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At the national political level, this has been an interesting week for the nation’s women.
We’re thinking the term is commodity. The majority of votes in recent elections has been cast by women, and there is constant pressure on candidates to appeal to all, or some, or maybe just enough women voters.
Here are the key events for women in the past couple weeks. • Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential runningmate. That’s the “change” that may be the single galvanizing word in this year’s presidential election, and McCain — the old white guy — was the one who put “change” on the line with the choice of Palin.
• And at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last week, the biggest advocate of “change,” Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, accepted his party’s nomination for president, and introduced his vice-presidential runningmate, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. It’s an all-male ticket, and the limited chance for change evaporated when Obama didn’t choose Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., as his runningmate.
• Oh, Obama also didn’t choose Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his runningmate.
In the Pepsi Center in Denver, Clinton got her chance to show the support she had with a short-circuited rollcall vote of the states, which Clinton ended herself with a motion to stop the rollcall and cast a unanimous vote for Obama as the presidential nominee.
I don’t know how it looked on television, or whether much of the rollcall was on the nightly news, but from the press section of the Democratic convention, the 20-some states making their traditional rollcall vote announcements was withering for Clinton. State after state went heavily for Obama, with a few votes here and there for Clinton.
It was uncomfortable to watch, almost as if Clinton was turned down for a prom date more than a dozen times in the space of less than 40 minutes. Maybe you had to be there.
The McCain choice of Palin? For the limited purposes of gender, it represents “change” for Republicans that might appeal to voters. No telling how it is going to do on the talk show circuit, but very practically, many voters aren’t spending hours Googling presidential and vice presidential candidates, and for all the polling and learned discussions, many voters aren’t going to learn or care that Palin is pro-life.
At the national political level, this has been an interesting week for the nation’s women.
We’re thinking the term is commodity. The majority of votes in recent elections has been cast by women, and there is constant pressure on candidates to appeal to all, or some, or maybe just enough women voters. Here are the key events for women in the past couple weeks. • Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential runningmate. That’s the “change” that may be the single galvanizing word in this year’s presidential election, and McCain — the old white guy — was the one who put “change” on the line with the choice of Palin. • And at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last week, the biggest advocate of “change,” Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, accepted his party’s nomination for president, and introduced his vice-presidential runningmate, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. It’s an all-male ticket, and the limited chance for change evaporated when Obama didn’t choose Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., as his runningmate. • Oh, Obama also didn’t choose Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his runningmate. In the Pepsi Center in Denver, Clinton got her chance to show the support she had with a short-circuited rollcall vote of the states, which Clinton ended herself with a motion to stop the rollcall and cast a unanimous vote for Obama as the presidential nominee. I don’t know how it looked on television, or whether much of the rollcall was on the nightly news, but from the press section of the Democratic convention, the 20-some states making their traditional rollcall vote announcements was withering for Clinton. State after state went heavily for Obama, with a few votes here and there for Clinton. It was uncomfortable to watch, almost as if Clinton was turned down for a prom date more than a dozen times in the space of less than 40 minutes. Maybe you had to be there. The McCain choice of Palin? For the limited purposes of gender, it represents “change” for Republicans that might appeal to voters. No telling how it is going to do on the talk show circuit, but very practically, many voters aren’t spending hours Googling presidential and vice presidential candidates, and for all the polling and learned discussions, many voters aren’t going to learn or care that Palin is pro-life. Those who follow the fashion world will remember the two governors in the February issue of Vogue magazine, Sebelius in a ball gown, Palin in a designer parka and Levis, dressed as one would imagine a governor of Alaska would dress just in case she had to wrestle a bear or shoo off a timber wolf. But the key here is probably as in no recent election gender, “change” and what that means — if anything — to female voters will be front and center, both this week in Minneapolis and in hindsight in Denver, where two women didn’t make it onto the Democratic “change” ticket. Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report. To see about that, visit www.hawvernews.com or call (785) 267-5500.
