Sexist?

Sunday, 7th September 2008

OK, I didn't hear "Any Questions", so I'm in no position to contradict Fraser Nelson on that score. Still, I can't buy the idea - also put forward by Nick Cohen - that the opposition to Sarah Palin is made up of some shrill, anti-female chorus of left-wingers. What about Minette Marrin, a columnist who counts Margaret Thatcher among her heroines?

John McCain’s choice of Governor Sarah Palin was the last straw. It makes American politics look like a sick comedy... Today no rational conservative can vote for the Palin and McCain ticket. It makes America an international laughing-stock.
This has little to do with Palin’s views. I disagree passionately with some of them, but the Republicans are entitled to present any views they choose to the electorate. Nor do I share the objections to Sarah Barracuda of the liberal sisterhood; unlike them I don’t in the least object to an ambitious woman being right-wing... Unlike the lily-livered liberal intelligentsia, I admire Palin for being a good shot and a good fisherwoman, and capable of butchering large wild animals in her basement...What horrified me was not so much the woman herself, though she is clearly entirely unfit to be vice-president or president. It was McCain’s cynical and sudden choice of her.