So. I am a woman, and I take real offense when I hear people talk about the big bad old boys club that Sarah Palin has outfoxed with her X-tra chromosome. It drove me insane (and Palin too, actually, if you google that interview, you know, the one where she just doesn’t look six months pregnant, and she’s telling Hillary to quit whining) to watch Hillary punch hard and then whimper if one of the boys landed a punch on her.
Palin is already fond of smirking that she wasn’t running for a congeniality contest in Alaska (oh, that’s cute- she really did win one!). What Palin has done what any good politician should- take advantage of the climate (Murkowski was unpopular), sculpt a cult narrative (hot mama huntress goes to Washington) and love what your audience loves (oil, pipelines and oil pipeline profits). I don’t begrudge her for any of that.
Obama is, well, a black and white cookie. He’s got both sides to him, which is what makes him so 
appealing to people who want national reconciliation (and international healing). The community, and the professor. But either of those sides can easily get someone caught up and not look farther. Someone close to me who had been considering Obama shut the door completely once Rev. Wright appeared on the scene. I happen to think Obama was in that church of his largely because it was useful, it was how to meet people and how to BE somebody in what I hear is a rough and tumble politics town. But part of where he falters is that he takes his professor personality with him into office- and I love it. He considers things, he looks for compromises, he explains the nuance. That’s what I want in a leader. Other people. Like short. Choppy sentences. Like George Dubya uses. Makes ya feel good.
Now, McCain likes to compromise too, and that makes him an effective lawmaker. But he does it by slashing and burning; he makes his name by embarassing someone else (who often, in the past, has deserved it), or by bullying. When every Republican is lockstep with George W., there is an opening for a ‘maverick’ legislator to get in there and shake things up. Frankly, I think he is far more valuable in the Senate than the White House (where he would surely get us into some kind of war with or around Russia, oh goody!). He can be lynchpin-in-chief.
Biden, back in the Senate, I’d heard he was really egotistical, a jerk. But he loves the sound of his voice so much he’d chat with anyone, other people’s staff sitting dutifully on the back bench of the chamber. He came sat among myself and others once, and I will admit to being impressed. (Hillary always seemed so cold and calculating in a ‘let’s get this overwith’ sort of way) I enjoyed his exuberant indignance. What I like best about Biden is his experience in foreign policy. He knows it cold. I can’t fathom what he was thinking on the plagiarism thing, it is just so utterly random. I ought to be disgusted with the charge, but frankly, I just don’t care so much. If plagiarism is the worst we can come up with, I’m ok with Joe.
So far, on Palin, the vibe I get is that she likes to play the accountability executive. I’ve been reading quotes from folks who say she wants to expose ethics violations but doesn’t (obviously) like the light when its turned on her. I’ve been reading about some 1100 emails she’s withholding from a FOIA-type request in her state, claiming executive privilege (even though her husband is cc’ed on many of them?). She’s clearly a strong and winning personality, but, as she has said herself (and I will link to these things just as soon as I learn how;o), she “hasn’t thought much” about Iraq. I don’t suspect she has any more insight on what the Fannie and Freddie takeover means for the economic system in the US any more than I do….though, given that I listened to a great story on NPR this morning, I probably know more.
Inform Your Consent 
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