We're all assuming that McCain picked Palin in an attempt to exacerbate friction between Obama and all those heart-broken Hillary dead-enders--maybe even picking off a few thousand of the reallllly bitter gals looking for any excuse to vote against O.
So maybe Team Obama should go on the offensive, having some of its female surrogates express their disgust and dismay that McCain apparently considers women candidates to be interchangeable, regardless of their experience or policy views. (This was, after all, a common gripe among Hillary voters whenever it was suggested that Obama might tap Kathleen Sebelius as his number 2.)
EMILY's list has already hinted in this direction with its dispatch on Palin, which concludes: "McCain clearly sees the power of women voters in this election but has just as clearly failed to support any of the issues that they care about. His choice for vice president only reinforces that failure."
But one could, if so inclined, get much more pointed, along the lines of: How insulting, how condescending, how downright patronizing of Senator McCain to attempt such ham-fisted identity politics. Does he really think women are so pathetic, so irrational, so weak-minded that a former supporter of the proudly pro-choice, feminist, progressive, grand and glorious Senator Clinton will now look at this staunchly conservative, possibly promising but currently totally unqualified woman from Alaska and think, She was born with ovaries! I was born with ovaries! Hell yeah! You go girl!
Any woman who seriously supported Hillary in this race should be brassed off by McCain's pick. If Team Obama can find an elegant way to stress Palin's disdain for so much of what Hillary has fought for, perhaps they can hoist McCain on his own petard.
--Michelle Cottle