In my column on Wednesday about the Republican and right-wing holy war against Hillary Clinton, I focused on the fact that the Republican Party has no unifying principle that I can find except their intense animosity towards Hillary Clinton, about which future psychological and political books will someday be wrong. I believe this kind of pathological animosity toward the candidate who would be the first woman president will backfire badly against the GOP by alienating countless Democratic and independent women, and even some Republican women.
{mosads}Now, let’s consider the huge gender gap from a different point of view. Imagine if the Democrats nominated a ticket of Clinton for president and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for vice president, running against Republicans who nominate Carly Fiorina for president and Sarah Palin for vice president!
Whom do you think wins this hypothetical war of the women? Feel free to laugh with me. Of course, Democrats win a 50-state landslide. This would eliminate the gender gap, because Clinton-Warren would win a landslide over Fiorina-Palin among men as well as women!
Clinton would run as former first lady and major player in the highly successful Bill Clinton presidency; and as a former U.S. senator and secretary of State. Warren would run for vice president as the conscience of the Senate and the great champion of consumers and workers throughout America.
By contrast, Fiorina would run with the novelty of having fired and laid off more workers than any presidential candidate in history, and having mismanaged her business when CEO of Hewlett-Packard, before being unceremoniously removed from her post by a very unhappy board of directors. Palin would run for vice president as the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska who then served for part of a one-term governorship of Alaska before leaving before her term was finished to make her mark in reality television.
There is a difference between Fiorina and Palin. I will confess to having a soft spot for Palin as a person. I suspect if I knew her, I would like her, which I mean as a compliment even though she is not appropriately credentialed to be president or vice president. Fiorina, by contrast, was cruel and heartless to her workers when she was CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
Of course, Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren have offered world-class leadership, though in different ways, and if we compare Clinton-Warren to Fiorina-Palin, it becomes apparent why the gender gap remains so large and why the GOP holy war against Clinton is destined to fail.
Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.