I hope this 2003 is a typo:

NHTSA received complaints about acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles as early as 2003, and congressional investigators are looking into whether the government missed warning signs of the problems.

Cawaltz yesterday posted a link to some disgusting and sexist comments (not at this blog)  about Palin, that I agree are way over the line. I totally agree with cawaltz and esmense that Dems and libs have already proved themselves hypocrites on sexism and gender-bashing Palin certainly reinforces it.

That said, I agree with MKS that gender neutral derision is not only natural when presented with such a target, but politically effective. Where is Dan Quayle these days? I don't feel any worse making fun of Palins politics and intellect than I did quoting Quayleisms 20 years ago. I just cannot see her as Everywoman. True, women are not as well represented in politics as we should be, but there have been enough prominent woman politicians that we do not have to be so sensitive to stuff that is not gender based.

I think and hope I have been consistent on that point here. I have spoken up when I thought Palin was getting gender-bashed, or when it was gender-neutral but still came across as beating a baby seal.  I think she is beyond the baby seal stage now, and fair game for anything I would say about a man.

So why can't we ask that a similar sensitivity apply to criticism of political women, who, as a group, regardless of party, were long denied political rights and still endure inequality in the political arena? (While inequality obviously still exists, African Americans, I might point out, enjoy representation in the Congress that is less than, but close to, their representation in the population as a whole. Women, on the other hand, still come no where near to enjoying equal representation. More significant is the fact that research suggests that the hostile and demeaning environment that women face in the political arena is a big obstacle to equality, because it discourages women from even throwing their hat in the ring.)

Frankly, I think the real reason why people are sometimes unwilling to be as sensitive to women's concerns about sexism in the political realm is because they don't take the history of political injustice and inequality that women have experienced and continue to experience seriously.

Not a single other Republican presidential candidate can build a crowd like Palin, can run against something like Palin (be it Washington, the media, the McCain campaign or Obama); no one speaks to the resentment/aspirational conservatives like she does; no one's life has better exemplified the way they perceive their struggle against the elite.  We like to think about presidential primaries in paradigms, but candidates who fit with the times often find ways to completely subvert established paradigms.

Your view of Palin is the same view of her as conventional Republican insiders like McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt, who said btw that she did not even know that there were two Koreas and was basically a compulsive liar ......Stuff like that does not matter to the majority of Republican primary voters....

And the Republican grandees, who would back Osama bin Laden if he would cut their taxes, will be astute enough to not get in the way of the Palinistas....and bank on controlling her later as they did with W.