McCain to Democrats:

"I see your pantsuits and raise you one corsage."


John McCain just announced Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his VP pick, to the surprise of many. (WP) He is sure gunning for Hillary Clinton supporters and I imagine this choice fits into that plan.

Palin is young (44), anti-corruption, firmly anti-abortion, has posed for Vogue, and differs with her new running mate on the subject of drilling in the Arctic Refuge.

She also really likes to wear giant flowers on her lapel, a la Carrie Bradshaw in 1999. I thought the pic above, from her gubernatorial inauguration, was an anomaly, until I ran across this one too.

If you happen to have any other documentation of Governor Palin's floral fashion statements, send them my way. It is certainly a distinctive calling card.

Guess what: I'm wearing pants right now!

I still don't understand the obsession with "Hillary's pantsuits."

ABC News: A Look Back at Hillary's Year of Pantsuits
Glamour Magazine Salutes Hillary Clinton's Rainbow Coalition of Pantsuits

You know, technically, Obama always wears "pantsuits." Not that he doesn't have the legs to carry off a tasteful above-the-knee hem.

And no one ever writes about those.

The Clinton/RFK flap: just one more reason I want this election to be over

This has just gotten silly. I'm not even a Clinton supporter, per se, and it was immediately clear to me that her mention of the June assassination of Bobby Kennedy was meant simply to illustrate her point that Democratic nomination races have, historically, continued into the summer.

The assassination was not mentioned as "a reason to stay in the race," as Eugene Robinson misleadingly writes in his column this morning, or a suggestion that either Democratic contender might be assassinated for heaven's sake. This was Clinton picking her brain for a good example of a long nomination fight and failing to screen the results. Even Obama says so.

I hope Senator Clinton has learned her lesson about choosing historical examples a little more carefully, and props to Bobby Kennedy, Jr. for his classy response to the hubbub.

American politics: funnier in French

And funnier still in English as translated from French by the notoriously freewheeling Babelfish.

Governator, une tête musclée (Geneva Tribune)
"Arnold Schwarzenegger showed that its image 'large muscle-small brain' was definitively reduced in confettis and to be thrown in the dustbin of the stupid stereotypes."

Hillary en selle pour la présidentielle. Thanks Mr Bush! (GT)
"They gained the majority with the Room of the representatives, ­obtaining 28 of the 50 posts of governors and can still claim to control the Senate. In policy, it is what one calls a wave. And the democrats pavoisent. However, they do not have nothing to do with a victory which does not deserve its name."

Taking bets on women in power

Let's take a moment to crow over a victory won for the cause of women's leadership last night: Nancy Pelosi is likely to become the first female speaker of the House. There was also a net gain in women in the Senate, thanks to Claire McCaskill's win in Missouri (as of January there will be 15)*.

Next question. Which will now come first, a woman president or a woman Senate majority leader? My prediction is president will be first. But I put this out more as a challenge to current and aspiring female senators.

*CORRECTION: How could I forget Klobuchar? Sorry, Minnesota! That brings the Senate female total to 16 for the 110th Congress.