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A Liberal's Confession on Sarah Palin
After spending two days sheepishly defending the Lipstick Pitbull to women less liberal than myself, it's time to 'fess up: I kinda like Sarah Palin.
It's a shameful admission to be sure, far worse than an abiding love of Miracle Whip in the Slow Food Nation foodie heartland. But how can you not like a woman who calls herself a pitbull and makes it sound charming?
I'd been baffled by the drinkers of 2000, who for some reason thought W would be a fun guy to get a beer with, and that that was reason enough for the ill-prepared guv to lead.
But Palin's the Mommy Track'd equivalent, and I get it now. The woman has five kids, a full time job, and a sense of humor. Really? You don't want to at least sit down with her for a cup of tea?
Yes, I disagree with her on every issue I care about (and several I don't). No, I don't like her policy, her history, or her hairstyle—and I don't want her running my country. But I wouldn't mind her in my moms' group.
The Dems would be wise to make her look less charismatic somehow, and fast. Or at least stop yammering on about her parenting choices, so I can stop defending them.
What does she think? That should be the only democratic line because unless they find a skeleton I think on a personal level she's very engaging. So was GWB.
The soul sucking hatred comes after they get elected and destroy the fabric of society.
Project.
That's what I do. I look and I think Bush and I freak the f*** out.
Yeah, she's a treat, especially when, as mayor, she is charged rape victims for their own rape kits.
http://stopallmonsters.blogspot.com/2008/09/female-george-bush-gets-lot-...
Stick that in your "mom's group." I wonder how charming Idi Amin was?
And you people said Sarah would never get ANY of hillary voters...:-)
You are soooo toast...:-)
BIll
Being charismatic says nothing about your goals or your style of government. By all accounts Hitler was very charismatic and had a tremendous ability to "energize the base" but in the end things didn't work out too well for his base or his country.
Sarah Palin is an English-speaking female version of George W Bush. I don't know if the Dems can do much to reduce her appeal to the right-wing nutjobs. To paraphrase Steven Colbert my gut tells me that it's hard to reason with irrational people who live on a steady diet of Fox propaganda.
If you want to make progress, bring back the fairness doctrine
"It's an election year, and there will be a lot of Average Joes and Average Janes coming to us through our televisions, asking us to hand them the reins of power.
So let's make sure we vote on the basis of issues, not on the basis of 'character.' Because the only thing any of us will really know about any of these politicians' true character is this: they are ambitious. And the humble, ordinary person that we see in their ads is just a character they play, to make them seem more like us"
From an interesting blog entry at Tree of Knowledge
Thank you - I do not find her personally charismatic, and I don't think the MSM has been sexist toward her at all, but I wish I saw a little less blatant misogyny directed at her in the comments on left-wing blogs. That's not a winning approach.
Juan Cole puts things in perspective by asking the very relevant question "What's the difference between Palin and Muslim fundamentalists?"
The same applies to James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and all the other fundamentalist nutjobs
I am saddened by the vulnerability of working mothers who think that just because Sarah Palin is a working mother means she is cut out for this. She seems very fake to me, as does McCain. I rarely ever see them discuss what their solutions are. I was previously an independent who voted republican but at this stage, it seems that the republicans are still protecting wealth and power and have less concern for families and working class. The other thing I notice is that there is still this very black and white outlook from the McCain campaign. I don't see leadership as black and white. I wish more people understand that issues are complex and everyone can't always be satisified. I respect the willingness to compromise. Also, I know a lot of amazing and succesful women who I admire and blow Sarah Palin away. It is purely a lack of exposure of female executives in the US. But they are out there and they are running businesses with honesty and integrity. too bad so many women are so desperate to see a woman in a position of power, it blinds them to what the right choice is.
Hey People,
It is VERY strange and distrubing, that some people are calling the GOvernor if Alaska - HITLER..?
Me thinks thou doust protest too much...!!!
Bill
Yeah. You're talking the same way as guys who love /// sorry, "admire" rap, sports, film idiot men who should garner no admiration whatsoever.
It borders on or crosses the border of immaturity.
Palin doesn't deserve it anymore than than the ignorant and mysogenistic men who seem to dominate the vacuous personality sphere.
GROW UP!
"Hitler"? You poor Odumba supporters are comparing Palin to Hitler? LOL!
Yeah, keep it up - based on his losing polls, your unfounded snarky attackes are working just fine. LOL!!
Whoa! Eazy E, the Fairness Doctrine. surely you realize the fairness doctrine is anything but - Fair? The Fairness Doctrine is from the folks who gave us the that last election reform bill. You remember the one? If you can't say anything nice about a politician within 60 days of the election, you can't say anything at all.
Remember now, that was the beloved John McC reaching across the aisle. You guys have nothing to worry about. McC is a is all over the board in his politics. He's one of you. He'll fold at the first sign of... I mean adapt to pressure.
You cannot talk of colors to the blind. But, a still greater ill than blindness is delusion. Delusion believes that it sees, and that it sees in the only possible manner; even while this, its belief, robs it of sight. Anyone of the common population who even so much as thinks that McCain/Palin would be better for the country at this time is deluded. I live in hope that the Republican deluded common population will wake up and quit trying to think they see color that are not there in either Palin or McCain. Obama/Biden are the left's true colors and we must keep focused and not get sidetracked by colors that aren't there.
Has anyone noticed the remarkable similarities between Sarah Palin and Spiro Agnew??
Agnew had only been governor for two years when picked for run at VP in 1968 - prior to that he was a first term county exec. Everyone was surprised by Nixon's choice, doubted Agnew's qualification for natl office, but Nixon said "There can be a mystique about the man,you can look him in the eyes and know he's got it."
In both cases the VP candidate was significantly to the right of the presidential candidate. In both cases, the VP candidate's primary role was as an attack dog, as when Agnew called Humphrey "soft on communism." Nobody believed for an instant that Nixon would give Agnew any significant policy or executive responsibilities. Does anyone believe that McCain will have Palin doing any heavy lifting?
McCain already seems afraid to let Palin say anything impromptu -- it took Nixon a couple of years to figure out the need to muzzle his attack dog.
Agnew shared Palin's view of the press -- in November of 69 he famously said that the president had a right to communicate directly with the people without having his words "characterized through the prejudices of hostile critics." Very similar to Palin's people's reply to Time Magazine's request for an interview.
By 1972 Nixon viewed Agnew as a general liability, but felt that keeping him would appease what he called "the extreme right." John Mitchell agreed, arguing that Agnew had become "almost a folk hero" in the South. Palin is almost one now. She'll be a polarizing force if she gets to DC.
Are Palin's rumors of abuse of power as governor going to lead to her downfall, the way Agnew's did for him? No way to know, but it's interesting that McCain's way of shaking up Washington involves a move out of Tricky Dick's playbook.
I have more on this topic, but I have to go light another stick of patchouli incense and pull my bell bottoms out of the dryer.
Almost forgot, here's a joke for you:
Q: What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Spiro Agnew?
A: Lipstick.
What was the point of this article? Please take your job more seriously. What is wrong with journalists diligently seeking out and reporting what the public needs to know? It used to work a little better that way.
Don't try so hard to be pithy and deep and clever and noticeable. Try harder to be responsible to the public. We don't need your whimsical musings or interpretations as much as we need to know what's really happening. Please consider it.
So the former beauty queen, who has become the symbol of working mom's, especially hockey mom's with lipstick, in this country had nannies while her children were growing up. Supermom didn't do it all herself, as we've been led to believe! But then again, most of what she has told us has been less than truthful, hasn't it.
Check it out... Christy was the nanny's name. It is at the 3:17 mark of the video on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1vPYbRB7k
Brought to you by:
www.thesmokingduckonpolitics.blogspot.com
It's ironic that likely supporters of the English-Only movement seem incapable of understanding a simple paragraph written in plain English. They can't spell worth a damn either ("distrubing", "attackes")
This is on a par with the irony in Obama asking the Bush administration to ensure that "poor leadership" isn't rewarded
Soft porn that is what they are selling. Every neo-cons wet dream, and they are doing a great job. To be born again you must have sinned lets see whats in the closet. Focus on husband very scarey.
I didn't think it was possible for the dems to lose yet another election, but it looks like it's going to happen. Even those of us on the blue side of the fence won't shut up about this woman -- its as if everyone got slapped in the face by a red herring and everyone is too thunderstruck to see what we're all about to lose. Ugh. I better make sure my passport is in order, if this election gets f***** up I'm not staying in the states to see what happens.
Laura McClure,
you like her - you can have her.
I guess there is no accounting for taste or intelligence.
I am not likely to read anything you write in the future. Maybe you should take your fawning over the GOP VP candidate to redstate? LGF?
I think your likes and dislikes will be a better "fit" there.
Shame on MoJo for printing anything you write.
Palin's appeal is obvious to working mothers who are juggling a family and a career. I hope now that Sarah is the VP candidate that the right wing James Dobson, and others like him who say that mothers should stay at home, will stop saying children are harmed by having a working mother. Let the christian right lead mommy wars come to an end. Although, I am voting for Obama I think that Palin's candidacy will bring up the issues that right-wing white men like John McCain have always used against women. Obama should be able to point this out without being called sexist.
You have GOT to love this..!!! A true dem and womans libber, comes out and tells you people the TRUTH about how she, and millions of other women feel, and you tear at her like dogs..:-)
She is just telling you what you already know.
Sarah is going to be a GREAT VP mom in the White house...:-)
Bill
The conservative Christian view of women will never change. To them, that view is scriptural. That's why I can't believe that Palin doesn't know she is being used and that more women don't see this as demeaning. Combine that with the fact that she knowingly accepted this position when she has a pregnant 17 year old who will be put in the national spotlight.....no "Mother-of the-Year" awards here.
freelyb has a point. FWIW, here are 3 excellent MoJo reported pieces on Spiro Palin that provide some pretty weighty ammo for the next conversation you have with an undecided Independent: David Corn on Palin's emails: http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9620_sarah_palin_se... , Judith Lewis on her anti-abortion stance: http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2008/09/the-luxury-of-true... , and The Ridge on Arctic oil: http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2008/09/Sarah-Palin-Big-Oi...
i had to scroll back up and remind myself what the F this story was about in the first place after having gotten lost in a myriad of comments ranging from a charasmatic hitler to women and men being shocked that women can be, huh... moms???! then i realized it was one person's opinion and really had nothing to do with any factual accounting (i.e. - 18women 8 children killed by laser guided missles in pakistan) and that the one persons opinion was that a scripted joke written for the sake of one person and not the sake of 400million persons actually qualified as a "sense of humor"? Bill Nigh, youre an idiot, and i want you thinking none/nothing/nada that this has anyting to do with your point of view of supporting the worlds largest global crime, but to the author of this article please just ask MJ to take it down. This could be the type of thing that could ruin your potentially sucessful future as a journalist. Funny? Sick. Its not funny. Womens issues from the p. o. v. of pop culture slavery will always and only be a life is good t shirt of equality, equally free to shop and not think. Missles from Indiana, planes from Washington, pilots from New Hampshire and WOMEN being killed in Pakistan?!??!???! Iraq? Afgahanistan?
Amen, capt. I've been snarking on this messed up opinion piece in other posts all day but didn't want to dignify it with a response. Now I must, though it pains me because with idiotic posts like this and the one from Stephanie Mencimer last week about the breast pump, one feels that there is a bonus salary for the number of comments that get left on a thread, regardless of the worth of the thread itself: hence the often pathetic content of articles here at MoJo Blog.
Here is my vision of a play date/mommy book club meeting between Sarah Palin and Laura McClure:
Laura: "Oh my God, this is so much fun, Sarah! I love your glasses! So cute!"
Sarah: "Thank you, Lauren, was it? You told me you were a liberal, so I have to ask: do you know of any Mexicans who do a good job on windows? I'm so bummed! I lost mine! BUT, she needs to be illegal because I don't want to pay a lot."
Laura: "Actually, it's Laura, but that's okay. Illegal! That's so funny! You're a riot!"
Sarah: "I'm not kidding."
Laura: "Oh, I thought maybe you'd have a problem with that because so many of your constituents are all about reforming that."
Sarah: [shrugging] "Whatever."
Laura: "You shrugged! That is SO funny, Sarah!"
Sarah: "Look, do you know of anyone?"
Laura: "Well, I do actually, but she just found out she's pregnant, so I think things might be getting a bit hectic for her."
Sarah: "Do you think she might want to abort it? I really am in a bind, and you know she probably doesn't know the father, and kids from single parent homes are so muffed up! You know what I mean, girl friend?"
Laura: "You are a laugh riot, Sarah! That is hysterical!"
Sarah: "I'm not kidding here, either, Lucille."
Laura: "Um, it's Laura."
Sarah: "Right."
You've got to be kidding me! You want this woman in your mom's group? Just wait until she starts passing out pro-life cookies or telling you what you should let your children read. Or, tries to get you kicked out of the group because you're friends with a sworn enemy of hers. Her so-called charm and charisma is lost on me--she's Rove in drag. She's caustic, vindictive, and divisive. Palin as VP will set women back 30 years.
Stop wasting your time defending her parenting choices--people have every right to ask whether Bristol's pregnancy means that the possibility exists that abstinence-only education doesn't work. And, they have every right to question her about her & McCain's record of voting against programs for teen mothers. It's a valid question and it needs to be asked. Just because you're a woman and a mother doesn't mean you owe it to her to defend her choices--she certainly wouldn't defend your choice.
Amen, Clover. Amen.
Ok, So I can start asking about Michelle Obama because she campaigns for Barack too, right? Laura is just making a point that someone may be charming and likable but perhaps not fit for government office. . . a lot like Obama. Sweet. A great public speaker does not a great president make.
Except that Barack respects the concept of freedom, andy b, and Sarah understands the concept of CERTAIN freedoms for CONFORMISTS. Not very American.
How does a MAYOR charge rape victims for rape kits?
Think someone is ready to be a Vice President when she doesn't blink at the thought? Even the very ambitious, qualified candidate must "blink" at the awesomeness of the potential. Surely it is only ignorance that could allow one to face that without blinking.
I don't get people like you. How dare you compare Palin, just because she's conservative, to people who kill just because their so called enemy is someone who doesn't share the same beliefs! Maybe again, I do get it because liberals have proved to be filled with the same hatred.
Amen. Reminds me of Bill Clinton!
Bye Bye.