The majority of diaries on this site are new angles of how reprehensible McCain and Palin are. This is absolutely irrelevant to this election, since the more details that come out, the more these candidates will be defended by their supporters.
We are ignoring a basic human instinct that has been put in play, one that overrides substantive political issues. In spite of the vast social changes of the last half decade, there is still a repulsion against a man attacking a woman. Whether this attack is justified, whether the woman is culpable, is a secondary issue.
In fact, there is a tendency to protect women, based on nothing more than their gender. Here's a quote from a studyof the literature in the area of gender bias in criminal sentencing to illustrate this.
The prediction that females will receive milder sentencing outcomes receives such consistent support from a wide range of studies done since the 1980s, and encompassing many different jurisdictions in the United States, that it may be one of the best established facts regarding criminal justice outcomes. This research shows that the greatest disparity among the sexes occurs at the "in/out decision"--whether criminal sentences entail incarceration or some nonincarcerative sanction, such as probation.
We do not get to do a "jury selection" on the American Voter to remove those who are not able to evaluate the evidence. Everyone, no matter what their bias gets to vote. The best we can do is be aware of what is happening and not make the mistake that more evidence of incompetence, deceit, or lack of qualification will make a spit of difference.
It will just make us look like bullies.
Now this is where I expect to lose the readers that are still with me, but this has to be said. Obama's choosing of Biden over Clinton is the crux of his current dilemma. If Obama had chosen Kennedy, Feingold or one of those who had opposed the Iraq war, then this could have been a clear reason why he did not choose Hillary Clinton. But exactly what are the differences in voting history and political philosophy between Biden and Clinton. I would guess they are trivial.
And then there is this quote from Joe Biden that shows he shares my opinion:
Sept. 10, NASHUA, New Hampshire (CNN) — Joe Biden told supporters at a town hall Wednesday afternoon that Barack Obama might have been better off choosing Hillary Clinton as his running mate.
"Make no mistake about this, Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Let’s get that straight," Biden said testily when a voter told Biden he was glad the Delaware senator had been chosen and not Clinton.
"She’s a truly close personal friend and she is qualified to be President of the United States of America, she’s easily qualified to be Vice President of the United States of America and quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me," he continued.
"I mean that sincerely, she’s first rate."
The difference is that Clinton is, among many other things, a woman. There is no way of knowing whether this was the central reason for not accepting her, but this is a reasonable perception. McCain, by his action, has said that if he should die, there will be a woman in the highest position in the land. Obama could have done the same.
There is no doubt in my mind that Sarah Palin does not remotely have the background to be President. But there is this quote out there,
"I would say that no one is prepared to be president"
by none other than Bill Clinton, that is a negation to much of our objections about Palin.
Obviously McCain's campaign is fully aware of what I write here, so they want nothing more than this opposition to Palin to escalate, for attacks on her to increase, to make it seem to all the country that she is being ravaged by Democrats. They want to get the American voter as angry at Democrats for throwing the "kitchen sink" as we were enraged at the person who was attacking Obama in the primary.
Sarah Palin is the Republican nominee for the Vice Presidency, and every point that we make to deride, defame or diminish her shall redound to our detriment at the polls. Her position on abortion and other issues is already out there, and whatever they were are now subsumed by that of the top of the ticket.
And she is now taking a crash course on being able to fake an understanding of national political issues. Remember, she doesn't have to be able to convince us, but only the low information votes who think that Fannie Mae had in fact been costing the taxpayers money. And they will get more angry at us if we point out her ignorance, because it is their ignorance also.
This is democracy, in all of it's decadent, glorious splendor. We better not make out it's other than what it is.