Election '08: Should be about Agenda, NOT Gender

Former Secretary of the State, Madeleine Albright, said it best when speaking about this year's elections, "This is not a question of gender, it's a question of agenda."

For the past two weeks I have watched both a little of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. I may sound bias, but I don't know how you cannot vote for Obama/Biden after hearing them talk about how are nation needs to get back on track. They actually spoke about key issues that the majority of the American public care about, as opposed to the R.N.C. folk's speeches about how a great guy how Senator John McCain is (which I'm sure he is, but we need to hear him speak about how he plans to help our nation overcome so many problems).

My favorite part of the D.N.C. was when they had regular folks who are currently suffering from the Bush administration talk about the problems that they are facing - mostly poverty and the inablility to afford healthcare. There was even a hardcore Republican woman taking a stand against her own party because she has realized that this country can't keep going down the same destructive path.

As the Democratic race was closing in on whether Senators Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton would lead the Democratic party, I was hoping that Clinton would get the nomination. I'm happy to see that she is backing up her party and made a great speech at the convention. I believe that Clinton supporters, like me, are going to continue to vote for the Obama/Biden ticket. Apparently that's not what the Republican party thinks. They may be partially right depending on how conservative you are. If one does their homework though, McCain's running mate Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is no Hillary.

Six in 10 women voters see McCain's choice of a female running mate as a calculated political decision rather than one based on Palin's experience and qualities, the poll conducted by the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group showed.

"Women voters see the choice of Governor Palin as being driven by politics rather than by any sense of conviction on Senator McCain's part that she has the experience and qualities to make a good vice-president," the research group said in a statement.

I think that the biggest issue that doesn't sit well with most women voters is Palin's stand on abortion. We are talking about big time backlash to the women's rights movement!

A majority of the 800 women polled - 56% - said they were put off by Palin's legislative record and her position on moral issues, such as abortion.

"When women voters learn that Palin opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest, opposes stem cell research and, as governor, opposed funding for state pre-kindergarten programmes... a majority say... [they] feel less favourable toward her," the poll showed.

So despite the "homerun" or "a star is born" speech that was described by some critics at the R.N.C., looks like the polls say that the majority of American women are not that impressed by Palin, and I am one of them.

Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention