50's-style Disney-Princessing the Candidate
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo relays a quote that's been making the rounds this morning.
[McCain campaign manager Rick] Davis says Palin won't give any interviews until she feels "comfortable" giving one. And this morning he added that she wouldn't give any "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference."
How 'bout that "you can't talk to her till you've proved yourself worthy" approach? Sound familiar?
Oddly, I'm actually pretty sure the Governor is probably quite a bit more capable of handling questions than her nominee and his staff give her credit for. After all, for all the froth on one side and breathiness on the other, until Troopergate skunked her chances the woman was poised to challenge Ted Stevens for his Senate seat, and, according to prognosticators last spring and summer, she would very likely have cakewalked all over him. And yet McCain and his strategists have her practically cloistered except for heavily-scripted "balcony-style" appearances wherein the actual candidate himself models the expected deference for his Gilbert & Sullivan-style ward-in-chancery by keeping his hands clasped and his eyes cast down while she speaks fondly of him.
But please, don't let that kind of pitch-perfect dog-whistling for the patriarchy and its enablers distract anyone from vigilantly "so over you-ing" various flat-noted progressive men and (more recently) women.
Update: And just to be clear I'm not referring to nor criticizing the Governor's behavior (although I'm confident she's an active rather than passive participant.) Instead I'm criticizing Senator McCain's judgment and his control of his staff. (Like a good low-echelon air-force officer he seems to be habitually deferential to higher command -- great for a pilot, obviously, but not so reassuring in a Presidential wannabe.)
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