I'm annoyed at the subtle misogyny of comparing the Palin pick to anything happening right now. The GOP has a demonstrated history of approaching its prospective women politicians from the standpoint of when they won their most recent beauty pageant. The Democratic Party doesn't.
PS/ Any attempt to analogize the elevation of women in the GOP to the elevation of women in the Democratic Party is historically fraudulent—a specious attempt at bothsidesism. The Biden VP deliberations comprise a serious vetting. There was never any evidence of that with Palin.
PS2/ It's so self-evident that it really should go without saying that there are many incredibly accomplished women within the GOP infrastructure, both in and out of elected office. But the effort now is specifically to analogize the Palin pick to Biden's pick.*That's* insulting.
PS3/ There are events whose contours we don't have to guess at because they've been written about extensively—indeed were written about extensively at the time. America had no difficulty understanding why Palin was selected. And it wasn't because she was prepared or accomplished.
PS4/ But by the same token, we could well say there's a history in the GOP that goes beyond whether a politician is male or female. It would be a wholly historical and historicized conclusion to say that Dan Quayle was selected as George H.W. Bush's VP because of his good looks.
PS5/ And then we could pull out and say more broadly that attractiveness has played an outsized role in politics on both sides of the aisle for quite some time. John Edwards' attractiveness was much discussed, and clearly part of his brand, when Kerry selected him for VP in 2004.
PS6/ By comparison, from the moment he announced he'd be selecting a woman as his VP, it was clear that Biden intended to engage in a wholly serious and sober and responsible deliberative process, which by all accounts he has just recently completed. The Palin pick this *isn't*.
PS7/ If you are a political pundit writing a thinkpiece analogizing Palin to anyone Joe Biden is considering selecting as his VP, you're not combating misogyny but indeed engaging in that subtle form of the prejudice that presumes any two situations involving women are identical.
PS8/ It is especially important we draw this distinction at a time when we have a reality-show president who's been open about the fact that he selects women as subordinates almost exclusively on the basis of their looks. This vile practice must not be obscured with bothsidesism.
PS9/ I agree—as how could anyone not—that there was misogyny in some of the reaction to the Palin pick in 2012. But conceding that is a different matter from using Joe Biden's VP selection process as an opportunity to rehabilitate the Palin selection as anything like responsible.
PS10/ McCain's VP selection process was grotesquely misogynistic—as was some of the response to it. The Joe Biden VP selection has been an honorable process—and we must all devoutly hope the media response to it will be likewise. But no links between the two should be drawn. /end
