Women Affairs

A friend of mine suggested weeks ago that John McCain did not pick Sarah Palin as his VP running mate. She believes McCain's people picked Palin. And according to this, I'm inclined to believe that Palin was not McCain's first choice: Sen. John McCain acknowledged in an exclusive interview Friday that he probably would be better positioned in must-win Florida if he had picked Gov. Charlie Crist as his running mate. "Charlie, because he's so popular, he probably would have made a significant difference,'' McCain said in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times and Bay News 9. Is McCain saying Palin isn't popular, or is he saying she's not as popular as his people first thought she was? The media has called Palin a liability and even conservative blogger Andrew Allison says John McCain chose Sarah Palin, so he has no-one to blame but himself, but as I have said before, why didn't they vet her thoroughly? Why didn't they find out that she ...

The question, the McCain campaign later acknowledged, was a fair one. In one of her sit-downs with Katie Couric of CBS News, Sarah Palin was asked to discuss a Supreme Court decision with which she disagreed. "Well, let's see," Palin replied, pausing. "There's, of course in the great history of America there have been rulings, that's never going to be absolute consensus by every American. And there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but …" Couric followed up: "Can you think of any?" Palin, still pondering, said: "Well, I could think of … any again, that could be best dealt with on a more local level. Maybe I would take issue with. But, you know, as mayor, and then as governor and even as a vice president, if I'm so privileged to serve, wouldn't be in a position of changing those things...

Michelle Obama takes center stage at the Democratic convention before some 4,400 delegates and millions more glued to their televisions at home, to proudly proclaim to the world why she believes her husband should be elected president of the United States. She is expected to deliver a passionate speech in support of Barack Obama's historic bid for the White House. She will need to do more than introduce herself as a potential first lady Monday night when she takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention in front of a nationwide TV audience. The setting gives her an opportunity to reinvent herself after being portrayed by Republicans as unpatriotic for saying during the primaries that her husband’s campaign made her proud of America “for the first time.” “She has been by all accounts a polarizing figure in this campaign,” NPR Correspondent Juan Williams said Monday. Williams, a FOX News contributor, said the “proud” comment defined her for a lot of voters. “It’s off-putting ...

In the past year, Michelle Obama has been on the campaign trail, often standing in for her husband, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama. In doing so, the potential first lady has put her own career on hold. Trained as an attorney, Michelle Obama left the legal field early. She has spent most of her career in the public and nonprofit sectors. And like many working women, Obama says she has struggled to balance her professional and family life. At a recent luncheon in Chicago, the applause swelled as Obama, taller than most in the room at 5-foot-11, strode to the podium. "[I'm] always living with the guilt that if I'm spending too much time at work, then I'm not giving enough time to my girls," she said to the mostly female audience. "And then if I'm with my girls, then I'm not doing enough for work — or you name it. It's a guilt that we all live with in this room. Can I hear an amen?" Her Early Career Michelle Obama's maiden ...