Trying to Woo Women to McCain/Palin
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, McCain, PalinNow that Sarah Palin has been on the ticket with John McCain for over a week, is there any evidence that her presence is winning over Hillary Clinton supporters? Nothing concrete yet. But self-described progressive feminist Tammy Bruce has written an editorial trying to make the case that Palin as vice president would be better for women than Barack Obama as president.
While Tammy Bruce was once the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, she’s an odd figure, generally supporting Republicans over Democrats during her tenure as a pundit. I don’t think her opinion is representative of any group larger than herself, but I do expect to see this kind of argument used repeatedly in the attempt to woo Clinton supporters to McCain/Palin.
Here is a snip of Bruce’s argument:
[W]omen share a different life experience from men, and we bring that difference to the choices we make and the decisions we come to. Having a woman in the White House, and not as The Spouse, is a change whose time has come, despite the fact that some Democratic Party leaders have decided otherwise
…
The [Democratic] party has moved from taking the female vote for granted to outright contempt for women. That’s why Palin represents the most serious conservative threat ever to the modern liberal claim on issues of cultural and social superiority. Why? Because men and women who never before would have considered voting for a Republican have either decided, or are seriously considering, doing so.
They are deciding women’s rights must be more than a slogan and actually belong to every woman, not just the sort approved of by left-wing special interest groups.
Bruce sees the Obama campaign as misogynistic and, if some of the interviews I heard from DNC delegates are to be believed, Bruce is not alone in that perception.
But, is a distrust of Obama’s commitment to women’s issue really enough to sway Clinton supporters to McCain/Palin? I don’t know. But I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this argument.
This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, McCain, Palin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 8th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Better for women’s history? Sure.
Better for women? Eh… maybe?
Better for feminism? Hell no.
September 8th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Tammy Bruce’s op-ed is thoroughly dishonest. She presents herself as a “life-long Democrat,” but she voted for Bush and supported Romney in the primaries. Now we’re supposed to view her support for McCain as some sort of conversion and a tribute to Palin Power, but it’s clear she was going to support McCain all along. It’s also worth noting that not only was Bruce not a Hillary supporter, but she based her regularly during the primaries – sometimes in language (calling her Tracy Flick from the film Election) that was clearly sexist in its own right.
If Bruce had a real argument beyond Obama is a misogynist because someone at one of his rally’s wore a sexist t-shirt, she wouldn’t need to pretend that she was something that she’s clearly not in order to make her points.
If this article was entitled, “A President Bush and Mitt Romney supporter’s argument for McCain,” no one would be talking about it. But that’s all it is.
September 8th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Bruce is not the first and will not be the last to argue that women should vote for Palin for what boils down to “Barack Obama has a penis and Sarah Palin has a vagina.”
It’s gender identity politics, and it up to everyone’s individual milage as to how true you think it is that you have to be a woman to understand women, black to understand blacks, and so on and so forth.
I don’t really have a problem with folks voting this way. But it’s irritating when folks try to camouflage it under long-winded explanations that make it sound like its not what it is.
September 8th, 2008 at 10:54 am
“Barack Obama has a penis and Sarah Palin has a vagina.â€
Ironically, the two candidates behave as if this anatomical observation were reversed.
…thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week, remember to tip your waitress…
September 8th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Right. Obama is pro-choice, but Palin is pro-life. Go figure.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Obama is beyond pro-Choice, Kranky. Forget about the moral clarity needed to decide when life begins, this guy isn’t certain that “reproductive rights” should necessarily cease upon birth. I had this conversation with my 2 year old and told her that under an Obama administration I’d probably have the right to throw her off the cliff — she is now an avid 2-year old supporter of the McCain/Palin ticket. Another woman for Palin.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
“Bruce sees the Obama campaign as misogynistic and, if some of the interviews I heard from DNC delegates are to be believed, Bruce is not alone in that perception.”
I don’t think you can call the Obama campaign misogynistic, as that would imply they believed in something. They believe in one thing only, The Pursuit of Power, and to that end everything is more or less acceptable. If that means trashing female candidates (even of their own party) or even to get surrogates to make the openly sexist arguments, than so be it. I’m sure they would prefer NOT to be associated with such arguments, but they are willing to make that deal with the devil.
The trouble is they are beginning to be held personally responsible for such tactics. You might argue that no one was a more cynical in their pursuit of electoral victory than Karl Rove (and you’d have a damn good point there) however, Bush remained the guy a lot of Americans would “like to have a beer with.” Right now Obama has a lead of almost 10 percentage points over McCain in the not so coveted “Very Unfavorable Rating” category. This depite the “McCain’s a cranky old guy” meme that was so popular with much of the media all summer. This is a danger zone for Obama, although his campaign seems a little slow on the uptake.
Obama needs the story lines to change and change dramatically. The debates can do that…but that sort of venue hasnt been the kindest to Obama so far. We shall see.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
The Republican party, of which I am a member, would like to portray picking Sarah Palin as a great accomplishment for women. However, it is not. Women have been fighting for centuries to achieve EQUALITY. The Republican party have slapped us all in the face by nominating a women who by no means would have been nominated if she were a man. There are hundreds of Republicans more qualified to be our Vice-President including many women who have more relevant knowledge of issue such as THE ECONOMY, rather than experience in fishing.
What this country needs is a White House with knowledge and experience in rebuilding financial stability of a large scale. Mitt Romney fits this category. I am hopeful that the American public, including my fellow Republicans, see this VP pick for what it is: irresponsible political pandering with the fate of our fiscal stabilty hanging in the balance.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Baloney Travis. If McCain has chosen Gov. Bobby Jindal you wouldn’t have seen any of the same questioning.
But then again he has a penis.