McCain's VP choice Palin, an insult to women

Toronto, Sept.2 : Though some people are trying to claim that John McCain's decision to select Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is another breakthrough for women, it is in fact an insult to women.

According to an article in the Canadian daily Globe and Mail, Palin's selection is nothing but "a triumph of marketing," and has nothing to do with governing.

"The message it sends is that after all these years of so-called equality, tokenism still trumps ability and experience. If Sarah's name had been Stan, she never would have got the nod," the article says.

According to the article,McCain did not pick Palin as his running mate because she was the best candidate around. He picked her because she was a young and photogenic conservative woman with a family-values trump card.

McCain figured that she would mobilize the sullen evangelical base - and it's worked. Since Friday, more than 10-million dollars in fresh donations has flooded into the campaign coffers.

The McCain team says it knew all about the pregnancy. Yet the timing of this news - on the day the Republican convention was supposed to start - is not ideal. Perhaps the plan was to keep it under wraps until the two were safely wed.

"I think she is the most inexperienced person on a major-party ticket in modern history," says presidential historian Matthew Dallek.

The choice of Palin demolishes McCain's most promising campaign theme - that Barack Obama is too inexperienced and too risky a choice in a dangerous world.

It also demolishes the picture of McCain as a seasoned man of judgment, the paper concludes.

ANI