Judging Palin’s qualifications, supporters

Well, this is a doozy.

South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler, perhaps no surprise, isn’t a huge fan of Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin. What surprised me were some of the words chosen to express that lack of fanaticism.

Fowler kicks things off with a solid pot-shot. She said it seems as though Sen. McCain has chosen a running mate “whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”

“Only”? Really? I’m sure the hyperbole works in front of a friendly audience, but it’s not much good for making a persuasive argument, at least not in this case. This, however, was told to a reporter in an interview setting. Couple that with the inclusion of a widely recognized hot-button issue and you have yourself one hell of a lightning-rod comment.

The subsequent apology gets even better. Her apology statement said:

I personally admire and respect the difficult choices that women make everyday, and I apologize to anyone who finds my comment offensive. I clumsily was making a point about people in South Carolina who may vote based on a single issue. Whether it’s the environment, the economy, the war or a woman’s right to choose, there are people who will cast their vote based on a single issue. That was the only point I was attempting to make.

In a way, there’s some logic to this apology as an explanation for why she said what she said. McCain is notoriously less-than-perfect in his positions over the years on certain issues of great importance to voters referred to as “social conservatives,” abortion certainly being one of them. By choosing the firmly anti-abortion Palin, according to Fowler’s thinking, McCain is shoring up those voters to whom abortion is an important issue.

But with this apology, Fowler seems to step in another cowpie by implying people who vote primarily based on a single issue — or who can at least be perceived as doing so — are of lesser intelligence or of diminished rational capacity. One-track minds. Stupid. Sheep-like.

Again, a statement that might work well in front of a friendly crowd, but one that’s not smart to make when your primary focus should be singing the praises of your preferred candidate — not putting yourself in a position to apologize and clarify and backpedal.

Photo courtesy of kromatic on Flickr