In 2008, shortly after the Democratic nominating convention where Hillary Clinton unflinchingly allocated her delegates to the nominee Barack Obama, John McCain held a press conference to announce his pick for running mate. That day, Sarah Palin swaggered up to the mic and said something to the effect of “The women of America aren’t done yet!”

I remember sitting there, thinking quite clearly “Is John McCain trying to insult my intelligence?”

I had been a Hillary supporter in 2008, not because she was a woman but because I know excellence when I see it. She was excellence embodied. Sarah Palin was…not. There was never a chance I was going to go running across the aisle to vote for someone as vapid and lightweight as Sarah Palin just for the sake of gender equity.

It’s been a long time since I felt that condescended to during an election process but the New York Times pulled it off last night when they tried to split the pandering-to-feminists-baby by endorsing Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar at the same time.

There has been a big field for Dems to choose from and of the candidates who have tried to gain the nomination, there have been very few who I considered a hard pass. Most of them are qualified, experienced (some some degree) and sincere in their principles and approach. I have been delighted to pick through the ideas and proposals coming out of all the campaigns. It’s an embarrassment of riches, really. Klobuchar and Warren are both the cream of the Senate crop and either one of them would be an outstanding leader for America.

But when my primary day arrives, I will choose only one candidate to give my vote to. That’s the way this work. One person, one candidate, one vote.

The New York Times missed that memo and instead has tried to lift up Simba (if Simba were a girl) and Nala at the same time and sing about the circle of life.

Look, I get it. The New York Times shit the bed in 2016 and they, as much as any media source, have to own culpability for handing us Fuckface Von Clownstick. We know it, they know it. They owe it to America to do better in their coverage this time around. But endorsing TWO LADIES is not the way to do it.

(I really hope at least some of you imagined Joel Grey in Cabaret just then.)

This split endorsement smacks of the Times editorial board not wanting to upset women who have been (rightfully) mad at them since the day after the 2016 election. It doesn’t feel like the kind of thoughtful large-tent approach of something like a Nobel Prize, which will be awarded to people working parallel to one another in their fields. This feels like pandering, plain and simple.

It’s an insult to my intelligence. And I don’t like it.