Republicans "have a tradition of nominating fun, bantamweight cheerleaders from the West, like the previous Miss Congeniality types Dan Quayle and W."

Writes Maureen Dowd. Dan Quayle was a Senator from Indiana. I guess that looks like "the West" when you're looking from New York City. (You already know what's at that link, don't you?)

If Quayle was a "fun, bantamweight cheerleader from the West," then Obama must be too. Illinois -- for the geographically challenged -- is one notch west of Indiana. And Quayle was a first second term Senator when he was picked for VP in 1988. But And he'd been in Congress since 1976.

IN THE COMMENTS: Bissage said:

I read that Maureen Dowd piece twice but I still don’t get it. Sarah Palin can’t have it all? Only a loser rube would believe what's uncontested and be charmed by early stage Palin? Dick Cheney’s a bantamweight cheerleader? Heck, I didn’t even know there were weight classes in cheerleading. Color me confused.

Paul Zrimsek said:

Was Quayle ever considered fun? I recall that he was the Devil incarnate for a while for having the nerve to suggest that Murphy Brown was unwise to try single motherhood. Since we now learn that a woman can't combine family and career even with the aid of a husband, it may be that Quayle's been forgiven.

Freeman Hunt said:

I am getting extremely offended by this liberal meme that attractive women are nothing more than beauty queens regardless of their accomplishments. Palin has accomplished more in her short time in office than most accomplish over entire careers. But none of that matters; she's pretty, so that's all she is.

Absolute sexism.

Yeah, and it reinforces that sexist meme that feminism is a plot to help unattractive women get ahead.

Maguro said:

So being president of Harvard Law Review is now an important qualification for POTUS, particularly if the the other party's VP candidate went to the University of Idaho? LOL, good luck with that one.

To which Bissage responds:

Yeah, really. This ordinary-people-get-to-vote thing's a real bitch.