The Political Voices of Women

Earlier today, I posted on the surprise announcement by John McCain, of his VP pick – Sarah Palin.   Since then, I have collected several media/blogger responses, along with interviews by Palin, and her speech today. So, here is what others are saying about Sarah Palin as VP…Please also let me know what you think in comments.

What I think:  Personally, I have told many people that I believed if Barack Obama did not pick Hillary as his VP, that John McCain would jump on the “historic election” bandwagon by putting a woman on his ticket.   However, I do not believe that by doing this he will get any more of the Hillary vote.  I do believe, that many Republican women will be fired-up by this, and turn out to vote for the first woman VP…Those women are not conserned with her ultra-conservative viewpoints, in fact, they will revel in it.

So, that’s what I think.  What do you think?  Check out the rest of this post, and let me know in comments.

Sarah Palin on energy, environment, and national security…

Sarah Palin seemed confused about the responsibilities of a VP…

Cafferty on Sarah Palin as VP…

Sarah Palin Acceptance Speech…

Sarah Palin interview for MTV…

Back in February, on Super Tuesday, MTV News Street Teamer Dani Carlson did a Flixwagon interview with Alaska Governor — and now presumptive Republican vice-presidential candidate — Sarah Palin, who had some interesting things to say about energy policy and the “party machinery.”

In this interview, Palin calls controversial Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul “cool.” “He’s a good guy,” she added. “He’s so independent. He’s independent of the party machine. I’m like, ‘Right on, so am I.’ ”

Gov. Schwarzenegger on Sarah Palin for VP…

Now, what the bloggers are saying…

From Feministing…

So McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. She’s young — 44 — and a self-described “hockey mom.” Because Palin is relatively unknown on the national level (she’s been governor since 2006, and before that was mayor of a town of 8,000 people), a lot of people are already identifying this as a ploy to snag the votes of disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters. I don’t know whether that’s true (my guess is yes), but it’s my sense that Hillary backers who don’t like Obama are not going to like a McCain/Palin ticket much better.

Let me say right off the bat that, overall, I think it’s great that Republicans have chosen to elevate a woman to this level — no matter what their motivations. I want to see more women of all parties involved in politics. But, as we stated over and over in the primaries, a politician’s gender isn’t everything. It’s merely one factor to be considered. And quite frankly, Palin’s political views suck.

First up, she’s super anti-choice. The forced-pregnancy crowd is thrilled today! (She recently had her fifth child, who has Down’s syndrome.) She’s against marriage equality and supports a federal gay-marriage ban, but has made sure to note that she “has gay friends.” Though she has signed on to same-sex partner benefits. She believes schools should teach creationism. She’s also pretty terrible on environmental issues, and is a huge advocate of drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Plus, she’s embroiled in a scandal…

From ParentDish…

It’s been a week of historical firsts in United States politics! Yesterday’s nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee marks the first time in U.S. history an African-American has been chosen to be a contender for the position of president of the United States.

And earlier today, John McCain made Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska and mother of five, his choice for vice president. While Palin is not the first woman to be selected as a running mate, (that honor belongs to Geraldine Ferraro), she is the first to do it with a baby at home. Palin’s youngest son Trig is only ten months old!

The photogenic Palin has appeared in Vogue magazine, but she’s definitely not a wimpy woman. The Alaskan governor returned to work a mere three days after giving birth to Trig, and her hobbies include hunting and ice fishing (one of the most frigid and miserable ways I’ve ever spent an afternoon) and is facing the deployment of her oldest son to Iraq in September.

From The Huffington Post…

But is she ready to be commander-in-chief?

Unlike Barack Obama, whom McCain has so emphatically condemned as not-ready, Palin hasn’t run for or served in the Senate. Nor has she run for president, which would have required her to think through and take positions on critical issues from the war in Iraq to the war on terror, from Iran’s nuclear ambitions to the Russian incursion into Georgia, from the emerging power of China to the march of globalization. She hasn’t debated tough opponents a dozen or so times or faced aggressive, often downright hostile reporters on a daily basis. Talk about untested. Her slim record undermines one of McCain’s most effective arguments against Obama.

Clearly, McCain thinks Palin will help him among women, particularly those disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters who are having so much trouble “getting over it.” It just shows how clueless the McCain camp actually is. Unlike Clinton and Ferraro, Palin hasn’t been a strong national voice on women’s issues. She hasn’t been at the barricades, fighting for women’s health, equal pay, economic security. And she certainly hasn’t had anything to say about the national-security issues that are also important to women across the political spectrum. Does the McCain camp really expect pro-choice Democratic and independent women to be swayed by a sleight-of-gender?

From AlterNet…

So, McCain’s chosen Alaska’s 44 year-old Governor Sarah Palin — forced childbirth activist, creationist and former beauty queen — to be his running mate. Here’s what folks are saying …

Booman gives us some good background on Palin. She smoked pot but didn’t like it. She rides snowmobiles and does like it.

Elizabeth Benjamin notes the governer’s lack of experience and asks whether she’s going to be the next Dan Quayle.

Kos, noting that she’s a dedicated creationist — evolution’s just a theory, you know — points out the obvious: her role is to rally the white evangelical base.

Steve Benen — the ever-prolific and early-rising Steve Benen — has two posts up that are worth perusing. He thinks Palin is an extremely odd choice, given McCain’s strategy of emphasizing experience and calls the pick an act of desperation.

On HuffPo, they’re re-running a piece by Chris Kelly, who says Palin’s the next Dick Cheney because “she can look you in the eye and tell you black is white.”

Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog predicts a 180-degree turn from those disaffected “PUMAs” — Clinton dead-enders — who have been warning that the choice of any other woman as a running mate by anyone ever would be the worst sort of treachery to women everywhere.