I heart Campbell Brown

On Tuesday, the CNN anchor turned the tables on McCain. Here's a transcript:

Frankly, I have had it. And I know a lot of other women out there are with me on this. I have had enough of the sexist treatment of Sarah Palin. It has to end. She was here in New York City today meeting with world leaders at the U.N. and what did the McCain campaign do? They tried to ban reporters from covering those meetings and they did ban reporters from asking Gov. Palin any questions.

Tonight, I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment. This woman is from Alaska, for crying out loud. She is strong, she is tough, she is competent, and you claim she is ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvanistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters, just like Barack Obama did today, just like John McCain did today, just like Joe Biden has done on numerous occasions. Let her have a real news conference with real questions. By treating Sarah Palin different from the other candidates in this race, you're not showing her the respect she deserves.

Free Sarah Palin. Free her from the chauvanistic chains you are binding her with. Sexism in this campaign must come to an end. Sarah Palin has just as much a right to be a real candidate in this race as the men do. So let her act like one.

Here's the video.

Does anyone remember Dan Quayle's campaign for VP? Did Bush Senior keep him sequestered the way McCain's handling Palin?

There's an essential truth to Brown's satire. It is patronizing to women to nominate one of us and then treat her like she's incompetent. Of course, Palin is incompetent. But that just means they were patronizing all women when they chose her.

Kind of like it's patronizing for them to think we aren't competent enough to make choices about our own bodies. Hmm.

By the way, the picture of Sarah? I had that same hairdo in the 80s. So did all my friends.

Turn ons: the Iowa Democratic Party's new ad about The Odd Couple
Turn offs: Bush and McCain