"Palin is now where she is ... not because she has fought her way to the top of the national greasy pole."

Andrew Sullivan brings the phallic symbolism to his answer to the question why he hasn't "swooned over the chance of a female vice-president who didn't get there by marriage, like Clinton." Well, that's his (sexualized) paraphrase of what Ross Douthat asked about:

For months and months, all through Hillary Clinton's losing campaign for the Presidency, my colleague Andrew Sullivan insisted over and over again that his furious anti-Hillary partisanship was in fact a defense of authentic feminism, since Hillary's ascension to the White House would represent the worst sort of pre-feminist, second-hand success - a woman marrying her way into power, that is, rather than attaining it on her own. Well, now John McCain has picked as his running mate a woman who embodies all the post-feminist virtues Andrew insisted were absent in Hillary Clinton's ascent - she's risen from working-class obscurity to govern a state dominated by an old boys' network (where the other prominent female politician is a classic legacy pick), while successfully juggling motherhood and her career and never, ever, piggybacking on any of her husband's achievements.... [Y]ou'd think that Andrew would confine his attacks on Palin to critiquing her record and mocking her lack of experience, rather than, say, posting emails accusing her of being a bad mother for accepting the nomination, snickering over her children's names, and razzing her as a bimbo and a "trophy candidate."

In short, it looks sexist. Sullivan's answer is well-composed -- though that "greasy pole" sticks out:

Please. I do admire someone who's risen the way Palin has, and I've said lots of nice things about her. But let's be honest: Palin is now where she is - not as Alaska governor but as vice-presidential nominee - because an old white guy decided to play some identity politics, and felt he had to shake up his campaign, not because she has fought her way to the top of the national greasy pole. It's great that by a combination of a decrepit and degenerate political establishment in Alaska, and her own personality and tenacity, she has just become governor of Alaska. But McCain's choice of her - as is impossible to miss - is a cynical ploy to exploit Democratic divisions over gender. I mean: how many Republican vice-presidential picks have lauded Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro in their acceptance speech? It wasn't even subtle. I find this kind of attitude to be about condescension, not feminism, about tokenism, not post-gender meritocracy.

And, please, there is nothing sexist in being amused by the names of someone's kids; I found the Romney gaggle hilarious. She was a beauty queen, for Pete's sake. She has been presented to the nation like a trophy candidate. And some women do indeed find her running for vice-president with a four-month-old disabled child somewhat incongruous. These are the big leagues. These issues are worth airing.

My sense is that this pick is insulting to voters, especially women voters, and terribly condescending to Palin. It's as much about countering sexism as picking Clarence Thomas was about countering racism.

Is there also some place where Sullivan talks about the whether Obama had to climb the greasy pole or whether there was some "condescension" and "tokenism" there too? Surely, he can't believe that was all "post-[racial] meritocracy." And since Obama was propelled in part by revulsion against Hillary -- did Sullivan himself feel reflexive revulsion? -- there is some reason to view his rise to power to be about condescension, not feminism, about tokenism, not post-gender meritocracy.

IN THE COMMENTS: Bissage writes:

I really don’t get where Mr. Sullivan is coming from with all this greasy pole stuff.

Maybe he should hang with a better crowd.

All I know is the people I hang with keep their poles bright and shiny clean.

It’s really not so very hard.

ADDED: Yes, I know "greasy pole" is an established expression, not some concoction of Sullivan's.



Now, enough of those disapproving, patriarchal sneers.