As if any woman will do
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Susan Nielsen
The Oregonian
How dumb does John McCain think women are?
The Arizona senator picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his GOP running mate on Friday. She is flatly unqualified to be vice president. Her beliefs on abortion would offend any woman to the left of Clarence Thomas.
Yet McCain seems to believe that millions of women voters will coo indiscriminately over any female candidate who comes along. He wants disappointed Hillary supporters to stampede to his side, followed by all other women who are enthralled by Palin's life story.
This miscalculation could -- and should -- cost McCain the election.
Palin is a first-term governor and former mayor. She is popular in her home state, in large part because she tackled corruption in state politics and taxed oil companies in a way that directly benefits Alaskan residents.
She's also hugely appealing to women. While other mothers struggle to balance work and family on a humdrum level, she manages to become governor, have five children, stay married to a handsome fisherman and pose for a fashion magazine. Talk about having it all.
But let's get real. This is a race for president, not a contest for which Veep you'd most like to personally emulate. McCain is 72, and the average life expectancy for a white American man is 76. If McCain were elected, it's quite possible that his vice president would need to take over.
Is Palin ready to govern the country and oversee the military? No.
Is she interchangeable with Hillary Clinton? Hardly.
Three years ago, Palin was mayor of a town called Wasilla, population 6,700. That's smaller than Stayton, Ore. (Haven't heard of it? Exactly.) She has no experience on the national stage. She has no experience grappling with global affairs. She is clearly smart and talented, as many small-town mayors and newly minted governors are. But sorry, two years as governor in a state with fewer people than the city of San Francisco doesn't cut it.
Also, Palin has said she's "as pro-life as any candidate can be." She's not kidding. In a prior campaign, she came out against abortion even in cases of rape and incest. That puts her at odds with the vast majority of Americans: Fully 85 percent of voters think women who are raped or molested should have the right to a legal abortion.
This extremist stance on abortion puts her about 10 planets away from Hillary Clinton, a longtime supporter of reproductive rights. It also reveals an ideological chasm between Palin and Clinton's most ardent fans, women who came of age before Roe v. Wade.
On Friday, Palin appealed directly to Clinton's female base. ". . . Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America," she said to cheers, "but it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all."
There's no question, it's thrilling to have a woman in the race again. (I say that as an Obama supporter.) There's no question some women will vote for McCain entirely because of Palin's gender. I'm sure the media will ferret out all 27 of them and make them seem like a mass movement.
But are women -- particularly moderate pro-choice women -- really as impressionable as McCain hopes? Will they support any woman, at any price, just because it would be soooo exciting to get one step closer to the Oval Office?
No way, no how.
Scratch that. I hope not.
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