McCain No Maverick on Equal Pay Legislation

Senator McCain claims to be in favor of equal pay for women, yet he helped defeat HR 2831 which would have made “discriminatory compensation…unlawful”  by simply not voting on the day it came up, while  6 of his Republican colleagues voted yes.  McCain explained his opposition by saying that what women really need is more education and training so that they can find higher paying jobs.

McCain Opposes Equal Pay for Equal Work Legislation

Governor Palin implied that her nomination brings women one step closer to breaking the glass ceiling Hillary Clinton and her millions managed to crack.  Given Senator McCain’s views, I would like to know how the Republicans plan to break the glass ceiling.  Maybe Governor Palin will blast it open with an assault rifle.

McCain Makes Another Error In Judgement

With the tapping of Sara Palin, John McCain has made yet another error in judgement.  No longer can McCain and the Republicans criticize Obama for lack of experience after choosing a running mate with 2 years of experience as Governor of Alaska, a state with less than 700,000, and whose only other experience came as the Mayor of a small Alaskan town of approximately 8,000 people.

Clearly McCain is pandering to disaffected Clinton voters with this selection.  And he may be trying to neutralize any advantage Obama might have as being America’s first African American President by trying to make history for the Republicans with the first woman VP.  The Republicans are so afraid to pit McCain against Obama that they plan to use Sara Palin as a shield to divert attention away from McCain’s uninspiring candidacy and abysmal legislative record.  The Republicans will try to recreate the divisive Democratic primary by pitting Palin against Obama and Biden to invite attack and then argue that the Democrats are being dismissive of her accomplishments, and by extension, dismissive of women.  If the Democrats take the bait, it could spell disaster for their chances in the general election.   Instead, the Democrats need to stay focused on McCain.

But consider this, a point made by Paul Begala and James Carville, CNN analysts (and yes, former Bill Clinton strategists, in the interst of full disclosure) – John McCain is 72 year old cancer survivor.  If he were to be elected President, and If, heaven forbid, something were to happen to him and he could not carry out his term, Sara Palin, former small town mayor and one term Governor of one of the least populated states in the country, would be the next President of the United States.  Enough said.