The XX Factor : vice presidential choice

24 More Years? Not This Time

Lauren Sandler — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:38:00 GMT

Ah, the irony of the sexy librarian inquiring whether it's legal to ban books. What I was initially getting at was less how Sarah Palin defines herself and more how our culture has responded to those definitions. For example, in all the McCain blame-game...(read more)

I Can't Believe I'm Saying This, But, Lay Off Palin!

June Thomas — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:25:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, when it was pointed out that it wasn't all that surprising that someone like Palin (Alaska resident, married young, parent of five) wouldn't have a passport or extensive foreign travel experience, the response was: Yeah, but she's running...(read more)

Viva Palin!

Hanna Rosin — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:07:00 GMT

Until now the McCain/Palin team has let the media spin about her appeal to women, and how he chose her to steal some of the Hillary thunder. But in these last desperate days of the campaign, they have decided to leave nothing to inference. For those too...(read more)

Bush, Palin, What’s the Difference? Part II

Juliet Lapidos — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:32:00 GMT

Anne , Marjorie , and Hanna : Thanks to you all for your considered responses to the question I posed earlier — about whether there's any discernible difference between Palin's ability to lead the country and Bush's. Initially, I argued that there isn't,...(read more)

But Is Palin Really Worse Than Bush?

Juliet Lapidos — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:56:00 GMT

First it was David Frum ; then George Will followed by David Brooks ; then Frum's colleague at the National Review , Kathleen Parker ; today, William F. Buckley's son, Christopher jumped on the band wagon. Conservatives everywhere are denouncing McCain's...(read more)

E.J. Graff Sends in This Post

Dahlia Lithwick — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:18:00 GMT

My apologies, all, for being late with this. I'm en route to San Francisco for the wedding of dear friends—two fabulous and widely, deeply loved women—who've been together for 26 years. (It'll be my first Chinese wedding banquet!!) I dearly hope and pray...(read more)

Home Is Where the Heartland Is

Dahlia Lithwick — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Rachael , I think you’ve put your finger on Sarah Palin’s “heartland” problem, but perhaps not in a way for which you will thank me. Accepting your premise that Palin deploys the term not in a geographic sense, but to express her “experience, ideology,...(read more)

Why She Didn't Mess Up

Hanna Rosin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:50:00 GMT

We waited the whole night for her to mention Runner's World or mispronounce Ahmadinejad, and it didn't happen. The best we got was "nucular" and a few botched names. So, we have to admit that on the most important count she acquitted herself. Whether...(read more)

Sarah Palin's Political Eros

Meghan O'Rourke — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:05:00 GMT

Sarah Palin loved being onstage, and people loved watching her love it. This was no Sarah, plain and tall. There was a palpable eros in the room at the RNC tonight, and not just when she made a subtle crack about the great "package" her union husband...(read more)

The Cultural Canniness of John McCain?

Meghan O'Rourke — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:38:00 GMT

The Palin nomination may be politically suicidal in the long term, but it's culturally canny in the short term. It's galvanized McCain's base while making the liberal media's assumptions about the cultural wars look more muddled than ever. I haven't posted...(read more)

How Progress Happens

Anne Applebaum — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:09:00 GMT

Back in the late 1980s, there was a moment when British newspapers suddenly started hiring women—columnists, editors, whatever—en masse. The explanation for this change was not that Rupert Murdoch, Conrad Black, or the other British press barons had somehow...(read more)