You can't turn on the television, you can't pick up a newspaper, you can't gather at the water-cooler without talking about she who won't be named by me.
The right wing talking points include charges of sexism, media bias, elitism and everything except John McCain's judgment.
The story goes that Joe Lieberman was McCain's first choice(and that shows as much about his judgment as his ultimate choice) but if McCain wanted to show himself to be a real maverick, he had another choice.
Lindsay Graham. Yes, the other Senator always by John McCain's side. The one who has always been a Republican, the one active in prosecuting Bill Clinton's impeachment, the one who backed McCain in the 2000 campaign when few of his fellow Republicans would. And he's got a military background: He's currently in the U.S. Air Force Reserves and is the only U.S. Senator currently serving in the Guard/Reserves. He's a colonel and instructor in the Air Force JAG School.
What he doesn't have is a wife. Single people now head over 50 percent of the US households(per 2005 Census figures) and yet they can't get a party's nomination for either President or Vice President.
While some of this can undoubtedly be attributed to fear of questions about the single person's gender preference, there's more at play here. Bob Kerrey, who was a Senator and governor when he ran for president in 1992, thought part of the reason he didn't get selected to run with Bill Clinton was that he was divorced and the pictures on the stage just weren't the same with a lone guy up there.(Of course, Al Gore was also a better pick but I digress).
So what makes married people better candidates than single people? Wouldn't the country benefit from a single person who could devote all his or her resources to the job? As hard as politics is on family life, when are we going to be ready to give someone a chance on their own abilities and not as part of a package. Isn't it time to move beyond this prejudice?