After the Democratic Party officially chose Barack Obama as their nominee, Hillary Clinton was ousted from the 2008 presidential election, leaving many Democratic women upset over losing the prospect of a female president. Their situation was made even more difficult when John McCain chose a woman, Sarah Palin, as his running mate; many previous Clinton supporters were left with the choice to either make the right decision by supporting their political party or foolishly changing their vote to a party with a woman on the ballot.

According to recent polls, most Clinton supporters have made the choice to vote for Obama, but it has become clear that some have strayed away from all political issues in an effort to boost feminism and make “a crack in the glass ceiling” by voting for Palin and McCain. Most women making this decision are Obama’s weakest voter group, white female voters aged 35-55 (Clinton’s key demographic). Women switching their vote, whether informed on political issues or not, are making a serious mistake.

Any woman switching her vote from Clinton to McCain is not taking politics into consideration whatsoever, as the two parties differ on almost every single issue, from foreign policy to the economy to the war in Iraq. A main reason McCain chose Palin as a running mate was to attract more conservative voters, which is a far cry from the Democratic views of Clinton.

Even Hillary Clinton herself has endorsed Obama and denounced Palin, saying her “policies would take America in the wrong direction,” showing how mistaken Democratic Clinton supporters are by switching tickets. These women, in effect, are doing the opposite of supporting feminism; they are insulting women everywhere by having the mindlessness to switch votes because McCain strategically chose a female vice presidential candidate.

Women need to realize the weight of their votes in the 2008 election and cast their votes for the right reasons. While they do have the right to make their own choice of candidate, whether it be Obama or McCain, if they are making this important choice over the gender of the party’s nominees, their priorities are sadly mistaken.