Did you get the sense last week that, with reports that Mitt Romney was “considering” tapping a woman as his running mate, the mainstream media was gearing up to go on the attack?
It is interesting that the mainstream media, which always seems to be pulling for women, mercilessly attacks female conservatives. This is a sin the media can’t tolerate: being female and conservative.
Rule: Women are supposed to be liberal. The MSM media is the collective enforcer of this rule and women who rise to the top without bowing to the rule and the enforcers will suffer for what is regarded as treacherous behavior.
Sarah Palin often played into the media game, but it would be hard to make the case with a straight face that Palin was treated fairly. It did seem that, after a relentless pursuit of her Alaska emails (inaugurated by lefty journo David Corn) turned up nothing scandalous, and, indeed, revealed only that Palin was a pretty conscientious politician, the media would have been embarrassed.
Not so. The fruitless hunt for incriminating Palin emails didn’t prevent the savaging of presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann by the same pack of wolves. Newsweek, for example, portrayed the foster mom as the “Queen of Rage,” with such an ugly cover photo of Bachmann that comedian Jon Stewart noted that it would be “hard” to find an unflattering picture of Ms. Bachmann.
No matter what happens with conservative women, the MSM has a negative spin—e.g., last week Politico reported that GOP women are taking a “higher profile.” Great, but the article seemed to believe that this was only a way to fight the supposed “war on women.”
The talents of GOP women are thus neatly dismissed—so who is waging this war on women?
From my point of view, the gender of the vice presidential candidate matters not. Political philosophy and personal courage are what matters. But if Mitt Romney does pick a woman, she’ll have to contend with a great deal of bias and prejudice–but not from conservatives. It is the MSM that will go after her with hammer and tongs and unflattering pictures. (It should also be noted that a Hispanic or African American running mate would face a similar onslaught from the MSN. Like women, these two groups haven’t been given “permission” by liberals in general and the MSN in particular to reject the liberal agenda.)
Should Romney ask a woman to join him on the ticket, she’d better have the skin of a rhino—but (let’s hope) not the political philosophy of a rino.