Courtney Martin explains that Sarah Palin's main role in the McCain campaign is to reinforce conservative notions about differences between the sexes:
Palin may have been plucked from obscurity to appeal to women voters who are aching for a maverick in mom's clothing, but don't be fooled. Palin is not on this ticket to bring gender balance to the White House; her primary role is to reinforce the almighty power of traditional masculinity.From her first public speech as VP candidate, she's been driving the point home. Of Obama, she quipped, "This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word ‘victory.'" Notice that he's not just a candidate giving an address, but a man, a man who doesn't have the balls to go after outright victory. There is ample evidence that the war in Iraq is not a win-lose equation (and never really was), but a complex, messy civil entanglement with multiple competing interests, close to 5,000 American lives lost, and $200 million spent daily. Despite these cold hard facts, Palin chides Obama for not appealing to vulnerable Americans' need to feel like invincible winners again.
And Gershom Gorenberg argues that the scandal consuming Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert shows that the nation is facing a leadership vacuum:
Idealists, it seems, have largely given up the arena of party politics, leaving it to the allegedly corrupt, the mediocre, and the merely uninspiring. Olmert fits the first category. The other two categories are represented, respectively, by Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who are also the main contenders to take his place as head of Kadima. Whichever one wins will either have to form a new government or call a national election that will produce no national enthusiasm -- especially since the other candidates will be Barak (of Labor) and Netanyahu (for the Likud).
Subscribe to our RSS feed to receive our articles as soon as they’re published.
—The Editors
