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Don't blame Palin - it's McCain who has blown it
Joan Smith30 Oct 2008
THE backbiting has already begun. As the prospects for the Republicans look worse by the day, I suppose it was inevitable that members of John McCain's team would start blaming his running mate, Sarah Palin, for losing next week's US election.
It's only a few weeks since McCain was being congratulated for a brilliant piece of political theatre when he chose the obscure governor of Alaska as vice-presidential candidate. But the Republicans have been hugely damaged by McCain's inept response to the financial crisis and Palin is being set up as the perfect scapegoat.
I can think of dozens of reasons to dislike her but the old-fashioned sexism of McCain's people is not pleasant to behold. The things they're muttering about Palin that she's spent too much money and is too independent are very obviously distractions from McCain's poor showing. So what if she's blown $150,000 on a campaign wardrobe? I'm sure the Republicans can afford it. Like any woman who finds herself propelled onto the world stage, Palin knows that what she wears will be discussed in minute detail.
If she'd turned up in outfits bought in the Wasilla branch of Walmart, she'd have been mocked. Instead she went to Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus and the fact that we know it speaks volumes about the sexism female politicians have to put up with. No one asks where McCain and Barack Obama get their clothes, or how much they've spent on suits and haircuts.
When will a woman be able to make a bid for one of the top jobs in politics without attracting this kind of snide running commentary? It happens here as well, to Theresa May and Harriet Harman, for instance and it's a ludicrous diversion from much more important matters. Palin is dreadful on abortion, sex education, religion, green issues and foreign affairs. But McCain's people are desperate and they're appealing to the visceral misogyny of American politics.
My guess is that Palin's campaign has been shaped by the barrage of sexist abuse faced by Hillary Clinton as she tried to secure the Democratic presidential nomination. I was never a great fan of Hillary but I was outraged by the sheer, unbridled nastiness of the campaign against her. Palin's team has avoided the pantsuits which didn't do Clinton any favours, going instead for a contemporary version of a 1950s look glasses, beehive, pencil skirts which sends subliminal messages about efficiency and femininity.
Even so, the anti-Palin campaign merchandise available on the internet includes slogans such as "a pitbull in lipstick is still a bitch" and "Bros before Hos". It's bad enough that her opponents have stooped to such tactics, without her own party getting personal as well. But I guess that's the advantage of having a woman on the ticket there's always someone to take the blame if things go pear-shaped.
The crunch is biting
RECESSION, what recession? Walking down Oxford Street last Saturday evening, I couldn't move for shoppers who seemed to be spending as though the credit crunch was just an unpleasant dream. Bond Street Tube station was packed, and I couldn't see any shortage of people arriving for a night in the West End.
The previous week, in Newcastle, shops and restaurants were visibly emptier and I began to wonder why London seemed to be immune from all those dire headlines.
Then I talked to a friend who runs a popular neighbourhood restaurant in west London, and he shook his head. People are still eating out, he said, but they are choosing cheaper dishes from the menu. Meanwhile, the cost of food has shot up but he can't increase his prices. The effects of the international financial crisis are already becoming local, even if we can't see them yet.
Reader views (6)
The people who pay attention to what is truly important in politics do not care what Palin wears. In a time of financial crisis, someone who's already been ridiculed for misuse of tax payers dollars is spending 150 g's on clothing?
Please. The republicans could have put 10 people through university with that kind of cash.
- Kim, Canada, 07/11/2008 15:31
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The President can't pick his nose without Congress. They decide law and what happens. Yet the Democratic controlled Congress gets a pass and the people in the US blame the GOP. Is Palin a little under in the experiance department? I don't think the US cares when they elect a man that doesn't have enough experiance to manage a McDonalds. Palin has more than 143 days experiance folks.
- Rob Walsh, Spokane WA, 31/10/2008 05:43
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I bet if Sarah Palin was asked the capital of Brazil she would say Buenas Aires and that
Sarah Palin represents the worst type of stereotype American as seen by many all over the world. This woman thinks like a medieval matron. John McCain must have been desperate to make this choice!
- Maureen Woodham, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 30/10/2008 22:32
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Great column and hard to argue against logic. The Obama campaign vilified and diminished Hillary throughout the primaries and managed to knock her off her hard-won stage only by manipulating the caucuses and pushing older women and those with baby strollers away from the inconvenient caucuses.
Obama's camouflaged misogyny is obvious in his youtube mega-hit:
"Obama gives HIllary the Finger" -- where he acts like a juvenile rapper-wannabe and "flip-off's -smirkingly for his audience to applause - his female senator colleague, Hillary Clinton!
"Periodically, Hillary feels down and starts launching attacks against me to boost her appeal"
"She's not likeable enough"
"the claws are comin' out"
Why, Obama's only contribution to women's issues would be his loud and clear message:
"Get back to the end of the bus, ladies"!
- Mary S, toronto, canada, 30/10/2008 20:00
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I blame Palin and McCain for this debacle. McCain was cynically manipulative in nominating her and Palin herself was egotistical enough to think that she could live up to the job. She knows nothing about national or international issues and it was painfully apparent during her few televised interviews that she was dangerously unqualified. Does this excuse McCain? No, but it doesn't excuse her either for accepting the VP slot.
- Michele, New York USA, 30/10/2008 12:35
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Thanks for a sensible and cogent analysis of Sarah Palin's campaign problems. McCain is his own worst enemy, and the spectre of George Bush hung over him and Sarah all the while. Sarah is a very attractive lady, but her political opinions are Neanderthal.
- Celia Benson, Atlanta. USA, 30/10/2008 11:48
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