I do not agree with Geraldine Ferraro at all. She appears to be one of these people who will constantly expect women to hide behind their skirts. This Palin matter is not one of sex. She wants to do a job that is judged harshly by all; both men and women. If people, men and women, ask that Palin be treated equally, then I do not see why all this noise about sexism.
Palin is to some extent very lacking in preparation for the job. Should she be left to glide through because she is a woman? I think Frerraro is not being realistic Palin must be grilled to see what she is made of and what she has to offer. If Biden was a woman, even with all his experience Ferraro would be complaining about sexism. Now we all are advising Biden to tread gently. Meanwhile Palin will come out forecefully, to take him down. So why should he not take her down? Palin cannot run this campaign based on trying to manipulate her audiences. She is a Queen of platitudes and generalities and she is neither sound nor does she have the qualifications to be vice-president.
She must be put to test to prove her worth and please no complaining by women about her being asked tough questions. If she makes the grade, then I would be happy for her but so far she is below the pass mark.
- 1
- 2
Gender on the Trail
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
Does the political right's enthusiastic acceptance of Palin, a working mother with five children, including an infant, neutralize the threat of criticism for working mothers who run for political office in the future, in your opinion?
It depends on how well she does during the campaign. …Whether she wins or loses, if she does this well, it will have an impact on people's perceptions of the abilities of women. And she's done everything well so far--even that interview with Charlie Gibson. I think he had two agendas, including his own personal agenda. He and George Stephanopoulos had been criticized for being too soft with Hillary, so he was showing he could ask tough questions. But who the hell does he think he is, acting professorial and getting impatient and annoyed because she didn't know what the Bush Doctrine was. Frankly, I'd never heard it called the Bush Doctrine either, although I know what Bush's foreign policy is.
Looking at Hillary Clinton's and Sarah Palin's experiences so far, this campaign season, do you discern much progress for women candidates on the national stage?
I've been saying for 24 years that women's candidacies--I'm not talking about me, specifically, or Hillary or Governor Palin--but women's candidacies have a larger effect. They are like tossing a pebble into a lake, because of all the ripples that go out from there. ... That was the impact of the '84 campaign, and they still go on. Just today, I met a Republican woman and she told me that she was in the tub when she heard I'd been nominated, and she started to cry. People responded in all kinds of different ways. Many women told me that it inspired them to go back to school and made a lot of women think about running for public office. ... The fact that Hillary conducted herself so well during her campaign has to help Palin as well. It has to, and she doesn't have to win to have an impact. Every time a woman runs, women win.
© 2008
- 1
- 2
Discuss