>Hey Mike,
>
>>>Speaking as an outsider I agree with Edward. Not because I think women are not political animals, which they are, but because McCain is using Bill Clinton's approach: steal your opponents agenda and thunder (in this case tip your hat to women). From this distance it seems like a brilliant political move. If it wins over 10% of the Hillary vote it will be enough to win the election without having to rely on the Supreme Court counting the chads their way (sorry about that). Now, if she proved to be a centrist... but that is too much to ask. She is really a Rorcharsch test: people will see in her what they yearn for.
>>
>>I don't think her views are in question at all. She is a staunch conservative. It's hard to imagine many Hillary supporters voting for McCain just because his running mate pees sitting down.
>
>I agree in general but there's an aspect to this I think you should carefully consider: For many years the Dems have gone out of their way to promote race and gender "firsts". When Pelosi became Speaker they went orgasmic and to this day she loves to remind folks that she's the first female Speaker. They also love to promote Obama as the first African-American major party nomination. The Dems are race and gender fixated; anyone can see that.
>
>The GOPers, IMHO, don't make the same stink. When Rice was made Secretary of State they touted her experience and scholarship and left it to the media to go crazy over her race and gender. Bush has the most diverse cabinet in history yet never draws attention to that aspect.
>
>The Dems, OTOH, seem to believe that ethnicity and gender are salable points. That a woman should be elected because she's a woman. That a black should win because he's black and that would be cool. Now, with Palin on the ticket the DNC has to reverse course on all the BS they've been pumping for years.
>
>And here's the upshot: Anyone who bought into the Dem line that women should vote for women just "because" for the last few decades are now going to be told that the message changed? Some of those women who want to be "empowered" (another lib newspeak word) are going to vote for McCain/Palin no matter what.
>
>McCain flipped the table on those sloganeers and we'll see what happens but I don't think you'll like it.
>
>Get your T-shirt ready :-D

Oh, I think I can afford to wait a while for that ;-)

I am really not into labels or firsts at all. Yeah, I think it would be kind of cool, and a good signal to the rest of the world, if we elected a black candidate. But that isn't why I'm for Obama. IMO he is a very rare candidate in our lifetimes. It's an easy choice for me to prefer him to McSame, who wants to build a bridge to the 20th century. (And not necessarily the latter part). It's a sign of how conservative the U.S. has become that this race is even close.