When faced with a new piece of information, we filter the item through our own internal biases in an attempt to make sense of it. The recent Vice Presidential choices of Barack Obama and John McCain gave me an interesting illustrative example.
When Barack announced Joe Biden, the conversation was about Biden’s experience, his voting record, his speaking ability — whether he could help Obama win, and whether he’d make a good President.
This morning the McCain camp announced that Sarah Palin would be McCain’s running mate. The first person — female — I discussed this with knew as little as I did about Palin. In other words, basically nothing.
Her first questions, in rapid succession and at least partially in jest, were:
How old is she?
What does she look like?
Is she fat?
I suspect, for better or worse, this is the initial prism through which many of us will view McCain’s choice.
Am I wrong?
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