Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Note to McCain: women “are not interchangeable”

By

Via PolitickerMA, tough words on John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as VP from MA Senate President Therese Murray, who throughout the primary campaign was one of Hillary Clinton’s most outspoken supporters:

“This is a desperate and cynical attempt to lure women voters and capitalize on the success of Hillary Clinton,” Murray said. “You can’t just pick any woman for the job. They are not interchangeable.”

That seems exactly right to me.  The enthusiasm about Hillary Clinton was not just that she was a woman.  It was that she was a highly qualified person with a real chance of winning who was also a woman.  Of course it was important that Hillary was potentially the first woman president, and for some that may have been the deciding factor between her and Obama.  But just being female — or African-American, or Jewish, or a WASP — neither qualifies nor disqualifies anyone to be president or vice president.

Desperate and cynical indeed.  John McCain: politics before country.  There, I said it.  

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0

Comments

  1. Governor Palin is not a clone of Hilary Clinton – and Terry Murray herself would make a fine VP – someday – you heard it first on BMG.

    <

    p>When it comes to sheer hard work, a head for numbers, and knowing her own mind, Terry Murray stands tall as a leader.

    • http://www.adn.com/news/politi…

      <

      p>”

      I think it’s very easy to underestimate Sarah Palin,” said John Binkley, a former state legislator who lost to Palin in the 2006 Republican primary for governor.

      Serving as small-town mayor of Wasilla was Palin’s main experience before running for governor. Binkley said he underestimated her guts and campaign skill.

      “I think there will probably a tendency for the Democrats to do the same thing,” Binkley said. “They will assume that her lack of experience on the national stage will put her at a disadvantage, and I’m not certain that will matter.”

      The reaction wasn’t so rosy elsewhere. State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to give her the news.

      “She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?” said Green, a Republican from Palin’s hometown of Wasilla. “Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?”

      <

      p>On paper, Palin is so underqualified as to be laughable — she makes Dan Qualye look like a statesman and a Rhodes Scholar. As a woman, I find the cynicism behind the pick totally offensive.

      <

      p>But you don’t accomplish what she’s managed to do so far — including simulataneously herding all of those kids, owning a small business and  being politically acitve — without some intelligence, strong organizational skills and a hell of a lot of sheer will. She’s going to be bombarded with briefing papers and coaches galore, and it will be interesting to see how quick a study she is when she is forced to ad lib. She’ll either go down in flames or turn out to be very dangerous.  

      • I think she’s tough and probably pretty quick on her feet. She may be ‘underqualified’, but you won’t see me laughing. Under that soccer-mom exterior is a ruthless, EXTREME right-wing conservative who is not to be underestimated. Yup, I’m nervous…

    • McCain has plastered “Country Before Party” all over his campaign including the event at which he introduced Sarah Palin.

      <

      p>This, however, was a high point in a campaign that never misses an opportunity to achieve unintended irony. The score card so far?

      ClaimReality
      Maverick w.r.t. torture  After opposing it, he gave in.
      Maverick w.r.t. BushAfter a brief, petulant anti-Bush period in 2001, McCain has returned to voting the party line.
      Maverick w.r.t. religious rightAfter condemning the religious right, he now embraces it.
      Maverick w.r.t. immigrationHe now opposes his own legislation
      Maverick w.r.t. campaign financeHe has disobeyed the very law he co-authored!
      Sound judgmentHe chooses a Vice Presidential nominee without really vetting her.
      Foreign policy experienceHe was certain and insistent that Iran was backing al Qaeda
      Opposition to lobbyists  His campaign is full of lobbyists. The Vicky Iserman story shows he remains beholden to them even after the Keating Five incident.
      Family valuesHe cheated on his first wife

      Nothing McCain says about himself is true!

  5. Right under that article right on the PolitickerMA website was this article:

    <

    p>

    Barbara Lee, the Cambridge philanthropist whose nonpartisan foundation is dedicated to electing a woman president, said she saw the GOP picking a woman as soon as Clinton entered the race.

    “I have been saying since Hillary first announced she was running that the Republicans would put a woman on their ticket,” she said.

    Lee said her foundation has been watching Palin since her run for governor in 2006 because it has determined through research that governorships provide the most effective stepping stone to the White House. Palin, Lee said, deserves the serious examination she is about to get.

    “This is the beginning,” Lee said. “Outside of my office, no one knows Sarah Palin. This is an opportunity for the Republicans to have a historic choice.”

    And, Lee added, Clinton’s candidacy has demonstrated that people are open a woman shattering that glass ceiling.

    “I think that people will look seriously at what the Republicans are calling their bold choice,” Lee said. “Throughout this campaign, people have shown a willingness to support a woman in high office both in Massachusetts and other states.”

    Capone-Wulsin couldn’t hide her enthusiasm on the phone after seeing Clinton, who got closer to her party’s nomination than any other before her, fall short. She said that Obama should have chosen Clinton as his running mate and said that “it could well prove that choosing a woman as his running mate” could put McCain over the top.

    “We’re very excited that he’s chosen a woman for the ticket,” Capone-Wulsin said. “Very excited.”

      • Check back there, Gary, and you will see

        <

        p>

        UPDATE at 8/30/08 2:16:54 pm:

        There is apparently no connection between these attack sites and the official Obama campaign; to get to the bottom of it I emailed the owner of an associated site, and here’s his reply:

           I run ObamaTaxCut.com, or actually alchemytoday.com/obamataxcut

           I think the person who registered the domain and forwarded traffic to it also owns/ran ObamaDefense.com – this used to be a separate site with short defenses of various factually inaccurate charges against Obama during the primary, but the owner changed it to redirect to Obama’s site after the campaign made one themselves.

  6. It must have been kind of like getting woken up out of a sound sleep by a bucket of icewater. All along people like Murray have been content to kick back and assume that women in general would passivly idle away the decades waiting for someone from the LEFT to step forward and break that ceiling, like it was some privatly held copyrighted priveledge of theirs.
    Well whoop-dee-do, what a surprise, not all women are from the left. I will go a step further and guess that many or most are from the center, but Ms Murray will continue to assume upon herself the role of defining what is and isnt important to 53% of the population which somehow she feels comfortable segmenting into some neatly packaged demographic group.
    Well good luck with that and onward!.

    •  

      waiting for someone from the LEFT to step forward and break that ceiling,

      <

      p>Sounds like you’re suggesting Sarah Palin has broken  a ceiling.  If so, what ceiling did she break?  

        • The commenter above said this:

          <

          p>

          All along people like Murray have been content to kick back and assume that women in general would passivly idle away the decades waiting for someone from the LEFT to step forward and break that ceiling, like it was some privatly held copyrighted priveledge of theirs.

          <

          p>Why is  Murray responsible for the “ceiling” in Alaska?  

          <

          p>Why don’t you let your little buddy speak for himself.  I’m sure s/he can explain which ceiling he’s talking about.  

  7. I absolutely agree that this is not a matter of pick a woman, any woman, and I hope Hillary supporters don’t flip on this basis.  Clinton and Palin could not be more different on issues or experience.  Now more than ever it is Hillary who needs to come out and say again and again until we are tired of hearing it that as much as smashing a glass ceiling would be nice, Governor Palin is not the person to do it.

    <

    p>Just a couple of other comments.  I’m not sure how experience is going to play.  It seems natural that Obama, with less experience than some, balances his ticket with Biden, who is a seasoned Senator, whereas McCain, who is himself a seasoned Senator, balances his own ticket with the proverbial “fresh face”.

    <

    p>I also am not too concerned about “attacking” Palin.  Certainly being a woman doesn’t exempt her from being criticized for her positions.  As long as Biden doesn’t physically get in her face like Rick Lazio did to Hillary Clinton it will be fine.  Plus VP debates, aside from the predictable question of readiness to serve in a hurry, usually are proxy fora to go after the top of the ticket.  In other words, that debate will be as much about Obama and McCain as the other debates, even if it is Biden and Palin on stage.  Besides, does anybody honestly think that if Hillary had been our nominee for either slot that Republicans would back off because she is a woman?  I think 16 years in the national spotlight certainly proves otherwise.

  8. Terry Murray is a Democrat with a capital D! I really don’t care about her tobvious and totally democratic party biased opinion. Who told her to do this: Kerry, Ted, Cadillac? Hey terry, when was the last time you had a REAL job. Our democratic state legislature doesn’t count.

  9. She was a first lady, got cheated on and, finally, massively exposed, still stayed by the prick and then drew so much sympathy that she was able to carpetbag her way into NY (!!!) and glide into the senate based on political connections?

    <

    p>Oh what, she’s tough?  Cried for the NH win, is that right?

    <

    p>She was a lawyer?!?!  What the hell?

    <

    p>She’s skated out of numerous scandals?

    <

    p>ITS BILL CLINTONS WIFE, DUH!  YEAH ALL WOMEN ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE, ONE WORKED FOR HER POSITION AND THE OTHER PLAYED YOU.

    <

    p>

    • You’ve got it right about Hillary’s so-called accomplishments.  I have been highly amused by the panic shown by the regulars on this blog, and David and Charlie.  From the emotional jibberish they have been dishing out about Palin, you know that they are really worried that their left-wing utopia is in jeapordy.

    • That’s all that matters, apparently.  This ties in with lib cluelessness about the elitism meme – they think elitism is about money.  No, it’s their certainty that their Harvard education makes them smarter and gives them better judgment than normal people.  They’re utterly convinced their right about that.

  10. When I put up this post, I guessed that most of the reaction would be from our differently-winged friends.  How right I was.  EaBo, Edgar, billxi, JohnD, MCRD, gary, demolisher, the gang’s all here.  Talk about touching a nerve!

Archives