Pappy and The Broad

Viewing McCain's pick of Sara Palin as anything other than cynical politics is ridiculous.

She's an avowed anti-abortionist; which means that James Dobson and Co are finally on board with the ticket, along with hopes that they'll rally their to date unexcited base.

She's young, so she makes the ticket look prettier.

She's a woman, which, in the minds of people like Rove and McCain means that the rest of us simple little women will not fail to be inspired by the opportunity to put someone with a uterus in the White House.

That, my friends, is what Sara Palin offers the Republicans. And they also know that if anyone on the Obama campaign, say, Joe Biden, calls them out on it, they risk looking condescending at best and misogynist at worst.

I listened to the broadcast media all day refer to the choice as historic, which rankled me. Dems put a woman up for VP 24 years ago, so in setting that particular historical precedent, Republicans are, unsurprisingly, a bit behind the times.

This could be viewed as historic in the fact that she's on a Republican ticket: this marks the day when they decided they could benefit from a skirt or two in prominence. It can be viewed as historic in the context of the full campaign, meaning that come January, we'll either have a black president or a female VP. That's something.

But this is an image pick, not one based on merit or vision. She isn't Hillary, a woman who has worked her entire life toward the respect and opportunity she currently has, and who reached her pinnacle this year on the trust of millions of voters, rather than a single team of political operatives.

She isn't Barack; who, again, rose to prominence on his own guts and skill, bringing millions of Americans to his side.

She's a first term governor of a resources rich small state, and she brings to the ticket pot holes for Joe Biden and anti-global warming pro-oil cred.

She is, in short, the formalization of the same crude, pandering, misogyny that gave us "Happy Hour for Hillary" in Denver last week.

I'm disgusted with the campaign's Rovian use of women as emotional triggers and props.

And that's all I have to say about that at the moment. I'm going to go read Joe Conason now and see what he has to say about it. I am sure it will be devastating.

Update: Conason here.