Excellent comparison as they are very similar things. Yes, the Dems nominated Ferraro primarily because she was a woman. Yes, she was also the beneficiary of affirmative action in much the way Palin. The Dems, at the time, needed a Hail Mary (or game changer), just as the Republicans needed it in 2008. Each thought the novelty of a woman would get out the woman's vote. And, just as most Hail Mary's are empty plays, the nominations of Ferraro and Palin came up short... except that Sarah was smart enough to make hay from the opportunity...
I am glad you collected your US governor trading cards so you knew who Palin was... good for you... but no one else did. Thinking the Sarah Palin was prominent in her own right in July 2008 suggests you very much do indeed need the links
Obama "earned" his way on to the ticket by being a US Senator and campaigning for the job. If you recall, he went through months of months of primaries to earn his name recognition. No one just reached out and "tapped" him into national prominence with a single phone call, as they did for Palin.
Oh, yeah... I almost forgot this link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/politics/29palin.html?pagewanted=all
"....Senator John McCain astonished the political world on Friday by naming Sarah Palin, a little-known governor of Alaska and self-described “hockey mom” with almost no foreign policy experience, as his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket...."
I particularly like the use of the word "astonished"
