(Jane) Swift-boating and Sarah Palin

Anyone who says women don't count in this country should talk to John McCain. Just looking at the McCain-Palin banner --Palin looking youthful but serious in her dark-rimmed glasses-- sends a clear message. I agree with many of the women bloggers at BlogHer.com who say McCain's pick of Palin is a piece of seduction.

Someone on the McCain campaign must've done some serious math: women swing voters who don't wedge on choice or environmental issues, plus NRA voters, plus drillers = choice of Sarah Palin.

Now, we know data shows women don't just vote for women candidates. But a Conservative blogger friend of mine said she did think McCain picked Palin to compete with "the breath of fresh air" of the Obama campaign. The blogger continued, "[Palin is] an outsider, she's young and she's got good conservative credibility, but without the expected resume. She's pro-life... she's pro gun rights, and she's an evangelical Christian, so she picks up the Christian right, who would have been disenfranchised by a lot of McCain's early people. She's also strong on energy policy for the Republicans -- she's from an oil state, but she's open to alternative energies, which fits well with McCain's beliefs."

All sound reasonable to me. Palin's optics and her fresh (if light) resume do stand in great contrast to the aging Senator. Palin has five children, including a baby (born, according to Wikipedia, this April).

But before we get ahead of ourselves patting McCain and the GOP on the back, I want to invite readers to remember Jane Swift. Swift, a Republican, served served as Acting Governor of Massachusetts from 2001 to 2003. Her approval rating at times was in the single digits. Swift was villifed for using taxpayer resources to fly home to visit her infant twins. Massachusetts does not have a Governor's mansion, and Swift lives in North Adams, Mass., about two hours away from Boston. The Boston Globe wrote of her,

"Swift advertised her first pregnancy during her campaign for lieutenant governor and was dogged by maternal crises in office -- using a State Police helicopter to avoid Thanksgiving traffic to get home to her daughter with pneumonia, tapping State House aides as baby sitters. Swift, seeming defiant and defensive, never recovered. She was pregnant with twins when she took over as acting governor, viewed as an inexperienced successor to a third-string Republican team."

Swift made the fatal mistake of being pregnant twice in public life--and has since been a cautionary tale to many women in politics. We're not used to female politicians who mother young children. Watching the Obama's on stage at the DNC, many voters I think were even taken aback to see a young family up there, casual and with the unpredictability only young children can create.

Palin hunts moose and is a definite appeal to the driller-vote, but she's also a mother of a young child with special needs. Even though I disagree with Palin's political views, I do hope our country is ready to take such a woman seriously, wholly. After the groundbreaking Democratic National Convention this week and both Obamas' sincere pledges to further the rights of working parents, I hope we can. The GOP, too, has included the provision of more family-friendly work in their platform.

Now McCain has made reality the ultimate litmus test of all high-achieving working women: can one be taken seriously as both a mother and potential leader of the free world? This is truly new ground.

Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate

Follow Morra Aarons-Mele on Twitter: www.twitter.com/morra_am

Comments

[PumaAnn]

Women attacking women for having a baby? Now, I've seen it all.

[BRT]

Puma, "Women [are not] attacking women for having a baby...." Women are saying that mothers must priortize when it comes to making serious decisions regarding their children and making other serious decisions--in this case the American people. The question is What is more important? Since this baby has special needs how will Palin choose if she must make a decision between attending to this child and attending to the nation's needs. THINK CRITICALLY -- on a higher level.
This cannot be reduced to simplistic thinking.

[huffyISaHottie]

swift was in over her head from day one.....only romney , swift and god know what the romney camp promised swift not to run for re-election to as to clear the way for romney in Mass.....

[Irisdavenport]

As a new mom working for a major international law firm; I found out I could not do both well. Yes, mothers CAN work and be good mothers to young children. However, working at a high performance job and being a good mom to young children does not work. The demands of the job and the demands from your children will always compete. My child is now in middle school and I find that I am able to take on more responsiblilties in the work world, however, it will be quite some time before I will be able to devote the type of time, energy and attention it takes to perform well at a job like the one I once had.

[bodi1313]

Dear Jack,

You are dead wrong. I lived in Britain during Margret Thatcher's term as Prime Minister.
She was a brilliant leader who oversaw the Falklands war. She was also the first person who tried to educate the British people about the death of the Industrial revolution, and how they needed to retrain for new types of jobs.
I use to be a Democrat, but got sick and tired of listening to all the bitching and complaining about "Oh poor us". I am a single woman, and with only a high school education, I built a business for myself that has not suffered from a "recession", and I did it on my own.
I voted for Clinton in the primary, and now I am voting for McCain/Palin.

[BaltimoreSteve]

New McCain TV ad:
Help Wanted...Pregnant Politicians, Nursing Mothers, and Stay at Home Dads for positions in Old Man's Presidential Cabinet. Free Day Care. Nursing facilities on site. AAA medical coverage from conception to senility.

[Poststep]

Even McCain doesn't believe this woman is qualified to be president. The entire time she was speaking today he stood beside her clenching his teeth and nervously pulling on his fingers. Of course, the folks on MSNBC described him as "beaming." I can't wait to see him try to convincingly defend this stunt.

[blueileen]

If McCain and Palin were to win all environment loving, peace loving and human rights loving people will have to leave the country. Palins selection as the VP nomination reinforces the fact that if we can't defeat the Republicans with 36 million people voting democratic in the primary there is something very wrong with the US. Palin is rabidly anti-abortionist, strongly opposed to gay marriage protection for polar bears, off shore drilling in Alaska. She wants She wants polar bears off the endangered species list. In short Palin is no Hillary Clinton and she is an other Phyllis Shafley or Anita Bryant. For those who won't remember they spoke out on human rights. Please stay out of the debate about credentials and focus on the issues. Believe me there are many POINTS of departure from the Republicans .

[in4success]

this election is not about "palin" -- it's about john mccain and barack obama and "sincerity" vs a "say anything to win" agenda that will be as stagnant if mccain takes office as "compassionate conservatism" was once idiot america bought into the lies of the most elitist, greedy and dispassionate neo-conservative party since stalinism.

otherwise, you made some terrific points. no get your head out of your a** --- it;s time for change... from republican to democrat. there MUST be consequences to such an epic failure of governing by any political party.

[Pacific231]

The author clearly knows little about Mass. politics.

Let us weep not for Jane Swift.

Facts: Jane Swift, like Palin, was a novice: a small-town state representative named by Gov. Paul Celucci as LieutenantGovernor. Celucci was himself underqualified but took over as Governor after Gov Bill Weld quit for the private sector. When Chimp stole the Presidency in 2000, Celucci eagerly skipped town for a Canada ambassadorship, leaving woefully underqualified Swift as Governor.

As Lt Gov., Swift was reprimanded for having state aides babysit away from the state house. Before shedding tears for a poor mommy, Peter Blute, former head of Massport, was caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar, similar to Swift, and he lost his job.

Swift's approval ratings were in the dumper due to good old fashioned incompetence and buffoonery. For a later-cancelled trip to Argentina, she had insisted on a bullet-proof limo. And few folks from Mass. can forget her infamous deer-in-th­e-headligh­ts speech shortly after 9/11.

Yes, Swift was pushed aside by Romney, who successfully posed as a moderate Republican and scheistered his way into office, much to the state's regret.

What we should REALLY take away from the Gov. Jane Swift debacle is incompetence is incompetence, male or female. Celucci named Swift as Lt. Gov. out of pure pandering. History is repeating itself with McSame's airheaded selection of a horrendously underqualified VP running mate, Sarah "Hockey Mom" Palin, except the stakes are much, much higher.

[booksnmore4you]

Although many may have disagreed with how should would do it, NO ONE could or did seriously question Hillary's ability to be an effective president. This simply cannot be said of Palin. It is frightening to me to think of her as prez.

[booksnmore4you]

The idea that Palin can be a responsible mother to a mentally handicapped toddler as well as *three* daughters AND be president is laughable enough on its own. Ad this to her super thin resume and ignorance of international affairs and it becomes utterly so. The rural white female voters are not so stupid as to fall for this particular woman. McCain's judgment just killed his ticket.

[BRT]

I am a mother of six adult children. There are women who might say that women can do it all. I will have a doctorate in a few months. Since I work with children I cannot understand how a breastfeeding mother of a four month old baby with special needs will function as vice president--and a nurturing mother of a child who will need her more than the American people. Forget what the vp job is about- How will Palin priortize her responsibilities to her young children and the American people where it would appear that children come first. Michelle Obama will not be president even though fathers count--mother's bond in quite a different way. I work with affluent children daily who are on the frontline of crisis because their mothers are not there for them.

This choice shows a lack of common judgment on McCain's part who should be wiser--he should have more understanding about what a child needs and what a mother's role encompasses when she has little children. Her young daughter is following her mother around while the mother is moving like a chicken with its head cut off.

This choice is utterly disgusting and is an insult to women, a bigger insult to Hilary and an insult to the intelligence of women. This shows desperation, avarice and is a slap in the face of people who sincerely believe that we should be working to build a stronger country than we already have.

BRT

[HoooooooHah]

though I know it will not happen, these are exactly the questions that should be asked of her in the vp debate. these are the questions many americans are asking right now, as you did.

[bison1]

Sarah Palin was a good choice. Suddenly voters become more comfortable with an Obama/Biden ticket. It tampered downs all that chatter about the country doesn’t know who Obama is because now Palin is the new kid on the block. McCain has chosen to entrust with being a heartbeat away from the presidency and voters really do not know her. His decision was impetuous. It takes the campaign back to the issues.

[bison1]

Was the decision to select Palin impetuous?

[bison1]

Once Palin has been thoroughly vetted and if she blows up in the GOP face, will it have been worth the one day news cycle?

[in4success]

indeed -- nevertheless, it would be unwise to underestimate gov palin (or) the reflexive, irrational responses fueled by radical fanaticism whether evangelical, racist or feminist in ideology.