Sarah Palin: The Anti-Woman Candidate!

So, I have to interrupt my DNC coverage (don't worry, I will get back to it...guests have simply been in town and I have been playing host) to discuss John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin to be his Vice Presidential Running Mate.

I wasn't really sure who McCain would pick, but the choice of Palin, although bold, is a powerful move. It is the first time a woman has been the VP choice of a Republican candidate, and is an opportunity for women to further move ahead in the world...by having a woman only one step away from the Presidency, little girls everywhere can know that they one day may have the chance to be President.

Then again, woman or not, is an anti-choice, anti-gay rights candidate really a positive step for women? I sure don't think so. Here is a woman who has been heralded as a "Pro-Life Champion" She also wants public schools to teach Creationism. Oh, but you say she vetoed a bill that would ban giving benefits to gay domestic partners...but she also supported the Alaska ban on gay marriage...so much for those gay friends she claims to have.

The important thing to note here is that the choice under cuts the McCain campaign in two very important ways. First, it is a blatant attempt to pick off Hillary voters thought to be fed up with the lack of an Obama-Clinton ticket. But, really, do you think Hillary will for a second allow people to believe she would support McCain-Palin over Obama-Biden? In her speech at the DNC she made it clear that McCain does not stand for women's rights...but that Obama does...no way would she not diffuse the opinion that voting for an anti-choice woman is a good move for women.

Second, it absolutely 100% destroys the experience argument that McCain is constantly making against Obama. Palin has governed a state with a population of only 683,478 people. As pointed out at TPM Election Central, Obama governed almost 27 times that many people when he was in the ILLINOIS STATE SENATE.

Oh, and let us not forget that she was runner-up in the 1984 Miss Alaska Beauty. That's novel. Forget it, I change my mind, she is qualified!

I think Obama spokesman Bill Burton put it best:

Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same.

This curve ball in the campaign is exactly what we needed post-DNC...more evidence to the American Public why Obama is the only possible choice for President.