When I read this comment in Jack and Jill politics, I smiled to myself a little--a bittersweet smile of recognition. True, in the grand scheme of things, my enthusiasm or lack thereof for Obama's VP choice means very little. I'll still do what I was going to do (minus some money), and I certainly don't expect Biden to singlehandedly bring down the ticket or anything like that. But it did seem to me that my pro-feminist leanings, which were in some ways squashed when Hillary Clinton somehow became the one and only carrier of the feminist torch earlier this year, came howling back. Far be it for me to agree with Dick Morris (or perhaps it's more that he's agreeing with me), but I do believe that one available path to an Obama victory can come from thumping McCain extremely solidly among women. Obama has apparently not chosen that path.
I think it's fair to say that in some ways, Obama's perceived "radicalism" comes more from his demographic and accidents of birth than from his personality, temperment, or worldview. In some ways he's more of a throwback to a straight up old fashioned liberal, which is not a bad thing. So I certainly wasn't surprised that my favorite VP contender (and reading around the blogosphere, I hardly think I was alone in favoring her), Kathleen Sibelius, made it to the short list, but not the final round. Not surprised, but surprisingly disappointed. Even more surprisingly, I even found myself thinking "if you are going to go with Biden, Barack, you might as well have chosen Hillary instead"--and you should have seen some of the stuff I wrote about Hillary during the primary.
So, having pooh poohed the Hillary supporters who moaned that they'd never see a woman nominee in their lifetimes--I'm now starting to wonder if I will see a woman nominee, or (another) VP nominee, much less a woman president or VP in my lifetime, and I'm younger than the average "typical Hillary supporter".
I think how you feel about this depends how you answer the question of whether a woman candidate helps or hurts any given presidential ticket. Some people might argue that in this climate, putting Sibelius on the ticket would have hurt far more than it helped. I don't agree, but what do I know?
The quick polling feedback is that the selection of Biden went over better with men that with women. The conventional wisdom, and probably a good portion of the reaction was probably simply the disappointment of pro-Hillary women. But not all, I don't think. It's not as if women didn't support Obama in the primary (and there were many of us--one could argue we were a key component of his victory--that he was able to hold onto enough of us while Hillary bled black support profusely), and it's also not as if the women supporting Obama aren't feminists or concerned about the dearth of women in elected office.
Historically, the vice presidential selection hasn't had much effect on how the campaign goes--but it does give some insight into the candidate's mindset and decision making process. Maybe Sibelius polled horribly--maybe she had a deep dark secret we don't know about. If there's anything else to be upset with Hillary Clinton about, it might be that feminism or wanting a female president somehow got tangled with some kind of cult of personality around Hillary Clinton. But let's not toss the baby out with the bath water. We'll work to see Barack Obama elected. But let's also work so that in the future, there are a good number of qualified women who can be president or vice president, but also, let's work so that being female is seen as an asset or neutral, in a presidential or vice presidential pick, not a liability.