Salon.com's Gary Kamiya: "The dominatrix...a whip-wielding mistress...a pinup of war...a babe...doable...babaliciousness...S/M....yearns to drill her"

The dominatrix: Sarah Palin is trying to seduce independent voters. But she comes across like a whip-wielding mistress who wants to discipline a naughty America.

Wow. I don't even know what to say about such blatant sexism coming from the mouths of some on the American left. To describe the second female candidate for vice president through such a perverted sexual lens says a lot more about the author than about the candidate. It feels a bit like a rhetorical rape, doesn't it? (If you think that's too strong, keep reading)

Disgusting. Absolutely, thoroughly, completely disgusting. Maybe McCain/Palin should stop going after lipstick on pig metaphors and start taking on some of this stuff. Will Obama/Biden repudiate these attacks? Isn't Salon supposed to be a relatively mainstream liberal mag?

Meanwhile, mainstream media pundits like Howard Kurtz opine about Salon's article and can't bring themselves to really express an opinion and just outright declare it's sexist. What would it take then? Imagine such virulent sexism repackaged as virulent racism against Obama. No one in the media would hesitate to just call it what it is in that case: Racism.

It's not the first time the media has compared Palin to a dominatrix.

The author, Kamiya, also writes:

• Palin is described as a "pinup queen" of war
• The author comments:
  

  And large numbers of Americans think she's hot.

  This latter point cannot be underestimated. Iraq may be a quagmire, a new cold war may be looming, the economy may be tanking and the world may be heading toward environmental doom, but the presidential race may be decided by the perceived doability of the governor of Alaska.

• Palin's "perceive babaliciousness"

• "Because Palin's a woman, and even more, a babe, suddenly she and her party have been magically transformed into fresh-faced reformers."

• The GOP is working the id and the gonads.

• "Right now, Palin has Democrats quaking in their boots -- and with good reason. But all hope isn't lost. For even if this election turns out to be a referendum on the national libido, Palin may scare off more voters than she attracts.
  

• Because to anyone who isn't a true believer, Palin comes across not as a fantasy pinup, but as a dominatrix. And the S/M demographic isn't going to put the Republicans over the top in the swing states."

• "For the die-hard Republicans who lusted over Palin at the convention, her whip-wielding persona was a turn-on. You could practically feel the crowd getting a collective woody as Palin bent Obama and the Democrats over, shoved a leather gag in their mouths and flogged them as un-American wimps, appeasers and losers. "Drill, baby, drill!" the chant ecstatically repeated by the GOP faithful during Rudy Giuliani's speech, acquired a distinctly Freudian subtext after Palin spoke. The more Palin drilled the Democrats, the more hotly the base yearned to drill her."

• "Joe Voter may think Palin is a babe. And at first glance, she looks like the girl next door. But on closer inspection, that house next door turns out to be the Mansion of Mistress Palin (rhymes with "pain")."

• McCain's Palin Pinup Ploy was a masterstroke -- no pun intended. But in the end, I suspect most Americans will be driven by their pocketbooks, not their pocket rockets. That is, unless the voters of this great nation turn out to be a herd of masochistic moose, yearning to be field-dressed."