Amy Siskind: Give Sarah Palin Another Look

Amy Siskind, president and co-founder of The New Agenda, argues in a Sunday Daily Beast op-ed that Obama isn't doing much for women and that perhaps its time for women to reconsider supporting Sarah Palin:

Maybe it’s time that women gave Sarah Palin another look. Palin, back in the headlines for rushing out a new book ahead of schedule this fall, is fresh, open-minded, a centrist and a party noncomformist. Hey, sisters in women's advocacy: Let's end the decades-long cold war with Republican women candidates. If we want progress to be made on issues of importance to women, our organizations need to master a skill at which men have always been adept: negotiation.

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Sadly, for women, things haven’t panned out all that well with this administration. Despite receiving 56 percent of women's votes, President Obama's record on women's issues thus far is sparse, and suggests something that he either has a tone-deaf nature—or, if you’re inclined to a more sinister view, that he may be uncomfortable with women.

He surely hasn't surrounded himself with many. Of his 24 Cabinet picks, only six were women. Perhaps even more telling are President Obama's czar picks, which do not require Senate confirmation. Of the 35-40 picks he’s made to date, only three have been women. That’s less than 10 percent.

Here's what we know: Sarah Palin did not have a governor's seat handed down to her, she earned it. She understands what it is to be a woman having to fight obstacles—some overt and others subtle—that only a woman can understand.

I know I'll hear from critics who claim that Palin would not share my policy views. But what makes them so sure? As governor of Alaska, didn't Sarah Palin appoint Justice Morgan Christen, who is pro-choice and a former board member of Planned Parenthood, to become Alaska's second female Supreme Court justice? Granted, it’s only 2009, and we are three years away from the next presidential election. But doesn’t that give us ample time to open a dialogue and explain why women's issues are so important to our country's future?

Ms. Siskind is taking quite a beating in the comments section, where Obama's far-left attack squads are pelting her with smears and lies about Sarah Palin. The last thing leftist loons want to talk about is the failed Obama presidency when it's so much easier for them to just bash Governor Palin and Ms. Siskind for daring to say anything positive about her. We've never been Michael Savage fans, but perhaps he was on to something when he said that "liberalism is a mental disease."

- JP