The much quoted line from Hillary Clinton’s non-concession speech, “We’ve put 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling” has been so much quoted that it’s now a tiresome cliché. Sarah Palin, however, put a fresh fillip on the line when she claimed that with her selection as McCain’s VP candidate, now the glass ceiling has been shattered.
   
And yet, some commentators have observed that McCain has laid a clever trap for the Obama campaign: to wit, if they’re too tough on Palin it will backfire because she’s a…woman. Obama seemed to have sensed this with his overly gracious acknowledgement of her candidacy.
   
But wait a minute, something doesn’t compute. If you’ve shattered the glass ceiling, doesn’t that mean you’re now playing with the big boys in the big leagues? Well, guess what? The big boys play rough sometimes. McCain pokes Obama in the eye or Obama kicks McCain in the shins, rhetorically of course, and no one gives it a second thought.
   
What happens if Joe Biden slices and dices Palin in a debate, which he is perfectly capable of doing? Is that playing too rough? Why should it be any different than if he sliced and diced a male VP candidate? Should a woman from the rugged outdoors who likes to fish and hunt be handled with kid gloves because she’s a…woman?
   
Hillary Clinton wore her toughness like a badge in the latter stages of the Democratic primary. And yet when the chips were really, really down, at what might have been the darkest moment in her campaign, she turned on the faucets on the eve of the New Hampshire primary and sniffled about how “tough” things were to an audience of misty-eyed women. And it worked.
   
So what’s it going to be? If women want so much to be admitted to the locker room, to the playing fields where the big boys play full contact politics, shouldn’t they just buckle their chinstraps and be willing to accept the same hits?
   
Why can’t the Obama campaign produce commercials that showcase the quotes from Alaskan newspapers and Palin’s fellow Alaska Republicans that label her an unqualified lightweight? Because she’s a…woman? Would that further outrage the disgruntled Hillary supporters who are either on the fence or leaning toward, God help us, McCain? Geraldine Ferraro, spokesperson for the disgruntled legions, said that the only reason the under-qualified, inexperienced Obama displaced Hillary was because he was a man. Memo to Geraldine: the only reason McCain put the under-qualified, inexperienced Palin on the ticket is because she’s a…woman.
   
Nancy Pelosi, conversely, has been playing in the big leagues for a long time; And, to her credit, Pelosi told Clinton and her supporters during the primary, in effect, to stop whining and get over it.
     
The Obama campaign should be able to go after Palin as aggressively as they would a man. Women can’t have it both ways. If you want admittance to the men’s locker room, be prepared to get your ass snapped with a towel. And don’t whine about it.