Thank you for the correction–and I would like to respectfully point out that a promise is not yet an advance. It is only a campaign promise…so far. And as far as The New Agenda is concerned, a white FEMALE anti-choice pro-gun pro-drilling candidate is better because…..she is a she?

Look, I certainly get it about women in positions of leadership as advancing all women. (I am Hillary’s age and in a male dominated profession, so I have had my own work cut out for me). And I support this as a general goal and as a good thing.

What I am concerned about is the idea of supporting ANY woman simply because of her gender. This is what McCain is counting on.

He can promise all he wants, whatever he wants, but I agree with other posters here who say that just the presence of women is not enough. Its not just a numbers game, but one of substance, as you know. So I am looking at action. Given McCain’s selection of Palin, a charismatic ideologue, who is to the right of Bush on almost every issue of national concern, to be a heartbeat away from running our country demonstrates bad judgement on his part. Just think of all of the other highly qualified, experienced Republican women he might have chosen. And there are lots out there.

So, instead, we get the current situation where either Palin is hiding or McCain is “protecting” her–both unacceptable from a feminist point of view. And the outcome being an insult to all of us who deserve to know who she is and what she really stands for.

By the way, speaking of numbers, what do you make of the % of women delegates at the Republican Convention vs. the Democratic Convention…?

Respectfully disagree. McCain already did something to advance our goals listed here on our website – he promised us to have more women in his administration than any president in history. Plus, he picked a woman for VP. If not Palin, it would have been a white male pro-life candidate that likely would give some women a pause for that reason.

Read the articles (and more to come) on our blog. Having women in positions of power helps to advance women’s issues. There is a huge UN study that just came out last Thursday and specifically speak to this- Dawn C. will be writing about it shortly on our blog.

We are also having conversations and/or meetings with a surrogate for the Obama Campaign and the Green Party this week.

Women’s rights for all candidates. Now THAT’s a worthy goal!

John McCain has cynically selected a woman running mate who he is systematically silencing by not allowing her press conferences or interviews. He is “handling” her in such a paternalistic way that I cannot believe that “non-partisan” The New Agenda is not aggressively addressing and tracking this behavior. His campaign is using the charge of “sexism” as a self-serving scare word to frighten off critics–thus co-opting the term to silence criticism rather than for its very serious true definition. If Palin is such a feminist, and so ready to be VP, why is she allowing herself to manipulated in this way. If she is such a qualified and capable candidate, why shield her from the press? If she is a strong, capable and independent woman, why is she hiding (especially given her comments about Hillary as quoted above)? Why is there such outrage when Gibson asks her tough questions that any Vice Presidential candidate should be able to answer directly and without made-up bravado? Such questioning is not sexist, it is due diligence by the press. Hillary never flinched when asked hard questions, and she never allowed the sexist comments and behaviors to ever derail her from appearing in public, meeting with the press or taking unscripted questions. Just because she is a working mom who thinks women should have equal rights is not enough for me to support Palin. In one of the two interviews she has given I saw only a charismatic ideologue who reminded me, like Cindy, of Bush.

In our current, admittedly broken, two-party system, anideological rejection of an Obama Adminstration (which is what we are voting for in November) is de facto support of a McCain Administration. Such an administration will do nothing, zip, zero to advance your agenda.

I’m deleting comments that contain ungrounded accusations against Gov. Palin. Please refrain from attempting to re-post.