Free Sarah Palin?

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Yesterday on CNN (via HuffPo), Campbell Brown slammed the McCain campaign for its "sexist" treatment of Sarah Palin -- video below.

This woman is from Alaska for crying out loud. She is strong. She is tough. She is confident. And you claim she is ready to be one heart beat away form the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters... Let her have a real news conference with real questions. By treating Sarah Palin different from the other candidates in this race, you are not showing her the respect she deserves. Free Sarah Palin. Free her from the chauvinistic chain you are binding her with. Sexism in this campaign must come to an end. Sarah Palin has just as much a right to be a real candidate in this race as the men do. So let her act like one.

Well, fine. I'm angry, too, that the McCain campaign is treating Palin like a little child, keeping her away from the press and making sure that she doesn't have to answer any questions, other than those from Charlie Gibson, who was persistent if not tough, and Sean Hannity, who lobbed a few softballs at her and turned their "interview" into an attack on Obama and a love-in with the extremist right. It's also irritating that she's being treated like this even as her supporters and surrogates, from McCain on down, play the identity-politics sexism card whenever anyone criticizes her.

But here's the problem, one that Brown did not address: Palin may be strong, tough, and confident, but she isn't "a real candidate" like the other three. She doesn't have any "stuff." And if she's strong, tough, and confident, it's only within the two contexts of localized Alaska politics and partisan Republican politics. She isn't strong, tough, and confident in terms of national politics, let alone in terms of international politics. Indeed, she's completely unprepared for national and international politics, unqualified to be vice president, unqualified to be next in line for the presidency. The only "stuff" she has she shows off at partisan rallies, where her arrogance and sarcasm, to some, pass for strength, toughness, and confidence.

Without excusing it, then, I understand -- I think we all do -- why she's being kept away from the press and why her public appearences are nothing more than cheerleading sessions for the GOP base. It's because she's a joke, because she isn't a real candidate, because she isn't prepared for the national or international stage, because she's utterly inexperienced, because she's never been engaged with the issues at the forefront of this election. Basically, it's because all she is is a mascot, McCain's mascot. You might as well ask the San Diego chicken to play the hot corner. Palin can recite her lines fairly well, but she'd be a disaster doing what Brown and others want her to do.