Will Hillary Clinton go after Sarah Palin?
As Hillary Clinton travels to Florida today in an effort to firm up support from women voters for the Obama-Biden Democratic ticket, the big question is how far will the former First Lady go in taking on John McCain's controversial number two, Sarah Palin?
At the end of last week, following McCain's lacklustre convention speech, there was talk that the Democrats were wheeling out Clinton as the only suitable Rottweiler to tackle the Republicans' self-styled "pitbull in lipstick". By last night, however, it looked as if Clinton was going to avoid going head-to-head with the "hockey mom" from Alaska.
One theory is that Clinton, a woman who has grown up with the women's movement, does not want to be seen to be ungenerous to a fellow woman politician trying to break through Washington's glass ceiling. And nor would Barack Obama want to be accused of taking easy shots at McCain's running mate when the man himself is an easy enough target, or should be.
On the other hand, Clinton's liberal politics could hardly be more opposite to those of Palin - a creationist, conservative and anti-abortionist.
Another theory is that by taking Palin on, Hillary would expose the generational difference between the two women: Hillary at 60 is a classic baby-boom feminist, while 44-year-old Palin is best described as a post-feminist.
Anne Applebaum, writing for the Daily Telegraph, argues that Palin "breaks the Hillary Clinton mould, not only in personality and lifestyle but in ideology as well. By this, I don't mean merely that she's a conservative, that she's an evangelical Christian, or that she opposes abortion.
"More interesting are the ways in which she shatters all the stereotypes altogether: Left/Right, Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative. In practice, it isn't even easy to say on which side of America's increasingly confusing culture wars she stands. Is it 'right-wing' to go back to work two days after having a baby, as she did while governor? Is it 'feminist' to support one's unwed daughter's decision to have her baby? Is it liberal or conservative for women to play sports or drive snowmobiles?"
Applebaum concludes that while Hillary Clinton's generation is not finished
- and Hillary may be back in 2012 if Obama loses on November 4 - "the appointment of Palin does bring the Hillary Era to an end: she isn't the archetypal Female American Politician anymore, she's just one of many."
While Hillary Clinton considers her options, one woman who has nailed her colours to the Obama mast - talk show queen Oprah Winfrey - has made her thoughts on Palin very clear. She is refusing outright to have the Alaska governor as a guest on her show.
Winfrey has been facing increasing pressure from conservative commentators who say that Palin would be the perfect interview subject for her audience. But Winfrey has squashed the idea: "When I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates," she said in a statement.
"I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview," Winfrey added, "and I would love to have her on - after the campaign is over."
FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 8, 2008
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