.  Ok, maybe not dovetailed, but perhaps friction-fit.

But once you're blessed with not agreeing with their viewpoints, you can step back and see the characters on the lefty media, and it's not a pretty picture.  I've become tired of Keith Olbermann for more than a year now and wish he would go back to SportsCenter so that I can tune into MSNBC.  I used to read the Huffington Post once in a while, less during this Obama-Clinton race, but after today's article by Jane Smiley (about Palin), I'll likely not type the url in ever again.

The early meme talking point on Palin is that she is unqualified to run as VP - and Smiley writes in this vein, offering up as criticism the fact that Palin was a beauty queen and wonders (twice!) if she is breast feeding.  That is bordering on (if not) misogyny, whether it's written by a woman or not.

It is base and unbecoming to attack her in this manner.  It should be focused on policy and process.. and this kind of attack does not endear the Obama camp with the disaffected Hilary supporters.  

Here is something from, of all places, a golf magazine, that, while coming from a totally different direction, is on point - David Feherty, from his piece, the  Hypocritical Headache:

It's tough for women to get through that glass ceiling, and if they do, they have to work with men looking up their skirts. Needless to say, the guy beside me didn't have a daughter.