Debating the Debate

No, this isn't a political blog, and yes, all vents on here are supposed to be strictly trivial. So, while it would be very easy for me to go on at length here about my many, many reservations about Sarah Palin as a vice-presidential candidate, and lament the idiocy of an electorate that actually thinks it is a plus she's just an average "Joe Six-pack" (what does that even mean?), I will leave that up to the thousands of bloggers who are already focusing on such issues.

I would, however, like to address an aspect of SP's candidacy that has lately been making my blood boil: the implication, in venerated publications like the New York Times no less, that Joe Biden needs to slip on his kid gloves for tonight's Vice Presidential debate, not because SP has all the intellect of an amoeba, but...because she is a woman. Seriously?

This suggestion, which I have seen in various media outlets, makes me uncomfortable for several reasons. For one thing, I very much doubt that were we still on planet Earth and the debate was between, say, Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton, that any commentators would feel the need to caution old Joe about inadvertent condescension. OK, you might be thinking, but let's chalk that up to the vast gulf between the respective experience levels of SP and HRC.

Except for this: I very, very much doubt that if the debate were between Joe Biden and a man possessing a complete lack of credentials to serve the US as Vice President, we'd be hearing a similar sort of cautionary tone. No, in fact, I think pretty much everyone would be saying - or even shouting - aloud what pretty much everyone's thinking right now: CLOBBER THAT MORON.

Which in turn raises the question, why do we still not believe that a fair fight can be had between a man and a woman? I've heard lots of people muse in the past couple of weeks that Biden just might make SP cry. Would anyone say that if SP were male? And getting back to the HRC comparison, aren't we maybe just a little bit guilty of characterizing these two women differently in part because SP trades so heavily on her status as a woman - with the skirts and the lipstick and the 19 children and the updo and the smiling and the lipstick - while HRC has spent the better part of the last 30 years perfecting the art of being one of the guys? It's like women come in two varieties - regular and lite, say - and we consider regular to be on par with men, but not lite, no ma'am.

I digress somewhat, but all of this is really to say "c'mon now" to anyone who's argued that there should be one iota of difference between the way Biden will debate tonight, and the way he might debate a male opponent. All the lipstick in the world shouldn't shield this impostor from her demonstrated ability to answer a question directly. How sad for women everywhere if Biden treads too carefully, and SP's nonsensical talking points score actual points with voters.

Please, Joe. Clobber that moron.