A woman is a woman is a woman

Here's a nice piece--that's very well written--on McCain's veep pick, Sarah Palin. Shockingly, this came from Fox News...

And I quote:

...I think I understand a few things about Hillary’s base in the Democratic party, and why so many women have been so loyal to her, and if John McCain thinks that simply picking another person with similar anatomy is going to win their votes, he’s about to learn a very important lesson in gender politics.

Nothing again Sarah Palin. To be honest, I don’t know her. She is a newcomer to the national scene, new enough to make Barack Obama look like an old-timer.

She has been governor of Alaska for less than two years. Before that, she was mayor of a town in Alaska that is smaller than my immediate neighborhood. Sort of makes serving in the Illinois legislature look like secretary of state. She had the guts to take on the corrupt Republican establishment in her state, and she deserves credit for that.

She has executive experience, even if it is in a pretty small pond, and she deserves credit for that. Not much, but some. She is also mired in an investigation as to whether she tried to get her ex-brother-in-law fired which does not exactly fit with her image as an ethical reformer. Best as I can tell, she has absolutely no foreign policy or national security experience.

Can John McCain really say that he looked far and wide and she is the most qualified person in Ameerica to be his running mate? Would she have been selected had she not been a woman? She seems like a cool lady. Then again, Barack Obama certainly seems like a cool guy. Cool isn’t the issue.

The reason so many women supported Hillary Clinton, and the reason that number grew, as did the intensity of their support, as the campaign went along, is not because, or at least not solely because, she is a woman. If that was her only claim to the top seat, she would have lost straightaway.

It is because many of us saw her as the most qualified candidate in the race, without regard to race or gender, the one who had earned the job, was ready to do it, and instead of being respected for that, she was treated with scorn and condescension and outright sexism by so many in the media and even in the Obama camp itself.
What woman above a certain age – women in their prime, I call them – has not been there and done that, could not identify with the woman who was fighting for a job she was more than qualified for, only to be demeaned for her clothes and her cackle and her cleavage, only to be mocked for her ambition even as a guy with far less experience was applauded for his.

Hillary tapped into something deep in the hearts of women across the country; not,as Nancy Peolosi wrongly described it, the politics of victimhood, but just the opposite, the unwillingness to be put down or dismissed, the courage to hang in and keep fighting and prove your mettle even when others doubt you. Her speech Tuesday night only reenforced all the reasons that those of us who admire and respect her do so. It was because she wasn’t a victim, and neither are we.
...

I will note however that I don't think McCain ever meant to substitute Clinton with Palin. No repub would ever vote for Clinton so that's kind of a ridiculous claim. However i do think he's using Palin as a stand-in for the Dem's appeal on the race, youth and gender fronts.

And on an unrelated note, I just have to point out: Palin is almost HALF McCain's age! (*eyes bugging out sound*)