Listening to Rick Davis whine about how the media had failed to give proper recognition to the historic significance of Palin's presence on the ticket, I had to wonder just what the Republicans expected in the way of a reaction. Hadn't the Democrats chosen a woman for Vice President twenty-four years earlier? Had Davis somehow been unaware of this fact? Is the selection of a woman somehow more ground-breaking when Republicans do it?
Perhaps Davis felt that the press would be be so in awe of this bold move by the Republicans that they would not even question Palins's credentials. It would be enough that the Republicans had selected a woman, a hockey mom, and the mother of five children, including a baby with Down Syndrome. The media would be caught up with the novelty of a woman on the ticket and would not know how to deal with the situation. Instead of asking tough questions about the issues, they would instead focus on the unique problems faced by a woman running for public office.
Even though this situation is new for Republicans, its pretty much old hat for the rest of the political world. So if they hoped to impress and divert the media, they must have been very disappointed. Had they trotted out Joe Lieberman in drag as Josephine, and announced him/her as their VP selection, perhaps the media would have been sufficiently distracted to ignore the tough policy and experience questions. But the mere selection of a woman was not enough of a historical event to avoid the embarrassing questions about her qualifications for office. Nor were the stories about her hunting and fishing skills and her ability to field dress a moose going to be enough to get her through the news cycle.
The fact that the Republicans were surprised that the media did not view this as an extraordinary and historic selection, tells me that the Republicans are really out of touch. Their failure to consider this likelihood means that they cannot just spend the next 60 days reminding voters that they have a woman on the ticket and how this makes them more progressive than the Democrats. Instead they must frantically educate their candidate on the issues in order to prepare her to discuss them in interviews with some semblance of comprehension. Considering what they have to work with, they might have been better off sticking with McCain's original choice of a blow-up doll.