Sarah Palin's New Feminism

Gloria Steinem, in today's Los Angeles Times, claims that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is "an unqualified woman" whose "divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention."

Steinem claims that Palin "shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton," and that for Democratic women to "vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, 'Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs.'"

As I've noted before, John McCain's nomination of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate has thrown the radical feminist movement into a debilitating identity crisis. For years I recall women saying that what they really want is the same opportunity for professional success as men. Now, though, when we have a conservative woman who really does "have it all," women's activists are mobilizing against her with a vehemence of a reverse-Suffragette movement.

Folks on the left may be shocked to realize that the culture wars are back, and Sarah Palin represents the vanguard of the "new feminism," as Robin Abcarian points out in her essay on Palin's challenge to the women's liberation movement:

The topic was Sen. John McCain's vice presidential pick, and talk show host Laura Ingraham was on a roll. Accepting an award from the Republican National Coalition for Life on behalf of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was under wraps working on her convention speech, Ingraham chastised anyone who would suggest that Palin is not up to the job.

As a pro-life working mother of five, including a special needs infant and a pregnant 17-year-old, Ingraham said, "Sarah Palin represents a new feminism. . . . And there is no bigger threat to the elites in this country than a woman who lives her conservative convictions"....

Talking with reporters Monday, McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt took offense at the idea that Palin might have trouble juggling the vice presidency and her family obligations.

"Frankly," he said, "I can't imagine that question being asked of a man. I think it's offensive, and I think a lot of women will find it offensive."

In an interview Wednesday with Katie Couric, prospective first lady Cindy McCain defended Palin and echoed Schmidt: "She will be a marvelous vice president, and she is already a marvelous mother. . . . I think most of the people asking the questions wouldn't be asking this if it were a man."

Later, Cindy McCain nodded strenuously when the Wednesday keynote speaker, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, reacted with outrage to the question of Palin's balancing act.

"When do they ever ask a man that question?" he asked.

Palin's rise to the heights of national politics is nothing short of revolutionary. As Kathleen Parker argues:

Should Palin and McCain prevail come November, feminism can curtsy and treat herself to a hard-earned vacation. The greatest achievement of feminism won’t be that a woman reached the vice presidency, but that a woman no longer needed feminists to get there.

Indeed, and thus we can see why Steinem's so angrily ruffled at the rise of Sarah Palin as America's true feminist role model.

Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times

Citizen Sarah Storms Small-Town America!

Sarah Palin, in her acceptance speech tonight to the Republican National Convention, exceeded expectations with a winning, combative address that set the table for John McCain's speech tomorrow night, and laid down a challenge to her antagonists and detractors: I've come a long way, dude, and you ain't seen nothin' yet!

The New York Times reports:

After days of mounting questions about her qualifications, Gov. Sarah Palin rallied the Republican National Convention tonight by touting her small-town government experience and ridiculing concerns about whether she is up to the job of vice president.

“Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown,” Ms. Palin said. “And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”

The remark was a not-so-veiled shot at the career of Senator Barack Obama, who began his public service as a community organizer in Chicago.

In spirited remarks that were embraced by a crowd that was thirsty to learn more about her, Ms. Palin also took on what she portrays as an elite media establishment unwilling to accept that her government service in a small town and a sparsely populated state gives her the resume to serve at the highest levels of the federal government.

“I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone,” she said in her remarks. “But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion – I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country."

At the conclusion of her address, Senator John McCain joined her on stage and asked the cheering crowd, “Don’t you think we made the right choice for the next vice president of the United States?

With many of the Republicans gathered here already angry at the intense spotlight that has been put on Governor Palin and her family, the rebuke of the media and her critics found a warm reception in the Xcel Energy Center.

Anticipating a strong performance by the governor, Democrats quickly countered the idea that tonight’s appearance was a test of the vice presidential candidate, saying instead it was a reflection of Senator John McCain’s judgment in selecting her.

After tonight, if there was ever any doubt, McCain's judgment looks shrewdly decisive.

Palin spoke for people all across the country with an aggressive shot across the Democratic ticket:

I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involved.

(APPLAUSE)

I guess - I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.

(APPLAUSE)

I might add that, in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they're listening and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.

(APPLAUSE)

No, we tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

Barack Obama is wiping his brow right now! And Biden better be ready for that vice-presidential debate!

The McCain campaign's storming the nation, from small towns across the country, from Wasilla to the White House in November.

Photo Credit: New York Times

Palin Wins the Google Primary!

This just in from FiveThirtyEight, "Guess Who's a Celebrity Now?"

Since her name was announced as John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin has generated more US-based internet search traffic than Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Michael Phelps and Barack Obama combined:

I've actually noticed this trend. My blog Google's well, for some reason, and for the past few days I've been averaging over 1500 unique visitors, with at least three-fourths of that from Sarah Palin hits on Google.

Go down and check my Extreme Tracker and my Sitemeter on the sidebar and you'll see.

Palin wins the Google primary!

Image Credit: FiveThirtyEight

What Does Peggy Noonan Know About Sarah Palin?

I often enjoy reading Peggy Noonan's commentaries, but I don't normally post her essays because ... well, sometimes they seem carbon-dated from the Reagan years, with all due respect.

It's not that her ideas are suspect - indeed, Noonan's offfered some of the most incisive analyses on the immediacy of immigration reform back in 2006. It's just that when I read Noonan I feel like Tip O'Neill's the Speaker of the House, and not Nancy Pelosi.

This is not ageism, by the way. Politics is more partisan nowadays, and sometimes I wonder if Noonan believes shes still back writing speeches for the Gipper. She's got an Irish gentility that's wonderful, but that style appears more at home at the Weekend Journal page at WSJ than out among the rough and tumble of the blogosphere.

Again, don't get me wrong. I like Noonan. I am perplexed, though, with her hot-mic comments today suggesting John McCain's toast with his selection of Sarah Palin as running mate.

The video's here, but check the transcript as well:

Chuck Todd: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we'll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We'll find out on your blackberry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin and she will get the chance to show voters she's the right woman for the job Up next, one man who's already convinced and he'll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman.
(cut away)

Peggy Noonan: Yeah.

Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys -- this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it's not gonna work. And --

PN: It's over.

MM: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

CT: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.

PN: Saw Kay this morning.

CT: Yeah, she's never looked comfortable about this --

MM: They're all bummed out.

CT: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

PN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this -- excuse me-- political bullshit about narratives --

CT: Yeah they went to a narrative.

MM: I totally agree.

PN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.

MM: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.

CT: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.

MM: Yeah.

Interestingly, almost inexplicably, Noonan's got an essay today arguing that John McCain and Sarah Palin spell trouble for the American left.

So why her hot-mic contra analysis? Just pundits being pundits?

Perhaps, but the election's far from "over" just because of some controversy surrounding Palin's appointment as vice-presidential running mate. We'll know more tonight, of course, but I'm confident from watching Palin last Friday, and given the intervening media attention dominating the weekend's political cycle, that the Alaska Governor's going to give a powerful statement on the historic importance of her candidacy, combined with a ringing defense of both her families traditional values and personal decision-making.

Thomas Lifson's essay, "Sarah Palin and the Two Americas," offered one the best analyses of the Palin personality I've seen yet:

She has the rarest of qualities: authenticity. Media and Beltway types can't fathom what that is. It goes right over their heads. Not even on the radar screen. Her multiple facets -- beauty queen, moose hunter, mother, member of an Assembly of God Church, and ferocious reformer of corrupt politics may baffle sophisticates, but ordinary Americans see all the pieces fitting together, and they recognize a type of person they know and love.

Think of Marge Gunderson, the fictional chief of police of Brainerd, Minnesota in the Oscar-winning movie Fargo, taken as a comic send-up by the swells in New York and Hollywood, with her Midwestern twang (shared by Sarah Palin), funny hat, and kitsch-artist husband. The kind of woman who probably rides snowmobiles with her husband, for crying out loud. Yet in the end, Marge Gunderson solved the murder despite the sneers of her betters in the Big City (Minneapolis), and won the hearts of movie audiences. Americans like their heroines full of common sense and spunk.

Sarah Palin is the ultimate All-American Girl, beautiful but not glamorous, powerful but unpretentious, high-powered but down-to-earth, a reformer who speaks up while others cower in fear of rocking the boat. Like Ronald Reagan, she can reach right through the television camera into people's minds and hearts. We recognize one of us.

The left, so wrapped in artifice and fakery, are driven crazy by this. Her behavior appears bizarre, inexplicable. In their minds, she is a disaster and they pretend to be gleeful, asking when McCain will dump her. All while panicking, because they can see the energized GOP base and the failure of Barack Obama to garner the ten-to-fifteen point post-convention bounce to be expected after his speech before the multimillion-dollar Greek temple set and fireworks at Invesco Field only 5 days ago. Those who planned the classical Greek theatrical stage never for second contemplated the possibility of a deus ex machina named Sarah.

Neither has Peggy Noonan, unfortunately.

Sarah Palin's Political Experience

Here's the new McCain ad buy on Sarah Palin's political experience:

The Politico has the background story, via Memeorandum:

Mounting a ferocious defense of his embattled running mate, John McCain said he is buying a TV ad arguing that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has more experience than the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama.

In an effort to rev up conservatives, a campaign statement issued a list of critical media mentions that it called “smears” of Palin, who speaks in prime time at the convention Wednesday night.

The campaign announced: “The McCain campaign will launch a television ad directly comparing Gov. Palin’s executive experience as a governor who oversees 24,000 state employees, 14 statewide cabinet agencies and a $10 billion budget to Barack Obama’s experience as a one-term junior senator from Illinois.”

The ad is what the campaign calls “a forward-leaning effort to counter the shameless smears that have prevailed during Gov. Palin’s introduction to the American voter.”

Senior adviser Steve Schmidt gave Politico a statement saying the campaign will have no more comment about the vetting process, which was the subject of more critical coverage in Wednesday morning’s papers...

Check the link for Schmidt's statement.

But see Howard Kurtz's piece at the Washington Post as well, where he reports:

I've talked to many political professionals over the years who were mad at the media, or me in particular.

But I've never quite had a conversation like the one Tuesday night with Steve Schmidt.

He was absolutely furious as he unloaded on the journalistic community for, in his view, unfairly savaging Sarah Palin.

Sure, it is in his interest to try to get the press to tone things down. But Schmidt - a hard-headed, no-nonsense, on-message strategist - really sounded shell-shocked. And so he was saying things on the record that senior aides usually say only under a cloak of anonymity.

Apparently, Schmidt says Sarah Palin's "under seige" by the waves of media speculation on the alleged teenage pregnancy cover-up, not to mention every other unhinged leftist smear that gets pick up as "mainstream" news by the press.

Well, it's double-standard time all over the place (here and here, for example).

Sarah Palin Takes on Beltway Media Elite

Jules Crittenden's got a morning roundup of news and commentary on Sarah Palin's big night at the Republican National Convention:

Crittenden links to his employer's piece, "GOP Ready to Rumble," and offers chagrin at his journalistic brethren's anti-Palin attackocracy:

It gets a little embarrassing sometimes, being an ink-stained wretch, when you see the way the other scribblers can’t stop piling on one and can’t stop worshipping the other. Here’s a great Dem talking point, compliments of the Washington Post: Palin slashed funding for teen moms. Not a peep on what the increase was, what the money was actually for, what else she might have slashed, whether the program is actually worth a damn or well managed, or anything else resembling context. Maybe it was the horrible, meanspirited act of a hypocritical pol, but with no indication anyone bothered to ask any of those questions, who knows? A little shoddy. Hang on, here we go. New media makes old media look bad again. Via Malkin: Slashed line item was a threefold increase.

Then there’s the rampant lefty sexism. Even some of my own pals can’t help themselves. The funny part is how they think a couple days of partisan squawking will be enough to force her out. Anyway, tonight we hear from the vice-presidential candidate who has the power to induce fits of apoplexy, and then, maybe, we’ll get a sense of whether actual voters share the ire.

The Wall Street Journal picks up on the theme, directing covering fire at the inside the Beltway media crowd's anti-Palin mysogyny:

Even as the Obama camp ponders how best to handle John McCain's veep pick of Sarah Palin, the high priests and priestesses of the media have marked her as an apostate. The Beltway class is in full-throated rebellion against a nondomesticated conservative who might pose a threat to their coronation of Barack Obama and the return of Camelot-on-the-Potomac....

This is the same media whose chant for weeks - no, months - has been "let McCain be McCain." If we know anything about John McCain, it is that he is by instinct a reformer, sometimes to a fault. Yet when he acts like McCain and picks a maverick reformer in his own mold, his former media cheering squad turns on him for not conforming to Beltway mores and picking someone they've all met 10 times in the CNN green room....
What's really going on here is that the Beltway class can see how popular the Palin pick is with Republicans outside Washington, and especially with middle-class conservatives. As Richard Land, a leader with the Southern Baptist Convention, said Monday, John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin closed the "enthusiasm gap" between the two parties.

There is nothing more dangerous to entrenched Washington power than a populist conservative who looks unlikely to buy into Washington's creature comforts. Take a close look at Governor Palin's record on ethics and energy in Alaska, and it becomes clear what this Beltway outburst is actually about. The irony is that while Senator Obama is running on change, his acceptance speech made explicit that he's promising only more power and money for Washington. Sarah Palin's history of taking on the career politicians of a corrupt Alaskan GOP machine - her own party - shows that she's the more authentic change agent.

Meanwhile, a former Democrat explains why she's voting McCain-Palin in November (Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin).

Everyday Americans know change-we-can-believe in when they see it!

Photo Credit: Jules Crittenden

Sarah Palin, America's Sweetheart, Readies for Prime-Time

Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is scheduled to give her prime-time acceptance speech tonight to the Republican National Convention at St. Paul, Minnesota.

The stakes are sky high for America's Sweetheart!

Unlike any previous vice-presidential nominee, Palin faces an all-out assault from every corner of the political universe. The nihilist leftosphere led the way with sleazy allegations of a teen-pregnancy cover-up. The feminist left has attacked Palin with a zeal unmatched since the Clarence Thomas nomination in 1991, with the latest smears alleging she's a bad mother. Breathless stories of Alaskan political scandals have splashed the front pages of newspapers nationwide, and this morning we're greeted with the tabloidization of Sarah Palin, at the National Enquirer and US Magazine.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton remains on the sidelines, refusing to speak out in praise of Palin's historic achievement.

Kathleen Parker puts the Palin phenonemon in perspective:

Did someone switch the Kool-Aid?

Palin is everything liberals have always purported to want for women—freedom to choose, opportunities for both career and family, a shot at the top ranks of American political life. With five children and an impressive résumé, Palin should be Miss July in the go-girl calendar.

But note Victor Davis Hanson, who argues that Palin will be vindicated in the court of all-American public opinion:

Palin's symbolism is the antithesis of the metrosexual wind- or body- surfing politican, and hair-plugged, neurotic TV pundit So at this time, right now, millions apparently like Palin's atypical 19th-century profile. Again, it's a pleasant change of pace from Harvard Law School, DC politics, "community organizing" and the can't-do, 'they raised the bar on me' collective complaint.

If she can beat off the frothing Newsweek/MSNBC/New York Times inbred rabid wolves, and do it with the grace she has shown so far, she will fill a deep yearning among Americans for someone like her. A lot of Americans, if they watch reality shows, prefer truckers on ice or Bering Sea crab fishing to endless psychodramas of thirty-something suburban whiners.

So apparently they are eager to see a rare politican who is unapologetic about America's past achievements (cf. Obama's "tragic history" and need for more "oppression studies"), and who reminds us with pride that a muscular world of action, not community organizing, creates the bounty that others use and take for granted but so often sneer at the methods of its acquisition.

Right now, there are millions rooting for her in a way not true of Biden—and many who are criticizing her don't have a clue why that it is so.

No, those in the anti-Palin attackocracy have no clue.

Tonight the nation will tune-in to the real Sarah Palin, America's Sweetheart.

Republicans Tighten Image on Eve of Palin Speech

The Wall Street Journal reports that the John McCain campaign is working to get ahead of the media cycle on the eve of Sarah Palin's address to the Republican National Convention Wednesday night:

The McCain campaign scrambled to take control of the public debate over vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin, canceling her public appearances and teaming her with high-powered Republican operatives as she prepared for a speech Wednesday night that will be her first, and perhaps most important, chance to define herself to the American public.

Campaign officials were heartened by the strong support the Alaska governor continued to receive in the halls of their nominating convention here, a day after the revelation that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was pregnant.

Gov. Palin and her husband "have embraced the grandchild about to be born," Gary Bauer, a social conservative activist and onetime presidential candidate, told the Texas delegation. "They already are teaching America a lesson about the sanctity of life," he added, as the delegates jumped to their feet in applause.

But Republican officials remained nervous about how the choice was playing in the country as a whole. Some new polls showed Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama gaining a big lead in recent days following his party's convention last week....

Although there has been extensive coverage of Gov. Palin in the four days since she was named, the campaign sees her speech as an opportunity for her to describe herself in her own terms. The adviser said he would be shocked if she spoke about her daughter's pregnancy, noting that the campaign considers that issue off-limits. Her whole family is expected to attend, including Bristol and her boyfriend, Levi Johnston.

The speech is "a chance for her to actually get out and tell her story and for people to see beyond some of the media fog that's existed in the last 48 hours," said McCain campaign manager Rick Davis.

I doubt Barack Obama will retain his lead in public opinion beyond the end of the week. Rasmussen reports that following a weekend of revelations, Governor Palin finds a clear majority with a favorable opinion:

After a long weekend of Democratic criticism of John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, over half of voters (52%) still have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of the Alaska governor. Thirty-one percent (31%) view her very favorably.

If Palin's speech is anything like her debut on the campaign trail in Dayton, Ohio, last Friday, opinion trends should stabilize amid a significant McCain-Palin polling bounce.

See also, "McCain’s Mrs. Right."

Democrats Alleged to Compromise Sarah Palin Personal Data

Red State reports that Alaska's Democratic Party leaked Sarah Palin's private personal information, including Social Security data, residential addresses, and consumer purchasing records to the Politico:

The Politico has received an opposition research file from the Alaska Democrats. You can read it in PDF here.

In the file, the Democrats have released Sarah Palin's social security number minus the last four digits. Also tied to the information are her various home addresses.

Back in 2005, Democrats used Michael Steele's social security number to get his credit record.

It is atrocious that the Democrats would not only seek out Sarah Palin's social security number, but release it in opposition research to the press.

Checking the Politico link to the opposition file turns up an error message.

However, today's top feature story at the Politico homepage, "Documents Detail Palin's Political Life," includes an active link to former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles' opposition file on Palin.

The file includes a line with Sarah Palin's Social Security number, with a redaction of the information. Perhaps Politico removed the un-redacted version after Red State sounded the alarm.

Either way, this is not some low-level smear circulating around the fever swamps of the left-wing blogosphere. The Knowles opposition report on Palin is coming from some scurrilous Alaska Democratic-aligned insiders seeking not only to damage Palin politically, but to compromise her personal security as well.

Note that Ben Smith, who covers the Democratic campaign at Politico, questions Red State's claim that Alaska Democrats leaked the file. Yet, Smith does not reveal Politico's original source, and no matter: The Knowles file is a partisan opposition paper whose release serves only to hammer both Palin's political carreer and her personal life.

The release of the Knowles report is of a piece with Daily Kos's baby cover-up rumors, with Andrew Sullivan's muckraking anti-Palin attacks, and Talking Points Memo's unsubstantiated smears of the Palin family's alleged ties to secessionist hate groups (now fully rebutted).

Sarah Palin has no William Ayers, Rashid Khalidi, Tony Rezko, nor Jeremiah Wright in her background.

Public opinion data already finds a 52 percent majority approval rating of the GOP vice-presidential nominee. After Palin's speech tomorrow, those numbers are going surge even higher. Meanwhile, the continued Democratic efforts to impugn the repution of the Palin family will send the party's presidential hopes into political exile come November.

McCain Assures of Thorough Palin Vetting

John McCain, speaking with CNN's Dana Bash, indicates that his campaign organization put Alaska Governor Sarah Palin through a rigorous vetting process:

John McCain said Tuesday his vice presidential vetting process was thorough, as his campaign tried to calm concern that more surprises about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin were coming.

"My vetting process was completely thorough, and I'm thankful for the results," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said during a stop at a fire station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The McCain campaign said it was aware in advance of two items it revealed on Monday: Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is about five months pregnant and Palin's husband, Todd, had a DUI conviction 22 years ago.

A source intimately involved in the vetting process of McCain's choice for vice president called CNN to give an account of Palin's background check.

This official said a 25-person team, led by Washington attorney A.B. Culvahouse, started by compiling reports on 20 top vice presidential contenders, using only public documents like disclosure forms, public records, newspaper articles and interview transcripts.

That information was eventually presented to McCain, and to top campaign advisers Mark Salter, Steve Schmidt, Charlie Black and Rick Davis - the only four aides involved in the highly secretive process.

Once McCain and those aides narrowed the choices to a short list, Palin and other contenders were contacted and asked for documents, including a credit check, tax returns and additional financial disclosure forms.

The official told CNN that all of those on the short list - including Palin - were asked to answer 70 "intrusive" questions, including "Have you ever paid for sex?" and "Have you ever been fairly or unfairly accused of sexual harassment?"

The questions were also described as some basic queries now asked of presidential nominees, like whether they ever hired illegal workers or neglected to pay taxes for nannies.

In one of her answers, Palin told McCain aides about her husband's DUI arrest 22 years ago.

Then Culvahouse, along with a few associates, interviewed Palin for three hours. During that interview, she revealed her teenage daughter's pregnancy -- and was warned it would become public if she were picked.

"She said she'd have those conversations with her daughter," the source said.

From the start of the vetting process, one red flag was a state investigation into whether Palin improperly dismissed Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner for not firing her ex-brother-in-law.

CNN was told that McCain investigators spent considerable time looking into the so-called "Troopergate" affair - interviewing Palin's lawyer and quietly talking to others involved - and decided the facts were on her side.

Note, as well, Tom Blumer's account at Pajamas Media, where he links to a Wizbang post indicating that Culvahouse was seen in Juneau, Alaska, in May of this year.

Read Blumer's piece in full. He raises a red flag over today's hot news item, Elizabeth Bumiller's New York Times piece looking into the "questions" surround the Palin vetting.

See also Patrick Ruffini, "It's Not the Pregnancy. It's the Vetting."

Sarah Palin as Culture-War Hand Grenade

I noted previously that Sarah Palin has altered the electoral dynamics of 2008, and perhaps the most intense reaction to the Alaska Governor has come from the radical feminist abortion-on-demand ayatollahs.

As Ross Douthat argues, Palin's nomination can be described as a hand-grenade in the cultures wars:

One thing at least is clear to me, that wasn't when I was watching Palin from afar, and thinking that she seemed like a politician worth keeping an eye on, is that she and her family are a culture-war hand grenade like nothing we've seen in a long time.

Yes, as I demonstrated in my entry, "Feminist Movement Attacks Sarah Palin Nomination."

Also, Andrea Tantaros shows how Palin's nomination has thrown the lefties over the edge:

Liberals like to pretend they are tolerant and accepting of those who are different but when it comes to anyone not ensconced in their progressive, elitist dogma they mock and attack their lifestyle to inspire hate. But because governor Palin is endearing, authentic–and with this latest revelation–easy to identify with, she invokes panic in the left. Why else would they assail a very popular, promising lady and her children?

Well, Sarah Palin's is the personal embodiment the gendered left's greatest fears, so the campaign of innuendo and smears will continue (see here, for example).

Image Credit: Obama-Palin 2x3 abortion choice matrix, courtesy of 4-Block World, "It's Not So Hypothetical Now, Is It?"

McCain's Vice-Presidential Gamble

David Brooks argues that John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate demonstrates the Arizona Senator's unconventional political appeal: McCain's crusading, public-spirited, and not prone to rigid ideological stands.

This is, unsurprisingly, a good description of Sarah Palin as well.

The big question this week is whether McCain's veep selection process was bold or bungled, a savvy gamble or a sucker's bet. Brooks is confident that Palin's experience is signifcant enough to carry her through. He suggests it's more likely that crusading moralism - a trait shared by both McCain and Palin - will render the GOP ticket abstractly incapable of handling the perfect storm of governing amid the breakdown of the old Republican hierarchy of power following the Bush exodus.

It's an interest piece, but I don't share Brooks outlook (a McCain administration will be populated by a slew of old hands from inside the Beltway). My concern is short term: McCain-Palin must survive the immediate challenges of cascading revelations about Palin's family that have threatened to sink the Republican ticket. The Los Angeles Times has a nice summary:

For every piece of the portrait of Palin that the McCain campaign sketches, a far more complicated picture of the Alaska governor is drawn.

The youthful mother of five whose placement on the ticket was meant to reinforce traditional values has now revealed that her unmarried teenage daughter is pregnant -- a piece of information that the family and the campaign said they had hoped to keep private.

The woman introduced to America as a reform-minded Washington outsider who opposed the infamous "bridge to nowhere" -- the symbol of McCain's hatred of wasteful spending -- originally supported its construction. The governor who in her introductory speech decried the practice of budgetary "earmarks" sought, as the state's chief executive and as mayor of Wasilla, hundreds of millions of dollars in such federal funding for local projects.

Moreover, Palin has now retained a lawyer to represent her in a controversy the McCain campaign said it had fully researched -- Palin's role in dismissing a state police official who had refused to fire a trooper who divorced Palin's sister.

On Monday, the McCain campaign dispatched lawyers to Alaska in a move described as an attempt to manage a growing crowd of journalists who have traveled there to inspect Palin's background. But the move raises the impression that the McCain campaign didn't know everything about his No. 2 and is now racing to learn what it can while trying to avoid tough questions about the Arizona senator's decision-making process.

"I really hope McCain did his homework," said David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush. "I cannot stifle a growing sense of unease that he didn't."

A former McCain advisor, Mike Murphy, said Monday that it remained an open question whether "the running mate in a good or bad way becomes a window into the skills of the nominee."

Most dangerous of all, McCain's team does not seem to know what new development, if any, might grab the public's attention.

One Republican strategist with close ties to the campaign described the candidate's closest supporters as "keeping their fingers crossed" in hopes that additional information does not force McCain to revisit the decision. According to this Republican, who would discuss internal campaign strategizing only on condition of anonymity, the McCain team used little more than a Google Internet search as part of a rushed effort to review Palin's potential pitfalls. Just over a week ago, Palin was not on McCain's short list of potential running mates, the Republican said.

The unease comes as Palin, 44, prepares for her next big public test: a prime-time, nationally televised speech Wednesday at the Republican National Convention.

From my perspective, Palin's speech tomorrow, and her expected agility and poise on the campaign trail, including her debate against Joe Biden in October, will be the most important factors determining the success of the McCain-Palin ticket.

Charles Mahtesian argues that the latest revelations on Palin's family may actually help the GOP ticket:

So far — and it is hard to tell what the future may hold for Palin’s unexpected national candidacy — the travails of the Palin family probably seem awfully familiar to many average Americans. It is this averageness that makes her such a politically promising running mate for John McCain — and such a dangerous opponent for Democrats. Many voters will find it easy to identify with her family’s struggles — a significant advantage in an election where the voting calculus is so unusually and intensely personal.

Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden hardly come from blue-blood backgrounds; Biden, now famously, is an Irish-Catholic son of Scranton, Pa., and Obama was raised by a single mother. But the fact that Palin, even as a governor, remains grounded in a recognizable American lifestyle — warts and all — has not gone unnoticed among Republicans, as the first wave of opposition research has been unloaded on her.

That said, McCain and Palin ought to be relieved if Bristol Palin's pregnancy announcement is the last major preemptive press release they need to make. There's already speculation that Sarah Palin is the new Thomas Eagleton, and nothing would harm the GOP's chances more than Palin's withdrawal as McCain's running mate.

Radical Feminists and Sarah Palin

Kenneth Davenport has already done a fabulous job identifying the abject hatred found on the feminist left for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who is shown below caring for her 4 month-old son just after being introduced as the GOP vice-presidential running mate in Dayton, Ohio, on August 29.

Palin has been slurred as a "token" and stalking horse for Hillary Clinton's cadre of women voters alienated with the Democratic Party's abject sexism demonstrated in the primaries.

The good news, however, is that with the Palin pick, Americans can get a genuine look at what the radical women's rights agenda is all about. It's not about honoring women who work hard, play by the rules, and take on the entrenched big-boys bureaucracy, all the while holding down the role of outstanding wife and mother.

Indeed, Palin is threatening to radical feminists because she shows that a women from a small-town background with regular, all-American education and working-class credentials is the ultimate alternative to the post-1960s women's liberationist ideology of having it all, but only on my politically-correct terms, baby.

When the news of Bristol Palin's pregnancy broke through to dominate the media cycle today, prominent feminist bloggers attacked Governor Palin for the alleged totalitarian stifling of her daughter's right to choose. Here's Ann Friedman, for example, on the press release on Bristol's decision to have her child:

While it's obvious why they made this statement to assure the public that Bristol was not coerced into keeping the baby (after all, she does have a parent who is a staunch opponent of the right to choose and is currently on the Republican presidential ticket), as my significant other pointed out, there's some serious hypocrisy at play here. I mean, John McCain and Sarah Palin don't believe women have a right to choose. It's absolutely absurd for the campaign to emphasize the fact that Bristol "made this decision," and then push for policies that take away that choice.

In reality, Bristol's actual "choice" was probably not whether to terminate the pregnancy or carry it to term, but whether raise the child herself or put it up for adoption. But the reason that the McCain campaign chose to emphasize Bristol's agency in this decision was to reassure the public that this pregnancy is not coercive. They know the public wants to feel secure in the knowledge that it was Bristol's choice to keep the pregnancy. And coming from the McCain campaign, which opposes a woman's right to choose, that statement is disgusting.

What Freidman here is basically saying (by assumption, since the family's decision-making is a private matter) is that as parents the Palins should not in fact be able to counsel their daughter on what to do, that is, they should not as custodians have a say on the welfare of their grandchild. In other words, they have violated Bristol's rights. Note, of course, that the Supreme Court has upheld parental notification requirements for minors seeking abortion, so Friedman's criticism is an all-out attack on the sanctity of the family institution.

But see also Echidne's quick rant on McCain's alleged anti-feminist decision-making:

My head is spinning. My first reaction to the choice of Palin was that John McCain is one of those funny guys who things [sic] of the concept of a "woman" as a spoonful out of some imaginary mountain of the characteristic "womanhood", so that any woman is just as good as any other woman, and that he doesn't see any reason why feminists wouldn't vote for Palin. Even if Palin only supports abortion in the case when a woman's life is at risk. No rape exception ... But she's got a vagina, right? So those feminazis must like her.

This is a strange passage, considering how empowered Sarah Palin is, domestically, politically, and socially. To call McCain a sexist in selecting the Alaska Governor defies reason, unless a women in office is only good for rubber-stamping the radical hard line on abortion on demand.

Katha Pollitt, however, at the Nation, probably offerred the most vehement feminist attack on Palin seen so far:

Palin is a rightwing-Christian anti-choice extremist who opposes abortion for any reason whasoever, except to save the life of the girl or woman. No exception even for rape, incest, or the health of the woman. No exception for a ten-year-old, a woman carrying a fetus with no chance of life, a woman on the edge of suicide - let alone the woman who is not ready to be a parent, who is escaping domestic violence, who is already stretched to the limit as a single mother. She wants to force over one million women and girls a year to give birth against their will and judgment. She wants to use the magnificent freedom the women's movement has won for her at tremendous cost and struggle - the movement that won her the right to run those marathons and run Alaska - to take away the freedom of every other woman in the country.

"Christian" and "extremist" in the same sentence is jolting, but all the rest of this leaves out something important: Why are "over one milliion women and girls" ending up in situations where they'd need to terminate a life? Isn't the freedom to choose a death warrant for the human product of sex without responsibility?

As for all of the other extreme examples Pollitt outlines, I'm sure Palin herself will respond do these questions herself during the course of the campaign. But politically, if the balance is between a "woman stretched thin" having a child she might not have the means to care for, or of an infant born as the result of a botched abortion, without any power whatsoever to escape the cold, uncaring death of a Chicago-area soiled linen-closet, I doubt many Americans would have a hard time identifying the true extreme between the alternatives.

But note one more example in Taylor Marsh, who so eloquently rebutted sexism against Hillary Clinton during the primaries, but reserves nothing but disdain for Sarah Palin's own career and family choices now that it's clear there's no political angle to be gained any longer by hammering Barack Obama:

At some point, women have to stand up and say no to insulting selections that make a mockery of the rest of us who have not only had to pay our dues, but wait our turn. It took Hillary Clinton 35 years to prove her prowess. It's taken me decades, including honorable investigative work that is often ridiculed, plus years of working tirelessly to make a name for myself, to get where I am today. Women need to be able to stand up against and separate themselves from a political marketing plan based solely on packaging, as opposed to a worthy choice that honors the expertise of women of real stature. The choice of Sarah Palin is gender affirmative action and nothing more, which no independent woman should support or condone. It's nothing less than a slap in the face to all sisters wanting equality based on merit, not marketing.

It all reeks of genuine nihilism (i.e., anti-progress nothingness devoted to the destruction of the traditional family).

As Davenport agued today, Sarah Palin is "the wrong kind of woman." In other words, radical feminists deny successful, family-oriented womanhood to women who don't toe the line to the gendered totalitarianism of abortion on demand for custodial minors or for women whose achievements don't qualify as "real stature" outside of the (f)rigid feminist pro-choice quota system.

Photo Credit: McCain Blogette

Palin's Poise Will Be Election Challenge of 2008

William Kristol argues that Sarah Palin is "now the central figure in this fall’s electoral drama."

If the Alaska Governor can maintain the poise and decorum she exhibited on August 29 - upon announcement as the GOP vice-presidential running mate - then John McCain's decision in selecting her may be by far the most important factor in a Republican November victory.

But note Jay Cost's essay as well, where he seconds the importance of Palin's "poise" as she fends off attacks that she's unqualified for the office of the vice presidency:

Here's my take on her qualifications. Historically speaking, she has enough experience to be veep. We can talk about what happens if McCain drops dead on day one, but that sounds tendentious to me - like asking what President Obama would do should Vladimir Putin declare World War III on the day of Obama's inauguration. It sounds smart to people already set upon voting against Obama, but everybody else will probably just roll his or her eyes.

Does this mean her qualifications will be a non-issue? Not necessarily. She has fewer qualifications than most veeps, that's for sure. Her thin resume could hurt her if and only if she performs badly on television. This, and nothing else, is what matters. The people who could vote Republican this year will give her a chance. Jonathan Alter, Andrew Sullivan, and other pro-Obama commentators in the MSM are not going to sway these people, at least not directly. These analysts could frame the persuadables' reactions should they decide they don't like her. So, it's up to Palin.

For those who are skeptical that she can pull this off, remember - Obama did! While Obama might be special, he's certainly not singular. Lots of people can give good performances on television, even if they have had little practice. Furthermore, unlike Obama as of a year ago, Palin has already been through a real statewide election. Two, in fact - first against incumbent governor Frank Murkowski, then against former governor Tony Knowles. Obama managed to look so poised without such practice.

The key word for Palin, as it was (and is) for Obama, is poise. She appeared poised at her announcement, which was her most important day. If she appears poised during her nomination acceptance address, poised on the stump, and poised in the debate - her qualifications should be a non-issue, and she'll help McCain deliver his message.

Read the whole thing, here.

Cost makes some keen additional observations. Most crucial? Palin's the feminine "maverick." The political appeal of both McCain and Palin is that of outsiders. McCain's made a career of challenging the powers that be in Washington, and Palin's swift rise in Alaska was propelled by a reformists zeal that has reshaped the state's politics and policy.

Gender, of course, has been important in bringing shock and awe to an electorate ready for change; but most importantly, Palin's background complements McCain's flair as a rough-riding outsider.

If the Alaska Governor is able to ride out all this first week's controversies with her wits about her, the GOP ticket will provide a double-barrel of straight talk power, principle, and pinache.

Photo Credit: New York Times

The Political Impact of Bristol Palin's Pregnancy

Sarah Palin's nomination as John McCain's vice-presidential running mate has generated even more controversy over gender issues than was true during Hillary Clinton's earlier run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The most important development on the left-wing yesterday was the allegation that Palin faked her most recent pregnancy to cover for her teenage daughter's alleged childbirth. Daily Kos, who first spread the rumors, bungled an attempt this morning to put an end to the smears. But with the latest news this morning that 17 year-old Bristol Palin is now pregnant, some interesting questions are being raised about the trajectory of the Daily Kos smears:

Anyone find it amazingly coincidental that Daily Kos went after Palin’s own pregnancy right out of the chute on Friday, with no apparent evidence whatsoever, and now we find out that her daughter’s actually pregnant? I usually scoff at the idea of party researchers planting memes with bloggers, especially since the nutroots is so paranoid about that happening on the right, but that’s a simply remarkable stoke of good luck on their part, no?

While interesting, Daily Kos in fact offered its "story ender" last night at 8:50pm PST, well before the news broke of Bristol's pregnancy. No, the truth is that Daily Kos and the nihilist left - now that the Barack Obama's gotten no polling bounce from Denver - are simply attacking the GOP ticket out of desperation and spite. The Kos people are at it again with a new entry attacking Bristol:

You can't make this s**t up. "Evangelical Christian" Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter is knocked up. No word on the father yet. That'll help Palin's daughter to break the glass ceiling: start out life dragging a screaming kid around. Should work out fine on those job interviews.

Oh, but she's KEEPING it. Wonderful. What's the name going to be: Bareback?

Palin is quickly being revealed as a White trash Protestant in the vein of Brintney [sic] Spears and the drunk Bush clan. What's next? The father of Palin's daughter is the family Pastor?

The next two months are going to be a riot - I'm betting there's MUCH more on this kook Palin.

Keep in mind that the Daily Kos netroots is considered the "mainstream" of the Democratic Party. This is a significant point, since these slurs reveal that it's not "post-partisanship" animating the crazed political vultures of the leftosphere.

As Tennessee Guerrilla Woman puts it:

A woman enters the presidential race and suddenly the progressive mission is to shame and mortify Sarah Palin, her children, her husband, and every woman who has ever found herself in a similar situation. And then no one will ever vote for Sarah Palin again because she's a slut!?!?

John Aravosis imagines that we are still living in the Victorian Era when women were so devastated by public shaming that they committed suicide. Way to go John Aravosis! And we thought you already held the record for alienating women voters with your vile misogynistic posts about Hillary Rodham Clinton. There's just something about ambitious women that brings out the inner misogynistic creep.

Note this comment too, from "Slim999" at Althouse, on the netroots attacks on McCain-Palin:

When the tallying is completed of the landslide of states that voted for Sarah Palin ... the Democrats need to take a good look at the bloggers who blew the election for them.

A sadder bunch of women haters and closet racists just couldn't be found.

I suggested this morning that the left's earlier attacks on Palin have precluded any credible criticism from the Democrats in light of this morning's announcement:

Bristol Palin's pregnancy and pending marriage to the father look even more likely to endear McCain-Palin to average American household members who share similar everyday challenges in raising functional, healthy families.

I felt a bit tentative in commenting on all of this, but Chris Cillizza's analysis of the political impact of Bristol's pregnancy dovetails with my own:

* Palin has a VERY strong following among social conservatives who are nearly certain to give her the benefit of the doubt in this situation. She is a known commodity in social conservative circles and is regarded as "one of them" - a fact that should lessen any criticism from the right.

* Democrats must be VERY careful not to take a false step here. Some Republicans have already insisted that the Obama campaign is behind the rumor-mongering about Sarah, Bristol and Trig ... Any sense that Democrats are pushing this idea will almost certainly turn both Sarah and Bristol Palin into sympathetic figures - and that spells trouble for her detractors.

The Palins will most likely find sympathy among disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters, who cannot be assumed to be automatically healed from this year's primary wounds following the appeals in Denver a "unity ticket":

It was an awfully complicated week to be a Hillary supporter.

Her voters headed into the Democratic National Convention in Denver with anger, with threats to reprise 1968. Then came the swelling of pride, as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton gave what many considered the speech of her life. But, oh, the regret: if only she had campaigned with that kind of oratory!

By the time Mrs. Clinton graciously called for the convention to nominate Senator Barack Obama by acclamation, some of her supporters were working their way toward acceptance, wiping tears but nodding as she declared that the party had to unite behind him. Yet how could they not feel at least envy, watching the Obamas and the Bidens stroll out in triumph, and thinking that their candidate could have been in either role, at the top or bottom of that ticket. Not even vetted for V.P.!!

Then, of course, came Friday: “It turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet!” That was Sarah Palin, the Republican governor of Alaska, as Senator John McCain introduced her to the country as his vice-presidential nominee. “We can shatter that glass ceiling!” she proclaimed.

What’s a woman to do? Or at least, the woman who so badly wanted to see a woman in the White House?

Democrats, who make up the party that has long claimed the bigger pool of up-and-coming women, were quick to dismiss Ms. Palin as not experienced enough to be a heartbeat from the presidency. Mrs. Clinton’s supporters will never back her, they insisted, because she is against abortion rights.

Not. So. Fast.

That underestimated, or at least underappreciated, the raw feelings of many Clinton supporters, and particularly the women among them, despite the almost flawless display of harmony in Denver.

At the very least, Ms. Palin’s selection unleashes gender as a live issue again, just when Democrats thought they had it under control.

The Democrats may have already been doomed, when earlier this year Obama "decided to exploit sexism and misogyny in his quest to defeat Hillary."

The continued hatred and intolerance seen among those in the left-wing base will simply hammer the last nails in the coffin of the Democratic Party election hopes for 2008.

Sarah Palin Confirms 17 Year-Old Daughter Pregnant

Breaking news has it that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's 17 year-old daughter Bristol is pregnant. Here's Katherine Seelye's report:

The 17-year-old daughter of Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate, is five months pregnant, Senator McCain’s campaign advisers announced today.

The daughter, Bristol, plans to marry the father, the campaign said.

In a statement, Mrs. Palin said: “Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows that she has our unconditional love and support.”

The announcement was intended to counter rumors by liberal bloggers that Mrs. Palin had claimed to have given birth to her fifth child in April when, according to the rumors, the child was her daughter’s.

Groups that oppose abortion rights had been thrilled with Mr. McCain’s selection of Mrs. Palin, the governor of Alaska, as his running mate, partly because of her opposition to abortion. It is not clear how social conservatives will respond to the latest news.

The campaign intends to cast this as the kind of situation that ordinary American families face.

The McCain campaign says it was aware of her daughter’s pregnancy before it named her as the running mate on Friday.

It's still early, but some initial reaction on the left is cautious. Here's Steve Benen, for example:

Now, there are different schools of thought on this, but I'm very much inclined to think a politician's kids are entirely off-limits for public scrutiny. Bristol Palin's pregnancy has no political relevance whatsoever.

What's interesting is that had the leftist conspiracy mongers not jumped to attack Governor Palin with the most insane rumors imaginable, the Democrats might have been able to make a case of conservative inconsistency in the promotion of family values.

Now, however, Bristol Palin's pregancy and pending marriage to the father look even more likely to endear McCain-Palin to average American household members who share similar everyday challenges in raising functional, healthy families.

My blessings go out to Governor Palin and her loved ones.

**********

UPDATE: This comment from Denise-Mary at Amy Proctor's is a more powerful response to the news of Bristol Palin's pregancy than anything I could say:

If these candidates, McCain-Palin, previously did not have all of my respect, they do now. Palin's straightforward statement effectively quashes any further discussion on the topic. Further, McCain apparently stated he knew of Bristol's pregnancy, and chose Palin as his running mate anyway. My hat's off to both of them. Choosing to keep her child is the most personal decision a young woman can make, and now that she's in the spotlight, will require phenomenal courage.

Of course there will be those who "trash" her and "family values." To those I would say: is not compassion a "family value?"

By the way, I'm a 56-year-old former Dem, female, who aborted a child decades ago. That child still haunts my heart, and will until the day I die. Kudos to Bristol, Palin, and McCain.

Also, unprincipled left-wing allegations of McCain's dishonesty on prior knowledge of the pregnancy are already flying, although even some of the most ruthless neocon-bashers are hestitant the smear the Palins, so caution may indeed to the norm with this, even on the left.

GOP Rallies to McCain-Palin Banner!

From what I've seen around the conservative blogosphere, John McCain's pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as running mate has energized the Republican base like nothing else in the last couple of years.

In comments here, Debbie at Right Truth and Stogie at Saber Point were particulary excited about Palin's nomination, and Lisa Schiffren at City Journal explains why Palin's pick has electrified the GOP base:

By putting the relatively unknown governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, on his presidential ticket, John McCain has demonstrated that rarest of all political qualities: willingness to take a real risk on a serious new venture with great potential. It’s a sign of confidence, not desperation.

If the response from the conservative base is any indication, McCain has hit a home run with the Palin selection. A sullen GOP, set to vote reluctantly, if at all, for the “maverick” (some say unprincipled) senator from Arizona, has suddenly become electrified. In the first 36 hours after McCain announced his pick, $7 million in new contributions poured in online. This isn’t because Palin is making history as the first woman on a GOP ticket. It’s because of the type of woman and politician that she is. She’s a normal person, a mother and wife, who entered politics in 1992 by running for city council in Wasilla, Alaska to oppose tax hikes. She became mayor and swept a bunch of cronies out of the bureaucracy. She ran for, and lost, a race for lieutenant governor. She served on the state’s Oil and Gas Commission, where she went after the corrupt state GOP chairman, who had taken money from oil companies. In 2006, she ran for governor and won, after first beating the Republican incumbent for the nomination.

Throughout, she hewed to a few clear principles. She championed fiscal responsibility, cutting pork in the form of capital projects as well as larger symbols of waste, such as the infamous “bridge to nowhere” sponsored by Republican senator Ted Stevens. In a state that has been awash in oil money and political corruption, she also demanded real ethical standards and sent people who didn’t meet them to jail, never hesitating to challenge Republicans who were corrupt or ineffective. And she was pro-development, supporting drilling in ANWR; for that matter, she has dealt extensively with the tricky energy issues that have become central to this year’s election, and she understands them better than anyone else on either ticket.

In summary, Palin worked her way up the political ladder, rising on talent (she’s likable and a good speaker) and incremental achievement.

Note too, that GOP party officials are also ecstatic about McCain's candidicacy, with nearly 90 percent of delegates to the Republican National Convention saying they're "enthusiastic" about the ticket.

Meanwhile, even some Democratic Party insiders are warning left-wing acitivists about underestimating the brilliance of McCain's nomination of Sarah Palin.

Feminist Movement Attacks Sarah Palin Nomination

Anti-choice extremist? Republican tokenism?

This is the language we get from the radical feminists denouncing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who is John McCain's selection as vice-presidential running mate.

Such attacks strike me as nihilist. Palin's being smeared as making a run at the Oval Office on Hillary Clinton's coattails, and she's even being attacked by NARAL for appealing to - God help us! - surburban Republican women!

Kenneth Davenport, at the Weekly Standard, explains why the Palin pick has driven the feminist left to apoplexy:

Can it be that the National Organization for Women, the oldest, largest women's interest group in the United States is opposing a woman for the vice presidency of the United States?

The simple answer is: Yes, because NOW and other feminist organizations hew to a very strict leftist orthodoxy that places politics over gender. The NOW website, for example, lists prominently its "signature" issues--and they read like a laundry list of social activism: "Abortion and Reproductive Rights", "Racism", "Affirmative Action", "Disability Rights," "Marriage Equality" and many others. These issues provide the litmus test through which women are evaluated, with the most important being abortion rights--which is sort of the "First Amendment" of the women's movement. Not all women, it turns out, are created equal: if you don't believe in a woman's right to choose an abortion, you might as well be a man.

When Kim Gandy, NOW's Political Action chair, made her statement in support of Hillary Clinton during the primaries, for example, she noted how important it was for NOW to help women crack glass ceilings:

"Today, the first woman speaker presides over the U.S. House of Representatives, and Harvard University has its first woman president. Firsts are important, because they open doors for those who follow--but our real goal is to have every first followed by seconds and thirds and fourths, until having women in leadership is so common that it isn't even remarkable any longer."

Not for all women, however: Electing Sarah Palin as the first vice president in the nation's history doesn't count--because she doesn't march in lock-step to the way in which feminists have defined women's rights.

Such a strict definition of what is considered "acceptable" in the women's movement goes beyond NOW and other feminist organizations, and has become the de facto standard by which feminists view the world. The day Palin's selection was announced, for example, Sarah Seltzer, who writes at the liberal HuffingtonPost.com, wrote in an article entitled "A Feminist Appalled By Palin":

A lot of feminists out there are appalled by the cynicism and condescension inherent in this choice. It's as though the McCain camp believes our irrational she-hormones will lead us, like sheep, to pull the lever for any candidate who looks like us--even if she has a strong record, as Palin does, of standing against women's interests.

This seems a pretty typical reaction by feminists to the Palin choice. It's mostly anger mixed with frustration: That the Republicans would have the gall to steal Hillary's thunder by choosing a woman, but in doing so have chosen someone who (though female) is not their kind of woman--because she stands against their razor thin view of what is acceptable for women to believe in.

McCain's selection of Palin is even being described as inherently sexist, because, well, he's "an inveterate sexist, and it's written all over the way he talks about women, and the way he votes on issues that affect them."

So, now that Joe Biden's declared that Sarah Palin's not just qualified on policy grounds, but she's "good looking" too, should we keep our eyes open for left-wing consistency with a round of attacks on Biden's "objectification of women"?

I'm not holding my breath.

See also, Kenneth G. Davenport, "Palin V.P. Choice Turns Race Upside Down."