A lot of people are comparing Sarah Palin to Dan Quayle. I think she is more like Clarence Thomas. Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court as a replacement for Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall had successfully argued the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka before the Supreme Court on the behalf of the NAACP. That decision delegitimized segregated schools (it didn’t eliminate them). Marshall was (and is) a true hero to all African-Americans. To replace him with Clarence Thomas was a grave insult. Thomas lacked any kind of comparable record of achievement and opposed Marshall’s view of the law in countless ways. But Marshall was black and Thomas was black. That was supposed to be sufficient to please the black community.
Fast forward seventeen years, and the Republicans have nominated a woman to be the vice-president in a year when most thought Hillary Clinton would win the Democratic presidential nomination. Even though Palin cannot match Clinton’s record of achievement or her clear qualifications for high office, and even though Palin represents a decidedly minority view on women’s issues among women, she is supposed to please women.
Two Families Combined To Run For ‘The’ Top Government Offices:
Now wouldn’t Mother Teresa be extremely sad that the McCain’s Adopted Daughter, after recently being talked about by her Good friend Cindy, isn’t Included In family Photo’s or Photo ops!!
That’s fucked up. Seriously.
And what about McSame’s other kids?
Or is this more of Cindy’s “only child” syndrome?
Really, I just SMH…there are no more words.
SMH?
Shake(ing) My Head.
In some ways it is a better comparison, but you can’t directly compare her qualifications to Thomas’. And when you compare Quayle’s qualifications to Palin’s, Palin looks really bad.
This Palin pick shows McCain’s poor judgment. Just apalin.
McCain is pandering to HRC’s supporters. I hope he keeps up the hugging, kissing and squeezing Sarah as my 78 year old Aunt observed…that’s sexual harassment. But McCain doesn’t know.
Funny they don’t even learn from wise Republicans.
buh-bye Karl, we’re not all as dumb as you think.
Unfortunately, Clarence will be a threat for much longer than Sarah.
..and even though Palin represents a decidedly minority view on women’s issues among women..
Maybe I’ve had too much koolaid, but I don’t think this is a correct characterization anymore – as far as stuff the MSM has put out for a few years..
Anyone got recent numbers on support of the Right to Choose among women? I know men are still cavemen on the issue, prolly.
I’m afraid being qualified or unqualified is pretty much not the point. After all, our current President did exactly what his handlers wanted. So he was qualified to do his job, his job being to do the bidding of the military-industrial complex.
Whoever runs for P/VP has two responsibilities. First, get elected. Second, follow orders.
Great minds think alike! James Fallows wrote about the Palin / Thomas comparison in his blog at The Atlantic.
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/08/the_palin_pick_is_not_like_the.php
Indeed! and it’s not going to help them get the election close enough to steal – isn’t Clarence Thomas among the most reviled figures in the AA community?
I wouldn’t say reviled, but he’s not well liked.
Personally I agree with the Thomas analogy. He’s the Trojan Horse used to dismantle civil rights, as only a conservative, self-hating black man can do. One more Supreme Court justice in that mold, and it’s over. The test cases are ready. Forty years of civil rights and civil liberties will be rolled back in four years. Thomas will be the one writing the opinions when it happens.
Sarah Palin, as I said yesterday, is the silk rope being sold to feminism so it can hang itself. Her job is to get enough conservatives and independent women so the race is close enough for Karl Rove to steal.
Here’s the problem though. The GOP needs the Village to sell the low-information voters the bill of goods. And the Village is f’in insulted by Sarah Palin. I don’t think they’re going to play along real well.
We’ll see.
I hated him at one point. Now it’s more like loathing or pity, depending upon on the issue or what he says.
In some ways, he got exactly what he wanted, and it seems he’s still not satisfied. No one respects him–not most African Americans, and I’d argue, not most wingnuts respect him either. (Ever notice how he’s “Clarence” but Scalia is “Justice Scalia”?) They like him because he does what he’s told.
But with this Palin person, I dunno…I switch from Thomas to Alan Keyes. Perhaps shades of both.
maybe Alan Keyes from the pov of the ignorance of the choice – as if Keyes could ever compete with Obama. what kind of ignorant idiot would even think that?
esp on the quality of decision making the decision to run that person demonstrates
Sarah Palin reminds me of Rachel Pelouse and Monica Goodling. I agree with Thomas analogy – what they didn’t think out, however, is that Thomas was not voted on by the citizens at large. The repubs successfully used white guilt to short circuit the hearings, but Thomas never would have been elected in an election.
The Village is definitely displeased by McCain’s selection of Palin for VP. It raises all the doubts they used to have about his reliability. As to the Governor, she’s an outsider who gave trailer-trash names to her kids. That sort of stuff doesn’t go down well in McLean or Martha’s Vineyard. Cokie must be choking on her spew right now. Why not me? she must be asking.