Salon’s Rebecca Traister observes that “several female newscasters…have kicked ass, taken names and otherwise owned the coverage of the 2008 election.” Writes Traister:

[I]f 2004 was widely touted as Jon Stewart’s career-making election, then it would be more than plausible to call this year Katie Couric’s (for her eye-crossing serialized interview with Sarah Palin and her impeccably timed career rebound) or Rachel Maddow’s (for her Speedy Gonzalez scramble to the top of her profession and her sharply seasoned take on the race) or Campbell Brown’s (for her fire-roasting of McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds and her series of rants on gender, access and the presidency).

Call it historical accident or mere coincidence, but this election, built as it has been around two history-making female candidates, traditional “women’s issues” like the economy and healthcare and the acknowledgment of the power of female voters, also happens to have been translated, interpreted and picked apart by women newscasters. And that’s something new.