Obama Fails Women

Contrairimairi just forwarded the following Baltimore Sun article by Lynette Long. The Republicans are becoming the party of choice for women, which reverses a long standing trend.

"In this election, putting gender first
By Lynette Long
September 14, 2008

"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin knows what it is like to be a woman, a mother, a daughter, a sister...

"Sarah Palin knows what it is to experience the joys and sorrows of motherhood, to nurse a baby while holding down a job, to leave for work in the morning with a toddler tugging at your pant leg, and to have your children calling you at work to defuse squabbles or ask for help with homework. She knows that once you get to work, you have to speak twice as loud and twice as often to be heard, and work twice a hard to go half as far...

"After the Democratic Primary, I was contacted by a member of Sen. Barack Obama's Finance Committee, and we had numerous contentious conversations. I finally told him I would be happy to vote for Mr. Obama and rally other Hillary Clinton supporters, but in return I wanted Mr. Obama to pledge gender parity in the Cabinet...

"'What if there aren't qualified women - you still expect us to appoint half women to the Cabinet?' he replied. 'There are 300 million people in this country; you're telling me you can't find 10 qualified women?' I said.'

"He responded, 'You can't have that.' We had no further conversations.

"Yes, policy is important, but who decides and delivers that policy is even more important...

"I have given my loyalty to the Democratic Party for decades. My party...stood silently by as Hillary Clinton was eviscerated by the mainstream media...

"I can vote for my party and its candidates, which have demonstrated a blatant disrespect for women and a fundamental lack of integrity. Or I can vote for the Republican ticket, which has heard our concerns and put a woman on the ticket, but with which I fundamentally don't agree on most issues.

"Right now, for me, gender trumps everything else..."

Contrairimairi also forwards a link to a No Quarters post in which Larry Johnson quotes Nancy Kallitechnis, who does a good job of dissecting the sexist differences between questions that Charles Gibson asked Palin versus the ones he asked Obama:

"For example, Gibson asked Obama a lot of questions focused on the positive aspects of Obama being a champion and breaking a glass ceiling for African Americans. Yet he didn’t ask Palin about her potential of breaking the infamous glass ceiling and the benefits that would create for women who are a much larger percentage of the U.S. population than African Americans.

"Furthermore, Gibson often questioned Palin’s ability to lead, but he never questioned Obama’s ability to lead. This is outrageous because Palin has more political executive experience than Obama and far more political accomplishments..."

Kallitechnis in ancient Greek means "beauty of workmanship" and Nancy Kallitechnis writes an excellent blog. In particular, she compares the questions Gibson asked Obama and Palin:

"Obama:

"How does it feel to break a glass ceiling?
"How does it feel to "win"?
"How does your family feel about your “winning” breaking a glass ceiling?

"Palin;

"Do you have enough qualifications for the job you’re seeking? Specifically have you visited foreign countries and met foreign leaders?
"Aren’t you conceited to be seeking this high level"

Women should be offended at the media's bias in this election, much as conservatives and free thinkers have been offended at its ornithoid bias for decades.