To a Democrat, a female politican’s gender is her stock in trade, her reason to exist. She is a piece of chattel that puffs up a caucus’ numbers; she is a statistic to show how far “women” (who are liberal, or to be more accurate pro-infanticide) have or have not come in our political system, as a group; they are a mass of mouths commissioned primarily to repeat lines written for them from above. Any actual legislative or executive talent is largely an “extra”.

To a Republican, a politician of any gender is judged by her or his talents and accomplishments. Among Republicans, the idea of “a female vice president” comes in far down the list of things we’re excited about with Sarah Palin. She is accomplished. She walks the walk – and it is a walk that would make Ronald Reagan smile down from heaven; principled and yet pragmatic; expansive yet intimately personal; big-picture and yet applied to real life. She is the real thing.

She hunts, ice-fishes and is a crack shot who knows how to fire an M16 rifle. “I was raised in a family where gender was not going to be an issue,” she said. “The girls did what the boys did. Apparently in Alaska that’s quite commonplace.” No softy, she sued to stop the federal government making polar bears an endangered species and favours drilling for oil in the Arctic wildlife refuge. However, she also levied a windfall tax on oil companies.

Palin was glamorous enough to have entered beauty contests to earn money for college. She was crowned Miss Wasilla in her home town and was runner-up in the 1984 Miss Alaska contest. “They made us line up in bathing suits and turn our backs so the male judges could look at our butts. I couldn’t believe it,” she told Vogue, more amused than outraged.

Counterbalancing McCain’s reputation as a political dinosaur, Palin smoked pot when it was legal in Alaska, admitting, “I can’t claim a Bill Clinton and say I never inhaled”, and her children, Track, 19, Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, Piper, 7, and Trig, four months, have hippie-sounding names.

Which is why liberals hate her. Liberalism – as it is practiced in America – is profoundly sexist. Senator Barbara Boxer – perhaps the stupidest person in Congress – says:

“If John McCain thought that choosing Sarah Palin would attract Hillary Clinton voters, he is badly mistaken.

“The only similarity between her and Hillary Clinton is that they are both women. On the issues, they could not be further apart.

“Senator McCain had so many other options if he wanted to put a women on his ticket, such as Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison or Senator Olympia Snowe – they would have been an appropriate choice compared to this dangerous choice

I won’t say the left’s reaction to Sarah Palin is consistently “sexist” so much as a range of thoughts, from “clueless” to “incomprehensible”. Palin, to Boxer, isn’t a person with ideas, a personality, motivation and talent. She’s a set of ovaries – one that is interchangeable with a couple of mushy-middle (pro-choice!) RINOs who are on many issues interchangeable with most liberal women. Like Boxer who, in her supremely arrogant statement, tips the lefty hand; women (a monolithic bloc of Clinton supporters, naturally) should let Big Women like Babs Boxer do their thinking for them..

Sean from MnPublius:

My obnoxious post earlier aside — this pick is catastrophically bad.

Most obviously, this pick is a craven attempt to try and peel off just enough women for McCain to win. That’s the math now in McCain land.

Dang that craven John McCain -not only playing politics, but doing it by picking a politician with more political experience than their presidential nominee, and more executive background than the entire Tic ticket, and who has the potential to not only lop off the odd Hillarista but solidify Mac among the conservative base that’ve been Mac’s biggest detractors to date.

Yep. Pretty desperate.

Of course, Flash from Centrisity refrains the left’s attempt at the “experience” meme:

New York, N.Y. 8,143,197
Los Angeles, Calif. 3,844,829
Chicago, Ill. 2,842,518
Houston, Tex. 2,016,582
Philadelphia, Pa. 1,463,281…

[Remainder of list abridged. You get the idea]

To which I respond: combined populations of states where Barack Obama and Joe Biden have held executive office of any type: 0.

But I hope lefties continue to buy the memes their overlords are imposing on them. I’ve not seen the right this energized by any decision by any GOP candidate in recent memory.

And we needed it.