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No, her appeal is not totally rooted in her attractiveness - but, it is a factor.
Just as in Kennedy vs. Nixon
Just as when Kerry 'looked French'
Note that Kennedy and Kerry were at the top of their respective tickets. Did Bush beat Dukakis because Quayle was cuter than Lloyd Bentsen? But let's concede that her looks have something to do with her appeal, and that her appeal may translate into a few more votes for McCain. (I say a few - I see no reason to think that McCain's improved polls aren't just the typical convention bounce, as opposed to a Palin bounce.) That being conceded, was the dominatrix nonsense called for? The idea seems to be that you can't hurl a little invective at your political opponents and be a woman without looking like a sadomasochistic dominatrix. That seems very sexist to me. If there was any sexual valence to her speech, I thought it was the opposite. It seemed to me that a lot of her remarks about McCain were tinged by this creepy, schoolgirl crush vibe, e.g. the "that's the kind of MAN I want to be Commander-in-Chief" remarks.
