Noonan on Palin

In her column today, Peggy Noonan comes down hard on Sarah Palin, primarily, it seems, because Palin hasn't declared her independence from the McCain campaign. Noonan thinks Palin should have informed the media and the public, by now, of her innermost thoughts and opinions. If those happen to conflict with McCain's then tough. We need to know these things.

But Palin is a creature of the McCain campaign. She can't go off and say whatever she feels like saying. She can't travel wherever she wants or appear on whatever television program she wants. No vice-presidential candidate can do those things. No presidential campaign can allow any daylight between the presidential candidate and his running mate.

Noonan's remarks seem to have another motivation too. Noonan considers herself an educated woman, a talented writer and an opinion maker. Palin is a wife and mother of five, and worse, a politician. Oh, and Palin is pretty and shapely and petite. It's a good thing she isn't blond. The two kinds of women do not mix. Like Kathleen Parker, Noonan can't or won't tolerate a woman like Palin.