Reactions To Palin: Men Are Mystified But Women Are Mad

The reaction of the punditocracy to Sarah Palin's abdication as Alaska's governor broke, not surprisingly, along gender lines.

The guys were flabbergasted.

The women were furious.

It was almost fun to watch the men fumble for words in the wake of her decision to resign. When asked what her motive might be, they admitted their cluelessness. If this was her route to the presidency, they seemed to agree, it was through the wilderness.

But the women were angry.

"Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy," wrote Maureen Dowd of The New York Times in the first of two scathing columns.

"Now we know she not only doesn't have the concentration to read a policy paper, she can't focus long enough to finish the job she was hired to do," opined Gail Collins in the same newspaper.

Sally Quinn of The Washington Post seemed to be saying that Ms. Palin should stay home and take care of her special needs child.

Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, who received threats after a column criticizing Ms. Palin, called the governor out on her real reason for quitting. "Try to keep a straight face," she wrote. "On your way to the bank."

Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution lectured Ms. Palin that personal attacks and pot-shots at family members by late-night comedians are part of the political deal.

Anne Applebaum of the Post said Ms. Palin's decision was not "about country. It is about hypocrisy and Sarah Palin is full of it."

Only Mary Matalin, the Republican apologist, called her decision "brilliant."

You can say there is a hypocrisy here - we never liked her and we're mad that she quit. But women are angry. And the reason is not, as my Republican nephew contends, that we are all homely AP English chicks who hate the cheerleading captain on principle.

Sarah Palin's good looks are part of the equation, but jealousy is not. We're mad because Ms. Palin proved what we suspected all along: Looks matter.

Looks are a woman's most important credential, even in the rarefied atmosphere of national politics. Put red high heels and red lipstick on a woman with a cute figure and run her out there and we promise, nobody will notice her mangled syntax or her poor sense of geography.

Todd Purdum wrote in a profile of Ms. Palin in Vanity Fair that her looks "have captivated people who would never have given someone with Palin's record a second glance if Palin had looked like Susan Boyle."