I interviewed Joan Blades by telephone to get her reaction to Palin — who actively references her role as a mother. “We haven’t heard her agenda yet,” Blades told me. “The focus needs not to be on [her] personal family issues, but what she would do as Vice President.”
Inevitably, during the Q & A, inquiries were posed about the latest polls and the Sarah Palin factor. Gandy replied that “polls will shift” when people find out more about Palin’s record. On an ironic note, Gandy opined, “I love it that the Republicans have discovered sexism. Before that…it was whining.”
Doesn’t anyone remember when John McCain made an ugly “joke” (that most newspapers wouldn’t print) about Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, and Chelsea Clinton?
On a visceral level, as a single Mother, I resent the Republican appropriation of the “family values” brand. I feel more connected with a man, Joe Biden, who questioned whether he should take his seat in the U.S. Senate after his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash.
McCain’s choice of Gov. Sarah Palin will make no difference to 62% of the female electorate.
As the countdown to the conventions heats up, every day brings new numbers and polls about the impending election. One of the groups that will be a deciding factor in the selection of the next president, is women… who comprise more than half of the United States electorate.
"The Jump Rope Line" by Marcia G. Yerman is included in the Seal Press anthology Dancing at the Shame Prom.
Published at:
