From the original article on September 4, 2008. Author: Chateau Heartiste.
I wrote the following in my DC Truths Day post:
People will only turn against an alpha male when he attacks a weak woman.
This is Sarah Palin’s anti-missile defense shield. She isn’t weak, but she will be perceived as worthier of protection than her alpha male opponents. Her attractiveness, earthiness, motherhood, and gender means she will be almost impenetrable (heh) to frontal attacks, while affording her the latitude to fire at will. My advice to the Obama team: Stick to policy differences (creationism in schools??) and keep it above board. Call off your proxy attack dogs digging for family dirt, true or not. Going toe-to-toe with McCain-Palin on the personal biography and class angle will get you creamed. Palin simply neutralizes Obama’s best assets and the left knows it, hence their apoplexy this week. The froo froo crowd and Dan Savage readers will eat it up if you go for the jugular, but working class democrats will turn away in droves. Ignore the Kossacks and don’t give in to the tempation to slander and further aggravate the red state-blue state divide.
Oh, and forget about attempting to box McCain in as a Bush lapdog. With the freshness of Palin, he’s effectively cut off that avenue of attack. Instead, try to tar McCain with the fundie brush by connecting him with whatever extreme social views Palin holds. Ahh, this all sounds so familiar...
Megan McArdle wrote this on Sarah Palin:
As a person I like her. Politically, I dislike what she represents: populism, culture warmongering, and especially, the notion that if a woman is to hold power, she has to make herself non-threatening by emphasizing her domesticity and fertility. I don’t blame her for doing these things, since they seem to work. But I don’t like living in a society where this works.
Megan, I’ve got news for you. There is no society where this doesn’t work. Check your libertarian fantasies at the door because the frontline of human nature – and innate sex differences – is everywhere.
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