The Stepford VP Candidate

When ya can't tell if yer watchin' Tina Fey or Sarah Palin, it's a gosh darn bad sign.
- wendy weiss, colorado (from New York Times' Readers' Comments)

[The] cynical attempt to foist Palin on the nation as a symbol of feminist progress is an insult to all women regardless of their political orientation.
- Joe Conason, "The Dumbing Down of the GOP", Salon

The problem with Ms. Palin’s candidacy is that John McCain might actually win this election, and then if something terrible happened, the country could be left with little more than an exclamation point as president.
- Bob Herbert, "Palin's Alternate Universe," New York Times

I could talk about OJ Simpson's Guilty verdict, which was the main headline for today, but I'm not gonna. I'd rather start this post by revealing how I adore Gwen Ifill and how she's been a hero of mine: poised, eloquent, intelligent, and a sharp sister who's got the guts to wear her hair without weaves on TV and to keep the Washingtonian media big wigs in line on her PBS-aired program, "Washington Week." I'm hoping the rumors I've been hearing are true - that she's set to take over NBC's "Meet the Press," in the wake of Tim Russert's passing and when Tom Brokaw, who has temporarily filled in, steps down. Can't wait!


Nevertheless, as much as Gwen Ifill is often at the top of her game, I wish she had been a tad bolder and less tolerant throughout the Vice Presidential Debate Thursday night, as she had been in the early stage of moderating this event, when she nailed both candidates for not answering her questions: "Governor, Senator, neither of you really answered that last question about what you would do as vice president. I'm going to come back to that..."

So, this brings me to what I find most annoying about Governor Palin. She really does remind me of a Stepford candidate. If you remember that old feminist cautionary tale of the Stepford Wives (and I'm referring to the 1970s book and movie and not that horrendous remake featuring Nicole Kidman), the sci-fi envisioned a New England suburban town where something was not quite right with the women - they were too cutesy, too perfect, too plastic, just too phony. Then, we later learned that the Stepford Wives were not real women but rather robots that killed the women whose places they were expected to fill. I've always thought that story, penned by a man, was far too contemptuous of men in thinking this vision was what men really wanted. But, if we are to believe in Sarah Palin's popularity, perhaps he's not too far off.

The bottom line is, the debate was less of an actual "debate" and more of a public interview. And even then, if I were on the hiring committee (what am I talking about? As a registered voter, I am!), I would reject her resume and her interviewing skills. Never before have I seen a more apt description that best sums up Palin's presence on Thursday night:

THERE IS NO THERE THERE.

She was a cardboard caricature, a pre-programmed voice recorder. She was all artifice, a facade, with no real substance. Just too many smiles and winking (at whom? The American people, or her debate coach?), and rehearsed speeches. I wanted to remind her that this "Q&A interview" was not for her to be crowned Miss America but to become vice president.

Something else. Next to her, Senator Joe Biden came off as a candidate with real substance and real emotions. I was none too pleased when Obama had chosen him for his running mate, but for the first time, I am comforted by the fact that his experience means something and can shore up Obama in his presidency. I was moved when he had gotten choked up about his experiences as a single parent struggling with a child's injuries (while Palin, who loves to tout her motherly role, showed very little sympathy). I agree with PBW's assessment when she stated, "Biden was the most moving to me when he became choked up by Palin's callous disregard for his own life experiences."

Interestingly, I was surprised at how subdued Biden was; he can be an attack dog, but even he knew to not be too hard on his opponent because she was not equally yoked. And, honestly, that's a quality to seriously commend because it was the equivalent of a trained boxing champ entering the ring and working overtime to not knock out an untrained lightweight, simply because he was clear his punch could do lethal damage. I commend him, not because it was a sign of patronizing chauvinism (which is usually what motivates McCain when he treats Palin like some fragile child and not a future world leader) but because he didn't want to show her up (at least that was my take on it).

Palin, by contrast, hardly appeared to be her self-described "pitbull in lipstick." She was more like a trained monkey (if I must follow this animal kingdom analogy). Nowhere was this more evident than when she dodged question after question, sticking to her ready-made script, saying absolutely nothing but doing so with pretty good delivery (as in: doesn't matter that you're not saying anything, so long as you deliver it well), her plastic smile, winks, and "Palinisms": "Say it ain't so, Joe." Ugh.

So, here's an example of what I mean about Palin refusing to veer off script, even dismissing Ifill as a worthwhile moderator, who wasn't welcoming of what she had to say. The specific quote when talking to Biden: “I may not answer the questions the way that either the moderator or you want to hear.”

That quote comes at the end of this revealing exchange:

IFILL: Governor, please if you want to respond to what he said about Senator McCain's comments about health care?

PALIN: I would like to respond about the tax increases. We can speak in agreement here that darn right we need tax relief for Americans so that jobs can be created here. Now, Barack Obama and Senator Biden also voted for the largest tax increases in U.S. history. Barack had 94 opportunities to side on the people's side and reduce taxes and 94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction, 94 times.

Now, that's not what we need to create jobs and really bolster and heat up our economy. We do need the private sector to be able to keep more of what we earn and produce. Government is going to have to learn to be more efficient and live with less if that's what it takes to reign in the government growth that we've seen today. But we do need tax relief and Barack Obama even supported increasing taxes as late as last year for those families making only $42,000 a year. That's a lot of middle income average American families to increase taxes on them. I think that is the way to kill jobs and to continue to harm our economy.

IFILL: Senator?

BIDEN: The charge is absolutely not true. Barack Obama did not vote to raise taxes. The vote she's referring to, John McCain voted the exact same way. It was a budget procedural vote. John McCain voted the same way. It did not raise taxes. Number two, using the standard that the governor uses, John McCain voted 477 times to raise taxes. It's a bogus standard it but if you notice, Gwen, the governor did not answer the question about deregulation, did not answer the question of defending John McCain about not going along with the deregulation, letting Wall Street run wild. He did support deregulation almost across the board. That's why we got into so much trouble.

IFILL: Would you like to have an opportunity to answer that before we move on?

PALIN: I'm still on the tax thing because I want to correct you on that again. And I want to let you know what I did as a mayor and as a governor. And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also...

You can read the Debate Transcript in full.

This exchange pretty much summed up Palin's performance (which was to not really say anything, not answer any of Ifill's questions, and stick to her script). By contrast, Biden pointed to specific policies and specific experiences.

In short, Palin, while not nearly as trainwrecky as her interview with Katie Couric, set the bar to an all time low, and we, the American people, are the worse for it. And, I'm not sure which upsets me more: our sexism, in expecting women to under perform (and prop her up in entertainment shows, like ET, which is currently on my TV and which can't seem to get enough of her), our racism, in thinking she's preferable to a black man as president, our classism, via a political party that shows its contempt for the working class by treating them as if they need to be "straight talked to" in such an insulting way, or our imperialism, in thinking that the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb team that is McCain-Palin is a worthwhile team to foist upon the rest of the world.

I'm far more fearful should the Stepford Candidate become the Stepford VP, thus reigning terror on the rest of us, imposing a terribly limited vision of American womanhood: brainless, patriarchy-aligned, and robotic.