By Carolyn Slutsky

Sitting on my couch watching Sarah Palin speak last night was like watching a bad Hollywood movie, something from the ’70s (including the hairstyles) where this wildcard candidate comes out of nowhere and gums up the political machine (which frankly, and obviously, needed a total rehab before she came to the scene anyway) and steals the show and no one quite knows how or why. In her speech she was sneering and whiney and at one point sounded like the seemingly cool girl who secretly has low self-esteem and taunts the loser kids in the cafeteria, imploring commentators that she didn’t care what they thought of her. Nyah nyah.

But what is most insulting about this whole process is the idea that women are simply interchangeable, that, oh well, Hillary didn’t work out, let’s grab at some other person with a pair of breasts and call it even. Of course there are staunch feminists and former Hillary supporters who might find the Palin pick validating and, hoping for John McCain’s imminent demise, vote for her with the expectation that we could still, somehow, one day in the next four years, have a female president. If things had gone differently and Obama had been unable to continue his run, and if either party had gone out and found another black candidate to switch in for him, it would be considered overt racism. But somehow, with women, it’s just fine to assume that this kind of tokenism will fly. And, it seems, it does. Forget experience. Forget policy. Sarah and Hillary are suddenly political sisters riding the same train to the White House and everyone should just jump aboard and ask questions later.

Women have come farther than to allow themselves to be duped in this way, to be told we are all the same or let the ability to wear a skirt in public dictate public policy and political choice. Just because she’s a woman and the idea of a woman president is exciting and long overdue does not make Sarah Palin qualified to lead this country.

Because to paraphrase the immortal words of this YouTube video, just because I saw a vagina once, or have one, does that make me a gynecologist?

Carolyn Slutsky (sister of Matthew and Peter) is a writer in New York City, whose work has been seen in The New York Times, The Jewish Week, and other publications.