Dear Mr. Biden,
If I may advise you a bit about Thursday's debate, I'd like to take that opportunity now. You see, I am a woman. I have a lot at stake when it comes to whether Sarah Palin will be my next vice president. I have my ovaries, after all. I have children whom she will ostensibly keep safe from terrorists. I may want to visit Russia one day. A lot at stake, indeed. But more than those things, I have my very womanhood on the line. Yes, my own womanliness is in jeopardy.
So take the gloves off on Thursday. Seriously. Give her the same brisk arguments that you would give a man in the same spot, who has made the same unforgivable gaffes, who knows as little about foreign policy and economics as she appears to. Why? Because for far too long in this country, women like me have fought very diligently to be treated as any man's intellectual equal. Because truly, on the national stage, there are two people - one man, one woman, displaying their qualifications for exactly the same job. In an era of continued pay gaps and blockades to promotion for women, the public can see that the Democratic Party will treat Sarah Plain as an equal. She must prove that she is as bright, as powerful, as able as you to do the job. There should be no softball, there should be no easing up, or you will draw shame to not only all Democrats, but to all women, of our nation.
The McCain-Palin team will no doubt try to cry "sexism" as they have before in this campaign, and I say "let 'em." When a woman wants this job, she asks not to be treated as a woman but to be treated as a Vice-President. And so she should be. Sexism is not part of the equation unless she is asked the banal question, "Can you really raise all those children and do your job?" Few ask that of today's other working moms, so yes, that question is off-limits. No one is asking whether John McCain can continue raising his brood under the roof of the White House, after all. But on all non-maternal issues, bare your teeth and growl, please.
Suffragettes, picketing Wilson's White House for the right to vote, were jailed, endured beatings and deplorable conditions so that they could vote in these elections. For those women, treat Palin as your equal. Valentina Tereshkova exited the Earth's atmosphere so that she could be equal to the other Cosmonauts. For women like her, treat Palin as your equal. Madeline Albright worked to become the highest-ranking woman in government at the time, and let her not have worked for so many years so that Sarah Palin could be treated gently. Let her have done that to prove that she was the best person for the job at the time, in a field filled with other, less-qualified men and women. Make Sarah Palin prove that she is the best person for the job. Lay low the notions of gender difference altogether. Take the gloves...off.
On Friday morning, when the McCain-Palin team cries foul play due to sexism, women like me will be at their keyboards and on their telephones making sure the world knows that it isn't because Sarah Palin is a woman that she was treated this way. No, she should be treated this way so that all women who come after her are allowed to prove that gender has no place in politics, that she simply wasn't the best person for the job.