It's ba-ack!
Just when we thought Hillary Clinton had exited stage left in a tangerine pant-suited blaze of glory, taking the gender issue with her, it's dizzyingly back in play in the U.S. presidential election.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain brought it back, of course, by asking little-known Sarah Palin, a first-term governor of Alaska, to be his vice-presidential running mate.
The Republicans are clearly trying to attract disgruntled Hillary Clinton voters.
But what kind of twisty mindset would basically substitute one female candidate for another - regardless of political beliefs, which, in this case, are miles apart? Ms. Palin, a social conservative, is ardently anti-abortion, doesn't believe climate change is manmade and is against "explicit" sex education in schools.
You could argue, in terms of targeting Clinton supporters, that this a deeply sexist move.
(Let's substitute one set of ovaries for another and see if anyone notices!)
Still, never mind what's happening in the weather, this is a move that for many reasons has created its own hurricane.
Not just Democrats, but Republicans have naturally expressed shock and outrage that Mr. McCain was "reckless" enough to pick a 44-year-old female political leader who has virtually no experience with either foreign policy or national issues to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Hey, at least she has a heartbeat: It's clear that Mr. McCain's choice of Ms. Palin is creating the kind of energy and buzz that, in the wake of Democratic nominee Barack Obama's coronation, the Republicans worried might elude them as their 72-year-old candidate tottered toward St. Paul, Minn., for their convention.
In time, Mr. McCain's choice of running mate will be revealed as either daring or disastrous, but one thing it isn't is boring. (Just think what a snore it would have been if he'd chosen Mitt Romney. The two men could have been known as Rich and Richer.)
Now, not even a real hurricane can keep Ms. Palin out of the spotlight, which is shining brightly for better or worse. There are pictures surfacing of her all over the Net, some of them just this side of sexually provocative, and the dirt is quickly being dug up on a woman once dubbed the United States' hottest governor.
Already the McCain campaign has had to issue a statement confirming Ms. Palin's teenaged daughter Bristol is pregnant at 17 and plans to marry the father. A McCain aide insisted a key point to keep in mind is "that Bristol decided to keep the baby, a decision supported by her parents," CNN reported.
All of this means that a lot of people who were not inclined to pay attention will be avidly watching Ms. Palin's acceptance speech at this week's convention to discover just what she is all about (or to watch her fall flat on her face).
Ms. Palin, former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, is a mother of five whose fifth child, a son, was born just five months ago with Down syndrome. Not your typical executive-office résumé.
As one Democratic blogger wrote, "Despite the fact that I would never vote for her in 1,000 years, I still got a kick out of a picture of Palin signing a bill into law, wearing her baby in a sling."
But even the newspapers of her home state questioned her readiness to step into the vice-presidency, let alone the president's shoes. So here's a question: Is political inexperience in a female candidate seen as more egregious and perhaps more dangerous than inexperience in a man?
After all, George H.W. Bush's vice-presidential nominee, Dan Quayle, couldn't even spell potato and yet they went on to win the election (although Mr. Quayle's limited intellectual abilities were the butt of jokes for four years).
No one thinks Ms. Palin isn't smart. The Alaska Governor, whom observers say is consistently underrated, is by all accounts feisty and charming and a quick study to boot. And she is clearly capitalizing on her personal background, promising her fellow Alaskans on her website that she can both run for the vice-presidency and continue to work hard as governor for them because, "As the mother of five, I know how to multitask."
However, in this presidential campaign, Ms. Clinton has raised the bar pretty high for female candidates. She was porous with policy, experienced and hyper-articulate, and had clearly given a lot of thought to how she would govern.
Ms. Palin, in contrast, wondered in an interview that took place before she was named to the ticket "just what the vice-president does."
Good Lord. If the vice-presidency could be a learn-on-the-job situation, if it didn't actually involve taking over in the event of a president's death, then Ms. Palin might be a refreshing and politically wise choice for John McCain - appealing to the Republican base and creating interest and excitement wherever she goes.
But it's that heartbeat thing, see. It's the presidency of the United States that is at stake here, even when we're talking about the vice-presidential slot.
Yet, isn't that what Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton have been saying all along, that their unlikely and historical candidacies have proven once and for all that in the United States, anyone can grow up to be president?
What a shocker if, in Ms. Palin's case, that were to turn out to be true.
