The Gender Card Talking Point

To hear McCain surrogates tell it, the McCain-Palin ticket is the victim of one big liberal media conspiracy, apparently, to deprive Sarah Palin of her due process and to discredit her. Because she's a woman. Yesterday, campaign strategist Steve Schmidt chastised the New York Times's Elisabeth Bumiller for asking whether Palin could balance her family and campaigning. Today, Sen. Lindsey Graham grouped together every question about Palin's family and put them into a sexism box. So did the McCain campaign surrogate Carly Fiorina.

Reporters seem to be afraid to ask the follow-up which is: "Fine. I'm sexist. What's the answer?"  or "You're misdirecting. Can she balance her family and the demands of campaigning?"  Or "It may be a difficult question to ask, but why is it not legitimate?"  or "If Todd Palin was the governor and the principal caregiver for an infant while Sarah Palin was off prospecting for oil in the North Slope, I'd still ask the same question."

The tactic, in political communications circles, is called "answering the subject." That is _- instead of answering a question, you answer by questioning the motivations of the person who is asking it. It usually works.