Sarah Palin, talking womb.

What can you say? Besides this, I mean.

South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler sharply attacked Sarah Palin today, saying John McCain had chosen a running mate ” whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”…

Fowler told my colleague Alex Burns in an interview that the selection of an opponent of abortion rights would not boost McCain among many women…

Told of McCain’s boost in the new ABC/Washington Post among white women following the Palin pick, Fowler said: “Just anecdotally, I believe that those white women are Republican women anyway.”

Keep believing, champ. I’m tempted to call this cognitive dissonance — Palin’s conservative and pro-life, ergo women independents surely can’t find her appealing even though many obviously do — but it’s probably just a case of the repulsive Fowler clan being their typical repulsive selves. If you’re willing to laugh at the thought of a hurricane spoiling the GOP convention by wrecking New Orleans, why wouldn’t you believe 23,000 people turned out today in Virginia simply because they’re jazzed that Palin didn’t flush her Down’s baby down the toilet like so many more enlightened, progressive women would have?

Exit question: Any women in the audience think diminishing Palin’s achievements this way is a trifle sexist? I lack the Absolute Gender Authority to make the charge myself, so it’s up to you. You go, girls.

Update: Meanwhile, MSNBC remains MSNBC.

Update: Bonnie Erbe raises the unthinkable possibility of women sexists.

Update: The obligatory intelligence-insulting “apology”:

I personally admire and respect the difficult choices that women make everyday, and I apologize to anyone who finds my comment offensive. I clumsily was making a point about people in South Carolina who may vote based on a single issue. Whether it’s the environment, the economy, the war or a woman’s right to choose, there are people who will cast their vote based on a single issue. That was the only point I was attempting to make.

I.e. “I was making a mundane point about voter priorities and accidentally accused Palin of being a joke candidate with nothing whatsoever to commend her.”