I’ve noticed that Sarah Palin has been offering up some of the most aggressive remarks in the McCain campaign these last few weeks. While Palin is criticized for her inexperience, her gender seems to provide her with an extra amount of metaphorical armor not granted to other candidates, even other female ones.
Hillary Clinton has been fielding gender-based criticism for more than a decade. Her attempts at innovation have been met with ad hoc remarks regarding her gender rather than honest arguments against her policies. Is Sarah Palin now experiencing the same issue?
I can’t personally answer that question as it is difficult for me to think about Palin and Clinton on unbiased terms. However, the emergence of Governor Palin into the national spotlight seemed like a blatant attempt to lure disappointed female Clinton voters to cast a ballot for McCain. As a supporter of Senator Clinton, it felt right for me to support her in part because she is a woman; however, I happened to agree with her on about 95% of the issues and believe she is a phenomenal public speaker.
While Palin is a woman, I fundamentally disagree with her on most issues. I respect that she demonstrates a lack of hypocrisy within her own system of beliefs, but would rather not impose her conservative beliefs on the entire country in the middle of an economic crisis. Furthermore, the McCain campaign committed the ultimate act of hypocrisy by appointing her as Senator McCain’s running mate: after months of citing Obama’s lack of experience, the VP nod went to someone of little experience.