Denting the glass ceiling
For all that I think Sarah Palin would be a terrible president, I do think her nomination puts another dent in the glass ceiling. Specifically, while there are a few hardliners still arguing that women shouldn’t be in positions of authority, there’s no doubt that the world has changed when Phyllis Schlafly is going around saying that Palin’s experience as a mother will make her a better vice president. I really do think that the next woman who runs will find it a little bit easier as a result.
Martin Manley comments on the historical nature of this election:
"On the other hand, Clinton, together with Obama and McCain, may have just killed the white male ticket. As
a country, we are having our 56th presidential election, meaning that
about 200 people in American history have had the honor of running for
President or Vice President at the head of a major party ticket (some
have run more than once, some years there have been more than two major
parties). So far as I know, all but one of these candidates has been a white man (the exception is Geraldine Ferraro in 1984). With the nomination of Palin, neither party has fielded a white male ticket. Indeed, thanks to the contestants in this year’s election and the odd way the US selects Vice Presidents, a white male ticket may now be politically untenable."Fine."
September 4th, 2008 at 7:08 am
Charles Curtis was a Kaw. There’s a plausible case that Warren Harding had some black ancestry, though he certainly operated as white.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
If we never had another white male ticket again, that wouldn’t be fine. It would be excellent.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Er…OK. Give me a call when you stop seeing all-white-male boards of trustees, county boards of supervisors, and upper layers of management. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s only a small segment of Americans who’re all that worried about government “looking like America”. McCain picked Palin because it was a smart chess move in this particular Hillary-flavored election. I wouldn’t take it to mean more than that.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Uh, Amy, not to rain on your parade or anything, but I have worked for women bosses for 2/3 of my 30 years in the work force, my County Board is two women, three gents (one of the gents is from Salvador, one of the others is gay, do I get credit for that?). My state Senator is a woman, my Delegate is a gent. If she hadn’t run such a spectacularly incompetent campaign, Hillary Clinton would be the Dem nominee.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
And McCain would have picked an obscure black politician to run against her as VP?
September 6th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Landismom, the Palin pick is looking like sheer electoral genius at the moment. Given the extent of national revulsion towards W, the percent of voters identifying as Dems versus Reeps, and the overwhelming press sympathy towards Obama, to have the contest be close at this point seems incredible. Palin has got McCain into the position of being the candidate of everyone who went to Chico State instead of Princeton. She’s going to start mentioning that Obama drinks herbal tea next and sew the whole thing up.
It woulda been better if the election had been about issues, I think. A fellow can dream, right?
September 6th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Six colleges in six years! take that, Princeton swells!
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/ats-ap-cvn-palin-educationsep04,0,3284051.story
September 7th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Willie Brown thinks this is a genius pick: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/07/BALU12OCMV.DTL