The idea was even echoed on CNN's Larry King Live Wednesday night by CNN Commentator David Gergen, who's penchant for making questionable statements has risen to alarming proportions of late.
For several reasons that to some are sexist, Senator-Elect Scott Brown is being compared to Sarah Palin. In fact, one blogger called Scott Brown "The Next Sarah Palin". The main reasons are than both are between 40 and 50 years of age, are considered good looking, white, Republican, athletic, and former models. But those comparisons are proving to be "skin deep".
As Joe Weisenthal rather roughly put it in "The Next Sarah Palin"...
Most notably, Sarah Palin is a big loser, and she's no longer the hero, insurgent member of the party. She is seen as having helped lose the 2008 election.
Still, the paring of Sarah Palin and Scott Brown was indirectly ignited by The Wall Street Journals's Washington Wire, which speculated that Scott Brown may be ready to run for President in 2012, of course, forgetting that Brown just got elected, hasn't been seated, and doesn't know Washington.
In reality, Scott Brown has little in common with Sarah Palin. Brown's a lawyer; Palin is not. Palin' claims to be a conservative (or what this blogger calls a "couch potato conservative"); Scott Brown is considered to be a liberal Republican or what he calls a "Scott Brown Conservative."
The Nude Debate
And then there's that nude model issue. Scott Brown posed nude for Cosmopolitan back in the 80s, and it did nothing to harm his political campaign. Sarah Palin was a beauty pageant contestant and she was criticized for it. That difference in treatment has got the attention of bloggers and not without considerable outrage.
In the NY Daily News on Wednesday, Jeremy Mayer called it "Full Frontal Sexism":
Surely it is not one of the great injustices in America today that women who pose nude are probably ineligible for higher office, while Brown's nude modeling is just an unusual feature on his resume. But it is emblematic of the differing standards we have for women and men in public life.
In RH Reality Check, Nisha Chittal let loose with her anger:
But had a woman candidate done the same, it would have cost her the election. No female politician could hope to make it out of a scandal like that...She was derided as a dumb beauty queen, but he’s praised as a “hunk.”...Monday night on Fox, the Washington Post’s Sally Quinn said that Brown is a "hunk" and the fact that he posed "semi-nude" actually "gave him a huge advantage in terms of the public recognition" and that "It made him a recognizable public figure, which he was not before. A lot of women think he’s really cute." It’s appalling that the media hasn’t shown more outrage over the now Senator-elect Scott Brown’s actions, where we most certainly know they would do so had it been a woman. But perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised – this kind of sexism has long been rampant in our media system.
The point is that Scott Brown got away with just what did Sarah Palin in: being "expressive". But while Brown did use his looks to his advantage, and the media played along with it save for this blogger, no one has accused him of being uninformed on policy; a charge that dogs Sarah Palin to this day.
Lastly, Scott Brown did not seek Sarah Palin's endorsement and has yet to appear with her at a campaign-related event. Scott Brown did not seek Sarah Palin's endorsement. Scott Brown is more supportive of abortion rights than Sarah Palin will ever be. Scott Brown is no Sarah Palin; Sarah Palin is no Scott Brown.
Let's hope for his sake that he's no John Edwards.
And thankfully, neither one of them is a Nancy Pelosi.
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