Senator John McCain’s running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, may appeal to supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

This article is by Kate Zernike, Jodi Kantor, Rachel L. Swarns and Jackie Calmes.
Senator John McCain’s choice of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate has unleashed gender as a campaign issue again, just when Democrats thought they had it under control.
Ms. Palin was presented as a magnet for female voters, the epitome of everymom appeal. With five children, including an infant with Down syndrome and, as America learned on September 1, a pregnant 17-year-old, Ms. Palin has set off a fierce argument about motherhood and gender.
“This puts the issue back on center stage,” said Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “There are going to be some really fascinating conversations that are going to come up around gender, in some ways that nobody expected.”
Democrats, who make up the party that has long claimed the bigger pool of up-andcoming women in poublic life, were quick to dismiss Ms.
Palin, who is 44, as not experienced enough to be a heartbeat from the presidency. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s supporters will never back her, they insisted, because she is against abortion rights.
Not. So. Fast.
That view underestimated, or at least underappreciated, the raw feelings of many Clinton supporters, and particularly the women among them. Lynn Hackney and Kim Hoover might perfectly illustrate the emotions of those whom Ms. Palin counts as “not finished yet.” No matter what Mrs. Clinton urged, they cannot support Senator Barack Obama. “We just don’t think he has a message,” Ms. Hackney said. “We don’t think he’s good for women.”
Her phone, she said, began “burning up” when Mr. McCain announced Ms. Palin as his choice. “The fact that he went out on a limb to pick a woman, I’m very impressed by that.” She said she was not sure she could vote for a Republican, and would likely stick to her plan to write in Mrs. Clinton. But, she said, “It’s opened my eyes to at least pay attention.”
Judith France and her daughter Holly France-Kremin have been torn about their choice for president ever since Ms. Clinton lost the Democratic nomination to Mr. Obama. Now Mr. McCain has made up their minds, but in different ways, by his surprise pick of Ms. Palin.
“It made me like McCain a little more,” said Judith France, 62, of Thornville, Ohio. “ I know people will say she’s inexperienced. But she’s been a governor for 20 months. That’s more experience than Obama has.”
Ms. France-Kremin, 36, who lives nearby in Dublin, likewise has qualms about the seasoning of Mr. Obama, who became a United States senator in 2005, after eight years as an Illinois state senator. But she also strongly favors abortion rights, and Ms. Palin does not.
“That sealed my decision,” said Ms. France-Kremin, who said she would not vote for the McCain-Palin ticket.