Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin wiped Obama's speech out of the media. As an example, Talking Points Memo was compiling speech reactions, then, within hours of the Palin announcement, had completely flooded the front page with Palin.

To TPM's credit, the preganancy scandal talk has only tangentially made the front page. What about Kos? Daily Kos, you'll recall, was dainty and defensive about the Edwards scandal. Does the same standard apply to Palin? Not so much.

You can pick on Palin's experience. In terms of breadth of experience, though, two years as Alaska's governor doesn't differ greatly from three and a half years in the senate. And really, let's compare apples to apples. We're talking about two years as governor as qualification for the least important national office vs. three years in the senate as qualification for the most important. The very fact of her thin experience serves to question Obama's lack.

No, liberal women won't suddenly decide en masse to vote McCain. But the nomination does suddenly give the left plenty of fresh new opportunities to display the sexism so evident in the primary. For instance, Americablog likes to attack Palin over her choice of earrings. I look forward to weeks of scrutinizing her reproductive decisions, fashion choices, and hairstyles.

Sarah Palin managed to have an amazingly successful and substantive career while nurturing a large family. She's a fucking governor, for chrissakes. Yes, she was a beauty queen, but then went on to a life of civic engagement that got her elected governor. She's a woman of accomplishment. But go ahead, keep writing about how your mom is more qualified to be vp (insulting both to Palin and Aravosis' mom), or call her the Alaskan Barbie.

If you want substantive criticism of her, I think the troopergate scandal's pretty good, especially since Palin may have a deposition in her near future. And the underlying scandal is about abuse of political power to attack personal enemies and enforce loyalty, which is a story tailor-made for this election season. Critics should stick to substantive criticism, but they won't. So let the sleaze fly.

For another appeal to substance, see TAPPED.