Miss Congeniality

Being confident is not the sole qualification for the vice presidency. Nor is congeniality. Sarah Palin gave a performance tonight that was better than expected because, in part, Gwen Ifill did not perform her role as a journalist. She failed to ask serious questions at a time when serious decisions need to be made by an informed and engaged electorate. Ifill, perhaps inhibited by right wing pundit claims that she was favoring Obama as a candidate because of her upcoming book (which focuses on this historic election and is supposed to be released on Election Day) didn't ask questions that required more than coached and packaged answers. She never asked a question that delved into the depth of knowledge that either candidate might possess, or not possess, and when Sarah Palin refused to answer the questions posed, Ifill didn't press.

And Joe Biden appeared constrained and nervous. There were many opportunities to contrast his depth of knowledge with her vapidness by answering the questions she refused to answer, showing off his experience, along with his sense of humor, as he did in the Democratic primary debates.

What does Sarah Palin stand for? She seemed more like a candidate for Miss America than for the vice presidency.

Tonight's debate was a mockery. This was more like a badly written comedic, made-for-television rendition of a political debate. I hope the American people want more than Gidget with her sprinkling of "darn" and "heck," her wink at the camera, and an intonation that was condescending in its false simplicity. There is no doubt that Sarah Palin enjoyed the limelight, that she has great confidence. It's also apparent that she has opinion without knowledge.

Recall that Palin actually spoke about "women's rights." What are those rights according to Palin?

With Palin, we have a cynical substitution: there once was a candidate named Hillary Clinton who has spent a lifetime articulating a political perspective that champions the rights of working women, autonomy over our bodies, access to health care, educational policies that encourage full opportunities to women, and early care and education. In comes Sarah Palin, chosen to attract those women who were disappointed and embittered that Hillary didn't get the nomination. Yes, Sarah Palin is a woman. But that is where the similarity to Hillary Clinton ends. I was shocked to hear Palin using the phrase "women's rights" tonight, as if she is trying to sell herself as a feminist. Does she believe that American women are so easily duped?

She is anti-choice. She is against medically accurate sex education. She is for taxing employer-financed health care, for those workers lucky enough to have this benefit, and financing a system that would just concentrate more power in private insurance companies. For women in this country, the economy is a women's issue, because there are so many single parent families in distress and those families are usually headed by women.

Sarah Palin is a woman. She is not a feminist.