Yesterday, Esquire contributor Tom Junod shared an…interesting theory of his: that Republicans’ resurgence can be explained in large part due to “semi-sexy” women (he counted Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell, and Michele Bachmann among them), whereas Democratic women are “either old or unattractive.” Today, The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur had both Junot and The Nation executive editor Betsy Reed on MSNBC to discuss “sex over substance” in politics.
Junod essentially re-stated the point of his post: that, in his view, the GOP is “producing stars as much as producing candidates” (in the words of his original post: “the values Americans care about are not family, but entertainment”). He added that he believes Democrats have lost any foothold among the “soccer mom” crowd in places like his hometown of Marietta, Ga.: “Soccer moms, in general, identify with people like Sarah Palin.”
Reed had a somewhat different take on things, saying that candidates like Palin and O’Donnell appeal primarily to men, and that “what is keeping Democratic strategists up at night” is how to get women to the polls at all – she believes correcting the “enthusiasm gap” will put a significant dent in Republicans’ progress.
Either way, there’s no questioning the amount of attention focused on Palin and O’Donnell…especially impressive when, as Reed pointed out, O’Donnell is lagging far behind in polls. Video of the segment below.