Sept. 13, 2008
Lipstick On A Wing Nut
The Nation: Enough With The Feminism, Time For Some Tough Questions
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Play CBS Video Video "Lipstick On A Pig" Row In a new ad, the McCain campaign accused Sen. Barack Obama of a thinly-veiled attack on Gov. Sarah Palin. Obama fired back that the ad was "absurd." Chip Reid reports.
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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin answers questions after signing three budget bills into law in Anchorage, Alaska, Friday, June 29, 2007. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)
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Timeline Palin's Path A look at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's life and career
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Photo Essay Sarah Palin Alaska's youngest and first female governor tabbed to be McCain's running mate.
John McCain chose the supremely under-qualified Sarah Palin as his running mate partly because she is a woman. If you have a problem with that, you're a sexist. She talks incessantly about being a mother of five and uses her newborn, Trig, who has Down syndrome, as a campaign prop. If you wonder how she'll handle all those kids and the Veep job too, you're a super-sexist. "When do they ever ask a man that question?" charges that fiery feminist Rudy Giuliani.
Indeed, Palin, who went back to work when Trig was three days old, gets nothing but praise from Phyllis Schlafly, James Dobson and the folks at National Review, who usually blame all the ills of modern America on those neurotic, harried, selfish, frustrated, child-neglecting, husband-castrating working mothers. Even stranger, her five-months-pregnant 17-year-old, Bristol, gets nothing but compassion and respect from Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and others who have spent their careers slut-shaming teens for having sex - and blaming their parents for letting it happen.
If there were an Olympics for hypocrisy, the Republican Party would have more gold medals than Michael Phelps. And Palin would be wearing quite a few of them. It takes chutzpah for a mother to thrust her pregnant teen into the world's harshest spotlight and then demand the world respect the girl's privacy. But then it takes chutzpah to support criminalizing abortion and then praise Bristol's "decision" to have the baby. The right to decide, and privacy, after all, are two of the things Palin wants to deny every other woman, and every other family, in America. Palin's even said she would "choose life" if her daughter was pregnant from rape. Can't you just hear Bristol groaning, "Mo-om...!"
The Republicans bashed Barack Obama as a "celebrity," but now they've got a star of their own, so naturally the rules have changed. Nothing would suit them better than for the media to spend the next two months spellbound by the wacky carnival on ice that is the Palin family: Todd, aka the First Dude, the kids, Levi the hunky bad-boy dad-to-be - well, maybe not him so much after his expletive-adorned MySpace page briefly came to light ("I'm a fuckin' redneck"; "I don't want kids" - whoops). The snowmobiles, the moose burgers, the guns, the hair, the glasses that are flying off America's shelves (starting at $375 a pair, and she has seven). Fretting over the work/family issue alone should take up enough column inches to employ all the female journalists in America from now to next Mother's Day. And don't forget that op-ed staple, What Does This Mean for Feminism?
Well, I'm not playing. I don't care about Sarah Palin's family. I don't care if she's a good mother. I don't care if she's happily married, or who shops and who vacuums, or who takes care of the kids while both parents are at work. I don't want her recipe for caribou hot dogs, either. Life chez Sarah and Todd might make an adorable sitcom (Leave It to Jesus?) or a scathing tell-all a decade or so down the road (Governor Dearest?). Either way, so what? This is an election, not The View. As for feminism's meaning, what can you say after you've said that her career shows that even right-wing fundamentalist women have taken in feminism's message of empowerment and that's good, but that Palin's example suggests women can do it all without support from society and that's bad?
Count me as a feminist who never believed that being PTA president meant you could be, well, President. The more time we spend on dippy ruminations - How does she do it? Queen Bee on steroids or the hockey mom next door? How hot is Todd, anyway? - the less focus there will be on the kind of queries that should come first with any vice presidential candidate, and certainly would if Palin were a man. Questions like:
By Katha Pollitt
Reprinted with permission from The Nation
 | If you like this article, check out www.thenation.com for more investigative reports, timely editorials and incisive columns |
More From Opinion
Add a Comment See all 107 Comments
- I think wing-nut says it well, they just left out right wing.
The fact that Palin sat in front of Charlie Gibson and told the Russians that they should be attacked should disqualify her from the campaign. Does she even realize she gave away her plans to the "enemy"? Doesn''t she realize there could be nuclear weapons involved? Is she crazy as McSame? - Reply to this comment
- I do kind of agree that Americans are responsible for their country. Look, I am like a Republicon, blaming the victims.
For allowing war-profiteering right wing corporate fascists to take over the government. To start wars, spread propaganda, suspend the most important parts of the Constitution and give our money to the rich. - Reply to this comment
- Breaking news: McCain revealed new plan for America-%u201CBridge to Nowhere%u201D See at:
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/aSGuest55-88147-bridge-nowhere-john-mcain-2008-president-election-mccain-sarah-palin-1-news-reports-ppt-powerpoint/ - Reply to this comment
- Breaking news: McCain revealed new plan for America-%u201CBridge to Nowhere%u201D See at:
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/aSGuest55-88147-bridge-nowhere-john-mcain-2008-president-election-mccain-sarah-palin-1-news-reports-ppt-powerpoint/ - Reply to this comment
- Sarah Palin increases state revenue from oil for Alaska
Hugo Chavez increases state revenue from oil for Venezuela
Posted by IOWEIGN at 02:05 PM : Sep 14, 2008
You are a complete Idiot, why can''''t you liberals ever face the truth. You are like Obama he never answers a question directly always mumbling trying to get out of an answer.
Posted by dmw1167 at 02:12 PM : Sep 14, 2008
Stop the whining... - Reply to this comment
- Alaska''s Lt. Governor defends his boss on FOX News Sunday:
She''s the governor of a state that supplies 20% of America''s oil.
Um. Let''s let FactCheck.org debunk:
Alaskan production accounts for only 4.8 percent of all the crude oil and petroleum products supplied to the U.S. in 2007. - Reply to this comment
- "Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records. "--The New York Times
Clearly Palin is every bit as snarky and vindictive as Bushit and the Rovians. Disagree with her, and she''ll put God down on you--she thinks.
Somehow this seems to be a hallmark of the Right Wing Religious Nuts--you disagree with them, and they say you''re against God, or against Jesus, or against anything other than the stupid acts and policies of the Right Wing Religous Nuts.
Do we really want another Bush-Cheney regime? With John McClone spewing a rehash of the Bush Doctrine, and Sarah Palin as nasty (almost) as Dik Cheney, that''s what a Repug vote will bring.
This is not change.
Think about it. - Reply to this comment
- ===Please explain your hypocrisy===
Posted by dmcfee1
I already answered your question and all you can do is cut n paste the same question. - Reply to this comment
- Sam give these liberals he11, I am in your corner all the way. They take this stand trying to keep the attention off them. I think it is hilarious that they compare Palin to Obama, they must be overjoyed by their VP candidate, compare apples to apples and see what happens.
Posted by dmw1167 at 02:00 PM : Sep 14, 2008
Apples to apples:
Sarah Palin increases state revenue from oil for Alaska
Hugo Chavez increases state revenue from oil for Venezuela - Reply to this comment
- Posted by tbweb at 12:58 PM : Sep 14, 2008
Thank you for your thoughtful post. Thank you!
So you don''t want to hear my boring story, but I spent Sept 11, 2001 to March, 2003 absolutely encumbered with trying to figure out what was going on. Our Fourth Estate was just providing a corporate echo chamber with talking points. FAUX News, CNN, MSNBC, CBS (who kindly provides this forum), ABC, and NBC failed in investigating what was going on.
It was exhausting surfing the Web, trying to sort out horrific details about the PNAC, Carlisle, Dressler and Halliburton; realizing that I, an American, was just a pawn of the Plutocracy and Oligarchy.
I hope our Fourth Estate will step up to the plate and provide us Americans with what they are charged to do - true journalism. This election is not about sound bites and jingoistic platitudes. This is about our county, and I am voting Country First.
Obama/Biden08. - Reply to this comment
- I was against Sen. Obama initially for the same reasons I`m against Gov. Sarah Palin now, I didn`t know him and I don`t know her. But for the last 20 months I`ve had a chance to know Sen. Obama who was vetted by the Press, read his books, checked him out and changed my mind. Republicans are only giving us 60 days to do the same with Sarah Palin as opposed to 20 months for Sen. Obama! Unfortunately for Sarah Palin the information coming out about her does not look good and we have to wait for the outcome of a court case with `TrooperGate` to know if Palin is officially corrupt in the eyes of the Law! Not a good start or choice in my opinion.
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McCain is 72 years old. The odds are against him. We don''t want a Palin Presidency either.
Great article, it''s about time for the questions and answers from Palin -- she can''t have it both ways. This is the typical application of double-standards for republicans.- Reply to this comment
- I am not a liberal...I am a realist. Conservative thinking has been pulled so far to the right that it makes "liberal" thinking the real mainstream. Faith based optimism, which Bush and now Palin subscribe to, is NOT working. And if I did subscribe to such thinking, even I would have to question whether higher forces such as the Almighty and even mother nature are truly on board.
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- What a hipocrit. the writer is so biased that it pails in dread. Of course everyone is against palin. She is so mainstream that almost everyone on the liberal left hate her. She is everything that they wish they were.
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- A Real-Life Soap Opera About the Suffragettes
Senator Clinton and Governor Palin are proof that women can and do diverge on important issues.
Even on the question of whether women should vote!
Most people are totally in the dark about HOW the suffragettes won votes for women, and what life was REALLY like for women before they did.
Suffragettes were opposed by many women who were what was known as ''anti.''
"The Privilege of Voting" is a new, free e-mail series that follows eight great women from 1912 - 1920 to reveal ALL that happened to set the stage for women to finally win the vote.
It''s a real-life soap opera about the suffragettes! And it''s ALL true!
Powerful suffragettes Alice Paul and Emmeline Pankhurst are featured, along with TWO gorgeous presidential mistresses, First Lady Edith Wilson, Edith Wharton, Isadora Duncan and Alice Roosevelt.
There are tons of heartache on the rocky road to the ballot box, but in the end, women WIN!
Thanks to the success of the suffragettes, women have voices and choices!
Exciting, sequential episodes are great to read on coffeebreaks, or anytime.
Subscribe free at
www.CoffeebreakReaders.com/subscribe.html - Reply to this comment
- dmcfee...pulease, let''s not even start with hypocrisy. First off, short on experience is not so much the issue on my mind as political maturity. Obama has it, Palin does not. Palin has personality and ambition, but that won''t be enough in Washington DC. Being Governor of Alaska (a state I have visited many times) does not even come close to preparing you for what it''s going to be like in DC. Frankly, it would be hard NOT to look good being Governor of Alaska with all its oil revenue. I wonder how Palin''s approval rating would look if she were Governor of a poor southern state these past few years. At least Obama, I believe, has a more realistic attitude about what he is faced with and to me, that shows political maturity.
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- Doh, make that "elitist", not elistist".
- Reply to this comment
- Oh, but that''s right, I forgot. Any form of intellectual curiosity or thinking things through first before acting is "elistist". We can''t have that in a president, can we?
- Reply to this comment
- ===If you are truly concerned about Palin''''s "lack of experience"
because she is a LESS THAN ONE-TERM governor from Alaska Does this mean you''''ll be voting for McCain ???
Because McCain has WAY more experience than
a LESS THAN ONE-TERM senator from Illinois
IF NOT,
Please explain your hypocrisy===
Posted by dmcfee1
I am not concerned about lack of experience. I am concerned about lack of knowledge. George W. Bush had a lack of knowledge and a lack of intellectual curiosity. We saw what that got us. Palin is no different. By her own admission, she knows nothing of the Iraq situation and probably still wouldn''t have given two s h i t s about it until running for VP. McCain is a multiple cancer survivor who is already older than the age his father and grandfather reached. There is a very real possiblility that he might not survive four years. And I''d rather have an inexpereinced community organizer with intellectual curiosity as president than a hockey mom who cares little of the outside world.
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- The Repug party has shown it has no honor at all.
Now it has shown it has no intelligence.
The Repugs claim Sarah Palin was in Iraq.
Palin was never in Iraq. She was in Kuwait. Quite a woman. Doesn''t even know what few countries she''s been in outside of Mayberry.
And of course McClone also has a sketchy grasp of geography, borders, and other such trivia that no president needs to know.
Because Neocon presidents and vice-presidents don''t have to think--they just have to do exactly what they are told by the international billionaire corporte elite, the same folks who have been pulling the strings of the Bushit - Cheney puppets the last 8 years. - Reply to this comment
The road ahead in Afghanistan, and the crucial decision Obama faces.
