It seems ages ago that I was dressing like a Spice Girl and hopping around my room to the tune of “Wannabe” screaming “girl power!” with a British accent to imitate four of my personal heroes (I never really liked “Sporty”). Or maybe it was just last week. Either way, the age of “girl power” is upon us as the Republican Party runs this November with a woman — Governor Sarah Palin — on the ticket for the first time.
But this is a movement that hasn’t just begun. Before the age of Sarah Palin, before the Spice Girl phenomenon, and even before Barbie had more careers than there are majors at Cornell, another woman paved the way for our current vice presidential nominee: Geraldine Ferrarro.
Lost in the vicious headlines, dubious blog posts, and relentless attacks is the fact that when Ferraro was tapped to run with Walter Mondale on the Democratic ticket in 1984, the same thing happened to her. After an initial wave of excitement that a woman was finally on a major party ticket, the media quickly turned to questions about her experience, her ability to be vice president and a mother, and of course, her family’s personal business. The media’s attention towards Palin has been biased to say the least, and even Ferraro has called for more equitable treatment of Palin’s candidacy.
As everyone is so quick to point out this election cycle, times have changed. But for the better?
Almost 150 years ago the first Republican was elected to our country’s highest office. Abraham Lincoln won the presidency on a platform of positions made familiar to the public by newspapers. But beyond his home state of Illinois, few Americans were aware of what he looked like. Many, who had never seen a photograph or the man in person, were shocked to learn that he was six-foot three inches tall or more.
Today, everybody knows what Sarah Palin looks like, but too often, that's all they know. The liberal media can’t stop talking about personal issues that should not be part of the debate: her daughter’s pregnancy (no one cares), her child with Down Syndrome (who Governor Palin, and not her daughter, gave birth to), or her husband’s DUI from 20 years ago (he’s a Democrat anyway).
Instead of getting bogged down in the superficial, let’s unpack the real issues — a task Obama’s campaign seems to struggle with. The Left has tried to define Sarah Palin as a state governor with no experience, just as the media pegged Ferraro, then a member of Congress. Since Barack Obama seems to be the Left’s benchmark for perfection, allow me to indulge in a brief comparison of the candidates:
Sarah Louise Heath Palin (“Sarah Barracuda”) currently serves as Governor of Alaska. Previously, she spent ten years as the mayor of Wasilla and president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors, and is a former city council member. Barack Hussein Obama II (“The One”) is currently a junior senator from Illinois, having spent time as a state senator and community organizer. In terms of executive experience, Palin’s years outnumber Obama’s 12-0.
In the past two years, while Senator Obama was busy running for president, Governor Palin was running the largest state in the Union. She opposed a federal earmark for the $400 million “bridge to nowhere” and cut nearly $2 billion from the state budget. She also took on ethics reform, often exposing members of her own party. While pushing to develop more energy resources, she increased taxes on oil production, revealing that in the past, the companies had bribed legislators to keep taxes low. This decision enabled her to deliver a rebate of $1,200 to each state resident. That’s like two semesters worth of textbooks from the Cornell Store.
By contrast, Obama has virtually no accomplishments beyond getting himself elected and avoiding any controversial decisions while voting “present” 100 times in the state senate. He often mentions his role as a “community organizer.” What he doesn’t point out is that he failed to achieve his one goal in the position — eliminating asbestos from a single Chicago housing project.
When it comes to “change,” Palin has actually done it; Obama has merely mentioned it in speeches.
The theme of “change” seems inescapable this election season. Embodying that theme, Palin replaced the entire Board of Agriculture and Conservation because of a conflict of interest, and also resigned from her position of Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in order to reveal corruption.
To illustrate his idea of “change,” Barack Obama selected a 36-year incumbent senator as his running mate.
But that said, there is no candidate who brings to the table all the pluses and no minuses. Perhaps the ticket could be even stronger if Palin had more foreign policy experience, or if she had cured cancer, while spending summers doing research on the moon and training for the NFL. But she is someone who represents the values and worldview of the American people.
Last week in Denver, the Left praised their nomination as “historic.” As Fred Thompson has pointed out, the only thing historic about the nomination of Barack Obama is that he is the most inexperienced and unqualified person to ever run for president.
McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate turns this into another kind of historic race. A self-proclaimed “hockey mom” from ordinary circumstances in rural Alaska now has the chance to claim one of our country’s highest offices. She is a role model for women everywhere as a wife, a working mother, a businesswoman, and a public servant. But women won’t flock to her just because we share a common chromosome. We’ll flock to her is because of her strong conservative principles and character.
Like John McCain and Abraham Lincoln, Sarah Palin is a maverick and a reformer. She and McCain are well equipped to bring the kind of change that Washington desperately needs and that Americans are demanding.
Rudy Guiliani last week noted in his speech to the RNC that “change is not a destination and hope is not a strategy." But there’s one destination where all women should hope to see some change — in the White House. And on November 4, the glass ceiling, cracked but never before broken, will finally be shattered by someone who really can bring change to our government — Sarah Palin.
Rachel Quigley is a senior in the School of Hotel Administration. She can be reached at req3@cornell.edu [1]. Guest Room appears periodically.
Links:
[1] mailto:req3@cornell.edu