Up From the Bush Leagues

Photo by Flickr user Cryptonaut. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Hugo Schwyzer says of new conservative darling, mother of a four-month-old with trisomy 21, and McCain V.P. choice Sarah Palin:

What will the Phyllis Schlaflys of the world say about this? How will they ever be able to make the case that for the mothers of young children, the primary place to be is in the home?

He said it here.

That the Republicans would nominate a woman for V.P. is no surprise, even minus their idea of Hillary-Clinton-related "optics." Seems like it was only two years ago January of 2007 last March last June I mentioned that they've had a pretty deep bench of qualified women and fewer qualms about considering them because for at least a generation they've been genuinely more interested in the hardness of a person's heart than the color of his or her skin or the parts in her or his pants.

Considering that bench though I'm baffled that they passed over their bench of clearly qualified candidates (Kay Baley Hutchenson, say, or Conneticut Governor Jodi Rell or Condaleeza Rice, or Christine Todd Whitman, etc.) in favor of a farm-leaguer, no matter how promising. (And don't get me wrong, as extremist right-wing, anti-choice, anti-environment, anti-government women goes she's *definitely* got some *serious* promise.)

So yeah, I don't get it. That bypass is going to alienate the mythical PUMA-aged women who really *might* have crossed over. It completely undermines the experience argument, which was their sharpest remaining stick against Obama. As Schwyzer says it undercuts what everyone from Phyllis Schlafly to Dan Quayle** fought for in terms of gender dynamics.

For now I'll just echo Schwyzer and note the one wall Palin's candidacy knocks down (even as she and her cohorts seek to build new ones.)

[** Speaking of right-wingers surprising tendency for busting gender stereotypes,