SO MUCH FOR MCCAIN’S OUTREACH TO WOMEN…. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a campaign with a worse sense of timing.
Just yesterday, Sarah Palin held a rally in Nevada, flanked by women supporters she identified as Democrats and/or NOW members. The point of her speech was, apparently, to encourage women voters to support John McCain because he picked her as his running mate. “[O]nly our side has a woman on the ticket,” Palin said, as if it were a trump card.
Unfortunately for the Republican campaign, while Palin was trying to do outreach to women in a swing state, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis appeared on Bill Bennett’s radio show to talk about “feminism.” Big mistake.
Davis explained that Palin drives “liberal feminists” “nuts” because “she’s a conservative Republican” who’s working as a governor. Bennett agreed, adding, “Let me give you three things that I think drives them crazy, and you don’t have to comment. That’s she’s very attractive. That she’s very competent or that she’s very happy. You know, as a human being.”
Instead of pushing back, and telling Bennett how absurd this is, McCain’s campaign manager replied, “Yeah, all of the above.”
And all of this comes the same week as McCain blasting the “feminist left” while on the campaign stump.
If there’s a logic to all of this, it’s hiding well.
