The He-Man Woman Haters Club

By Mustang Bobby

The Romney campaign is apparently making its VP search estrogen-free:

But in leaking few details about their search, the Romney campaign also loses out on an opportunity to show they've at least made an effort to seek out various candidates whose mere consideration might be needed to placate certain corners of the party.

In particular, few women except for New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte – a freshman lawmaker from New England with only scant federal experience – are thought to be under consideration by Romney.

"I think unfortunately, Palin poisoned the well on that," said one informal Romney adviser, fretting that any woman selected as VP would draw inevitable comparisons to the former Alaska governor. "I would guess if I were inside the Romney mind that they're worried that any woman chosen will be subjected to a higher level of scrutiny."

So Sarah Palin was a disaster as a vice presidential candidate and she was a woman. Therefore, the logic goes, women make lousy candidates.

Oy. This is the kind of thinking that got us Sarah Palin in the first place; choosing a candidate for the office based on trying to win the election, not govern the country. This is why they're looking at Marco Rubio; the Republicans need to win a demographic base and they don't really care if the candidate has the experience and a clean enough background -- both are problematic in his case -- to actually take on the duties of the presidency should the need arise.

The problem with Sarah Palin was that she was woefully unqualified for the job. That had nothing to do with her gender. On the other hand, the people who chose her were all men. That would seem to indicate that they're the ones who should be subjected to a higher level of scrutiny, not the just the candidate.

(h/t to Melissa) 

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)