McCain and Sarah Palin:

This is not a political blog. However, the notion that John McCain is blatantly trying commandeer the accomplishments of Hillary Clinton and her historic campaign is both disgusting and cheap, and it pisses me the fuck off. This "average hockey mom" got all of about ten words into her new V.P-ship before claiming all of the female world as her rightful subjects. It's seems ol' John doesn't think too highly of the women of this country. Let's see what we've got (and what we'll have in the news in the next few days):

• the exploitation of this woman's family to juxtapose with Obama's family image-- guaranteed (I mean how else was McCain going to compete with that?)
  

• the adoption of a person with about as much business being McCain's (70's, recurrent bouts of cancer, declining health) running mate as Pauly Shore, considering that they met all of once before he offered her the position and the fact that their only common ground is that they're both from the same party (after all, shooting from the hip is endearing and more "maverick-y", right? Just what you'd want in a Pres.)-- check

• the assumption (i.e. slap-in-the-face) that the American people are so stupid that that when given the opportunity to vote (it's historic, remember?) for a woman- ANY woman- we'll all collectively say "Whew! I guess I don't need to vote for a black man now."-- check

• the implicit assumption that American women are so politically juvenile that they only voted for Hillary Clinton because she was a woman and not because she was the most qualified person-- check

• the return to traditional Republican values, i.e. bigotry towards the gay and lesbian community, opposition to a woman's right to choose, the desire to bring Creationism into public schools (all positions of his new running mate)-- check

• the claim that anyone who opposes his choice of running mate is immediately to be labeled as sexist, narrowminded, etc. (because she's a woman, remember?) and unwilling to just "give it a chance"--check

• the emerging question in the media as to why, when what McCain needed was a economically strong, mature V.P. to bolster his self-admittedly weak understanding of the economy and, just maybe, step in if McCain becomes ill, he chose Palin?--wait for it...

Oh, there's more. If I were 18 million people, I'd be up in arms calling this guy out. There's only one reason McCain chose her, and that's to try to pick up where Hillary left off (as if he/she even could). If you're a woman, you should be offended that this is the level of respect McCain has for you. If you're voting for Obama, maybe you should let McCain know that it's because you actually think he's the best candidate for the job (imagine that...). If you're a Hillary Clinton supporter, this is McCain's estimate of your intelligence (maybe you wouldn't notice what he's doing, after all). If you're Hillary Clinton, you should be pissed. If you're John McCain, you should be ashamed.

Update:
Read more here from Greg Laden.

Update Update:
I'm still fucking pissed about this.