Palin - Crap

I have never (since 1992 as that's as long as I've been eligible to vote) voted for a Republican for President - so I have a .500 batting average, 2 winners and 2 losers. I voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary (catching a whole lot of flak from my friends and colleagues in the process). Last night I was one of the Hillaryites (who knows where the media gets these names) who was wooed by Obama. And then McCain this morning announces Palin.

My husband says she's very conservative. He says, don't worry, in Utah it's not like your vote will matter in the Electoral College.

But here's the thing - she's a woman and I feel pretty powerfully that it's important to have women in these positions so that young girls feel like political leadership is an identity they could have. And after 220 years of white men (save the very rare or very non-viable exceptions), a woman in the vice presidency that's not in a movie is very appealing to me. My grandfather once told me that it was ridiculous to vote based on identity and that you should always vote on issues (except he's a white, anglo-saxon Protestant male whose ancestors founded the nation - and I pointed out to him that if everyone who ran for office looked like me too then maybe I could have that principled position - he told me to move to Mexico - not one of our better exchanges). And I do think we should vote on policies - but I am powerfully tempted here to vote for the evil old man who hates women (apparently in Arizona he referred to his wife as a pretty bad c-word) because of the role model effect.

And - she's a mother of five who went back to work 3 days after she had her last baby. She has a degree in journalism and political science and was a sportscaster for a while before she went into politics. Does that sound familiar?

Crap!