Reaction to Palin from a Hockey Mom Who Respects Hillary

Guest Post from Soapbox Mom.

Soapbox Mom is part of McCain’s target demo. She is literally a hockey mom (and a basketball, softball and band mom). You can find her on her own blog, Soapbox Mom and on her podcast, Soapbox Radio. She respects Hillary and knows her policies. Here is her reaction to Sen. McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin:

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Update: For thoughts on Gov. Palin’s speech at the RNC, go to this post.

Here’s more evidence that McCain/Palin would be more of the same as the Bush/Cheney reign:  If you liked VP Cheney, you’ll like Ms. Palin.  Cheney endorsed Palin and said he loved some of the lines in her speech at the Republican National Convention.

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Original post:

After watching Senator Hillary Clinton’s Unity Speech at the Democratic National Convention and listening to various pundits, I felt skeptical toward Democrats who still claimed to be unable to get behind Barack Obama for president.

Senator Clinton announced her intention to vote for him and urged her supporters to do the same. She outlined the policy issues which she believes he will address. So, if they voted for her based on her substance and the content of her convictions, why would they not support the candidate she endorses? If they claim that they can’t, I have to wonder – had they voted for her based on her policy positions or simply because she was a woman?

Then, days later, many articles in the mainstream media confirmed that the vast majority of her supporters would, indeed, vote for Obama. Relieved, I viewed this news as confirmation that the support was based on policy not gender.

I remember my first exposure to gender discrimination back in the fourth grade.  Our school band director was demonstrating various band instruments to the class, asking us to choose the one we wanted to play. After listening to his presentation on the percussion instruments, my heart was set on the drums. I wanted those sticks in my hand. I loved the crashing sound of the cymbals and felt eager to bang away. So, when my turn came to state my choice of instrument, I sat up in my chair with a smile on my face and declared, “Drums!” He laughed at me and said, “Oh, no, girls can’t play drums.” And that was that. He crushed my dream.

In my own small way, I fought back. I set out to prove that girls could be just as capable as boys. I spent the following decades accepting challenges and positions that many viewed as traditionally male. I excelled in math, earned a degree in finance, and went on to graduate from law school, where I was the first woman elected to the highest law student government office. I did not want to hear, ever again, that I could not do something simply because I was female.

So, when I witnessed Senator Clinton fighting for her party’s presidential nomination, even though I didn’t support her, I watched with admiration. I respected her determination and work ethic.

And I was not alone.

This historic election year energized many women in ways which some of them were experiencing for the very first time. Women voters seemed to fall in a number of different camps.

First, in her historic campaign for president, Clinton embodied some folks’ hopes and dreams. They were counting on her winning the presidency to shatter the glass ceiling which many women have felt hit the tops of their heads. Many of these women believed that having her in the White House would mean that their daughters and granddaughters would be able to engage in activities which, in their time, were unavailable to them simply because of their gender (e.g., serving as a page in Congress, going to medical school or playing drums in the fourth grade). When an unlikely (and some would say less qualified) man came in and took her spot, the spot she worked her whole life to get, it hurt. They experienced the disappointment all over again. The hopelessness came rushing back in. Ten steps forward…one hundred steps back. They were crushed.

Some women held lingering pain from unfair slights in their lifetimes, like getting passed over for a promotion in favor of the white male in the office. They viewed Obama as that guy who got the job instead of them, so they transferred unresolved anger of the inequity in their office onto Obama. To them, he was just another one of those guys who got the job when a woman was perfectly suited for it, deserved it, but was passed over.

Others might more closely resemble sports fans whose team lost. They felt humiliated because they bet on the wrong team. They would never admit it, but they did. They guessed wrong so they felt a little foolish when she lost. And they didn’t like the winner’s loyalists rubbing it in their faces. Their team had the better reputation, the proven track record. Maybe it was the ref’s fault. Biased or bad calls. Lousy luck. Either way, they were not happy. Don’t talk to them right now. Give them some time.

Finally, some women voters were HRC’s supporters who were looking for direct benefits from her winning – a place in the administration, a job in her White House, or a board seat in some organization. They had donated thousands of dollars and countless hours of precious time and, again, they put their reputations on the line.

But I’m focusing on that first group. Those who put their hopes and dreams into this one person – only her – even held up signs saying, “Hillary is Our Only Hope” and deeply felt her loss. Instead of experiencing the joy of breaking the glass ceiling, they allow those hopes and dreams to shatter, get crushed, fall into a million (or eighteen million) pieces on the ground only to be swept away in a dust bin of history books. Asking them to put their faith and hope into another person is like asking them to glue all the little pieces back together again, an overwhelming if not impossible task. They must grieve this loss first.

So when I learned that the GOP decided to put a woman on the ticket, I was a bit surprised.

Just as you don’t give a puppy to a child after her dog gets hit by a car and try to tell her it’s an adequate replacement, so should we not try to toss in another woman and suggest that simply having a woman on a ticket will ease the pain of the loss of Hillary. It won’t work. It’s a short-sighted, simplified band-aid solution to a deeper wound.

Choosing a hockey mom with laughable experience as a running mate insults most women and makes a mockery of the woman’s movement. Let’s be serious. Imagine the last female PTA president of your children’s school becoming president. Is she comparable to Hillary Clinton? My children’s school has had doctors, lawyers, and businesswomen serving as PTO president but I still would not support them as president of our great country. All of them are my friends. I worked side by side with them and enjoy their company. They are all smart, charming, effervescent women but simply not qualified to represent us on a world stage. Voting for any of them would be a joke. It would disrespect the position and offend any thinking woman.

Senator Clinton did not earn 18 million votes simply because she is a woman. If Ms. Palin had run in the GOP primary, she would have been out before Rudy Giuliani. Why, then, is it reasonable to expect female independents and Democrats to support her simply because they are the same gender? Were those 18 million votes just a symbolic message saying, “We matter!”? Or were they an enormous collective assertion which acknowledged Senator Clinton’s knowledge, wisdom, savvy, intellect and acumen and supported her policy positions? Funny, I always thought it was the latter.

“A potential vice president with the ideology of Dick Cheney and fewer qualifications than Dan Quayle should send arctic shivers up our spines.” -John Podesta, former Hillary supporter and Clinton White House aide

I relate to Sarah Palin. I’m roughly the same age, a mom who’s worked hard all her life, (though I have more education), taken on roles traditionally dominated by men, held leadership positions, given some great speeches and demonstrated firm resolve on policy positions. But am I ready to stand a heartbeat away from president of the most powerful country in the world? No.

Senator Clinton has more education, wisdom, and knowledge. She has been working her entire adult life for our country and its people. And she’s undeniably smart. When she was first lady, I attended a Senate Finance Committee hearing to watch her testify. Armed with a packet of detailed information in front of her, she never referred to her documents. Not even a glance. She fielded tough, specific policy questions from well educated, hard hitting senators and responded with brilliant, detailed answers. She amazed and impressed me. If not for Senator Obama (whom I view as an exceptionally gifted leader and a remarkable man), I would have been proud to have such a brilliant, respectable, strong woman represent our country on the world stage.

For McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchison might have been a respectable choice. She’s a smart lawyer with a distinguished career who has proven her service to this country and her ability to represent it.

But Palin?  Her education is not exactly exemplary.  How can we continue to compete in a global economy much less expect to be considered the world leader if we minimize or discount the importance of education? Ms. Palin attended five colleges in six years before getting a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Idaho’s state school. (And that’s not an elitist knock on state colleges – I have a bachelor’s degree from one, too). Senator McCain graduated at the bottom of his Naval Academy class. Respectable? Well, let’s just say, with respect to education, I won’t be holding them up as examples for my children to emulate.

Ms. Palin’s suggesting that her simply being nominated on a presidential ticket manages to “shatter that glass ceiling once and for all” is absurd. The McCain campaign’s promotion of that argument is an insult to women.

On the contrary, her nomination represents a significant leap backward to the 1984 nomination of Geraldine Ferraro when the simple act of nomination excited and energized women. Aren’t we beyond that? Haven’t we moved to the point where a person’s knowledge, intellect, accomplishments, education and proven hard work demonstrate one’s capacity to govern on a global level?

I certainly hope so.

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“The American people will learn all they need to know

(and all they deserve to know) from Palin’s scripted speeches

and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail

and in campaign ads.”

– Nicolle Wallace, the McCain Campaign

(that’s not good enough for me)

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Image credits: Google Images, YouTube, and Flickr/JMedkeff.