As the sexist media narrative already takes shape that neither reporters nor Ms. Palin’s political opponents are allowed to attack her because she’s a woman, and attacking her will make them look “mean,” I’m more inclined to believe that she can take care of herself just fine.
She was elected mayor of a backwoods town in Alaska, and then governor of the state, which is a notoriously arch-conservative electorate, filled with burly woodsmen and a citizenship influenced by traditional frontier “values” more than anything else — or at least wannabes, trying to imitate the above. I’m not going to say it’s entirely unlikely that such a culture would elect a female as its leader, but it can be difficult to pull off.
Most importantly, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that Palin knows how to game the media in her favor. Just before she was officially announced as the Vice Presidential choice of John McCain, her Wikipedia page was scrubbed of anything that might reflect poorly on her by a user going by the name of “Young Trigg,” which happens to be the name of her son.
For analysis and giggly conjecture, check out the NPR audio of the story.
For a list of the changes made, when, and by whom, the most comprehensive piece I’ve seen is this Daily Kos diary.
So while the cable news talking heads fabricate their “you can’t discuss the pros and cons of a woman” storyline, the woman in question appears to be one step ahead of them. And hey, so are most people — but I suppose the talk shows have to do something to keep the debate over this strikingly bad choice of a VP from turning into a bloodbath.
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