Offended, not inspired

I can’t recall any other time where I have felt as patronized as I did when Sarah Palin, the Republican choice for vice president, compared herself to Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton.  

It doesn’t take a politically inclined mind to see why John McCain picked Palin; her youth balances out his age, her social conservatism wins him points among the religious right, many of whom have been skeptical of him, and she’s a woman.  
Were McCain and Palin really expecting female voters to flock to their side just because there was a woman placed on the ticket? Judging by Palin’s ridiculous statements attempting to draw analogies between herself and Clinton, it seems they were expecting just that. 

In her speech, Palin arrogantly stated that “Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America ... but it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.”  
But there is no comparison between Palin, tacked onto a ticket as the vice-presidential nominee because she patches up McCain’s weak spots, and Hillary Clinton, the first woman to ever have a real chance at becoming president of the United States.

The glass ceiling Hillary Clinton was aiming to shatter was higher than the one of which Palin speaks. To assume that American women consider Palin’s potential to become vice president riding on McCain’s coattails the same as Hillary’s fierce fight for the presidential nomination is an absurd insult to our intelligence.  

McCain and Palin seem to have disregarded the fact that women do care about issues, not just about voting for another woman. Why would the average liberal Democrat supporter of Hillary Clinton want to vote for a woman who is anti-abortion, anti-gay and a member of the NRA? Sorry, but being a woman doesn’t balance out the clash of ideals. 

For all their jibes at Obama’s inexperience, the McCain campaign also decided to present us with a woman who publicly admitted to having no idea what the vice president’s job description is, while also implicitly questioning its productivity.  
During an interview with Larry Kudlow on CNBC weeks before the anouncement, Palin was asked about the possibility of becoming McCain’s running mate. She responded, “I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position.”

So she compares herself to Clinton, implying that a woman reaching the vice presidency is allegedly the shattering of the highest glass ceiling in America, yet she doesn’t know what the vice presidency entails or even if it’s good enough for her. So used to being “productive” and “working real hard” as she is, heaven forbid the vice presidency not be “fruitful” enough for her. 

American women should be offended by this choice, not inspired.