Sep 24th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Brown: McCain Must Stop Treating Sarah Palin Like a Delicate Flower
CNN anchor calls out the McCain campaign’s implicitly sexist presentation of their VP pick as too sweet and fragile to talk to reporters:
Well said, I think.
32 Responses to “Brown: McCain Must Stop Treating Sarah Palin Like a Delicate Flower”
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September 24th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Good for her. She just lobbed a grenade into McCain’s lap, and he has to respond or it’ll blow off his legs.
The object lesson here? Never go to war with someone who buys ink by the barrel.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Tough stuff, and it will probably resonate with a lot of women.
That said, my guess is that the McCain Campaign isn’t sheltering Palin because of any prejudice based on her being a woman. Rather, I think the better guess is that by this point they have gotten to know her pretty well as an individual, and based on that knowledge about Palin have calculated that exposing her to direct press questioning is unlikely to work out well.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:11 am
It’s implicit in what she’s saying, but I don’t understand why she and others don’t consistently hammer the point that if Palin were a man, this would be unacceptable.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:13 am
I agree with DTM. This is better than nothing, but it’s pretty clearly contrived outrage playing for the female viewer. The McCain campaign isn’t doing this because they are sexist, they’re doing this because SHE DOESN’T KNOW ANYTHING.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:18 am
I don’t think sexism has much to do with the decision on McCain’s part to shelter Palin. It’s more that she’s a liability giving interviews.
But I think Campbell’s being sarcastic here. She doesn’t believe sexism is at the heart of it either. She’s just using it to bait the McCain team into having Palin give an interview. It might work.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Well, duh commenters 2 & 4.
Of course they’re not doing it because they’re sexist. But this is an effective way of calling the campaign out. “Why do you want special treatment for Palin? Is it because she’s a woman?” highlights the fact that she is getting special treatment _and_ defuses one justication for this treatment.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:26 am
If Palin were a man, she/he wouldn’t be the vice presidential nominee. She was chosen primarily because she has a vagina.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:31 am
She calling them out because the McCain camp has used sexism as an excuse to keep Palin from the press.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:34 am
The McCain campaign seems like it’s making a huge bet on “new media” and talk radio being the driving forces of the new cycles. They’ve apparently read Blog and Painting the Map Red and taken them seriously.
What good picking a fight with the NYT does for them is beyond me. I guess they get triumphant Indeeds from Instapundit and it gives Hinderaker boners (McCain loves fights; Hinderaker loves fights he doesn’t have to participate in), but who reading those sites isn’t already decided?
I guess maybe they’re thinking they can bully the Times into more flattering coverage, but I think they’re the ones going over the cliff in this game of chicken.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:38 am
It is not sexism, just plain stupidity. I cheer on and request more. I hope McCain sends her to the debates with a handler. Perhaps Joementum? That would be fun.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Whether or not they’re protecting her because she’s a woman, it’s clear that they wouldn’t have nominated such an unqualified candidate if she weren’t a woman. They picked her based on gender, not qualifications. So in that sense, sexism is certainly involved.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:40 am
By the way, before someone calls this “affirmative action”: in affirmative action, you choose a woman or minority from among the pool of equally qualified applicants. That’s not what happened here, this is more of a Clarence Thomas situation.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Agreed. This isn’t sexism, it’s terror. What I don’t understand is why they wouldn’t let the public get a little more used to her before they let her loose in the Oct. 2 debate. Notice most of the MSM has no coverage (at least front-page, except for NYT) of Palin’s foreign leader “speed dating” (great MoDo observation) at the UN.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:04 am
my assumption is that they are cramming her full of snappy right-wing comebacks, which is something she’s already pretty good at, and lowering expectations right up until the debate.
then they’re counting on a “there you go again” moment from her that will dominate coverage.
it’s a longshot, but it’s all they’ve got.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:08 am
This is closer to tokenism than affirmative action. It’s tokenism with an extremely heavy dose of cynicism.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:10 am
“if she’s qualified to be a heartbeat away, then she should be allowed to talk to press, etc. ” (I paraphrase)
presumably the converse is true
If she is not allowed to talk to the press, then she’s not qualified to be a heartbeat away
September 24th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
What Howard said.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Press should just keep hammering away day after day that she refuses interviews. Refuses to answer questions about xy and z. Unfortunately, for many the bottom line is anti-abortion, and that cred she has.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
What I don’t understand is why they wouldn’t let the public get a little more used to her before they let her loose in the Oct. 2 debate.
What I don’t understand is why the R’s didn’t fill out his ballot “John McCain and TBD”, then announce her on, say Oct. 30th.
Unfortunately, for many the bottom line is anti-abortion, and that cred she has.
Y’mean the R’s are finally admitting that the full plank is “no abortions for you; connected Republicans get to decide for themselves”? Cos that’s what Palin did, and that’s McCain’s stock response to the hypothetical.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Please Campbell Brown, if you haven’t already, please read: “Stopping a Financial Crisis, the Swedish way”.
It’s at nytimes.com dated 9/22/08 under world business sec.
This should be required for all struggling with our current crisis. It makes so much more sense then giving the $$ to the ones who made the mess with no recourse to the taxpayer.
Lisa D
September 24th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
The reason why she is being sheltered from reporters isn’t because her running mate is being sexist and thinks she’s a delicate flower. The real reason is that regardless of her gender, she is inexperienced and will make the McCain campaign look bad. This of course has nothing to do with her gender. She’s just a terrible pick for VP whether she was a man or woman.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
The commenters saying “McCain’s people aren’t sheltering Palin because they’re sexist, but because Palin gives bad interviews” are probably correct, but they’re missing the point. Whether or not sexism is their main motivation, it is, as Matt says, an implicitly sexist argument they’re advancing in public in order to shelter Palin. That’s the point that’s being made here.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
So when Palin goes to the debates, do we get to examine her bra to see where the hidden prompter receiver is? Do you remember the receiver and wire hidden under Bush’s shirt?
Trust me, she isn’t going into the debates without a handler prompting her. McCain will probably do the same.
December 4th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Barack Obama has been keeping a secret from the American public … and it’s right there on top of his head. BO’s Chicago barber Zariff (just one name) says the Prez-elect’s head of hair isn’t quite as silvery-gray as it might appear in
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