It's the Shoes

I was just listening to some report regarding the Washington state senate race between Democrat incumbent Patty Murray and Republican challenger Dino Rossi (tighter than the Democrats would like) and the corespondent at one point used the now famous "mom in tennis shoes" when referring to Senator Murray.  When I heard that report it occurred to me that when Murray won in 1992, "The Year of the Woman", the fact that she was from a relatively rural, far-western state, woefully short any national experience, and with no Ivy League degree to recommend her, no one, and I do mean no one, suggested for one moment that she was for those reasons in any way unfit for high office.  That she was simply, and charmingly, just a "mom in tennis shoes" was in fact her chief qualification.

Now compare that with the treatment Sarah Palin has already received and Christine O'Donnell is now receiving from just about everyone in the political class, either Democrat or Republican.