I was really upset by Governor Palin's selection this morning, and it took me a minute to figure out why. There are a few reasons, but the one that got under my skin was that this is a sexist choice.
Palin has no major qualifications to be President. She's young. She's inexperienced. She has no national platform. She doesn't have any issues. She's new to politics and is simply some random outsider. She has some negatives, including being under investigation for cronyism, and that should have taken any potential candidate off the table. Sure, she's an ideologue, but there are lots of ideologues.
No, Palin was chosen, in spite of all her flaws, because she is young, female, and pretty. The first woman President may be chosen the same way a sexist CEO picks a secretary.
Hillary Clinton would have been a victory for feminism. She's smart, qualified, and fought tough-as-nails against other skilled opponents to win the primary. It was close, and she lost, but had she won, she would have deserved that win. It would have been a big step for women everywhere, not because there was a woman President, but because she fought for and won that Presidency herself.
Governor Palin, on the other hand, has waltzed onto the stage. Her total qualifications are a B.S. in journalism from Idaho U, two years in a governor's mansion, and breasts. You wouldn't think breasts would be a pro or con for anyone, but clearly someone thought they were a major plus, because otherwise why was she selected? In fact, that's a good question to ask McCain: "why did you pick her?" Any answer besides "She's a woman" is a lie.
Now granted, I honestly kind of like Palin. She quit an ethics committee in Alaska because there were too many corrupt Republicans on that committee. She filed complaints against those Republicans and got some of them to resign. She was against the Bridge to Nowhere, she ran on an education platform (that unfortunately included creationism, but hey, Republican), and publicly called for Ted Stevens to come clean about his unclean dealings. Those are pretty good things. Honestly, as far as right wing ideologues go, I think she'd be a pretty great one.
But that's not why they picked her. They picked her because she didn't have a penis. And that's sexism, not feminism.