Don’t Blame Palin
Recently, there has been much speculation over who Mitt Romney will pick to be his running mate in the upcoming Presidential election. Romney is working closely with Beth Myers, his former chief of staff when he was governor.
Rumors about who will jump on the Romney train as his political partner-in-crime have begun to circulate through the media. Many agree the main woman candidate under consideration is U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., but with little federal experience, her nomination isn’t considered all that likely.
A recent MSNBC article noted that one informal Romney advisor said, “…any woman selected as VP would draw inevitable comparisons to the former Alaska governor.” He went on to add, “I would guess if I were inside the Romney mind that they’re worried that any woman chosen will be subjected to a higher level of scrutiny.”
Props to the informal advisor for pointing out the fact that female politicians are subjected to a higher level of scrutiny, but it would be a great disservice to all women in politics to simply discount them because they share a gender with Sarah Palin. Let’s look at this from a historical perspective. George Bush picked Dan Quayle, the man who spelled potato wrong during an elementary school spelling bee. John Kerry picked John Edwards as his running mate and, well, just look at where Edwards is now…Would anyone say that these men “poisoned the well” for male VP candidates? Of course not.
The VP job is not for everyone, we get that, and there are no hard feelings when a woman candidate loses a race fair and square. But, when Romney is considering his running mate, he should be sure to give people full consideration to all the qualified candidates regardless of their gender.
Don’t listen to your informal advisor, Mitt. Palin did not “poison the well” for female candidates, just for the wrong ones.
Published by Kate McCarthy on 06/21/2012