Sept. 13, 2008
Lipstick On A Wing Nut
The Nation: Enough With The Feminism, Time For Some Tough Questions
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"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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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 |
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See all 107 CommentsThere it is . . . The Nation true colors. They couldn''t hide the elitism in the last piece . . .
LOL Good one!
Elitism? That''s a stretch.
Did you know she was for the bridge to nowhere until she was against it. But guess what? Even when she was against it she still took the money! Only in a Republicans head could that possibly make sense!
Did you know she was for the bridge to nowhere until she was against it. But guess what? Even when she was against it she still took the money! Only in a Republicans head could that possibly make sense!"---
Posted by lhwrites
I mean, are you actually expecting a response to that or what? You''re black and are voting for Obama; I''m female and I''m voting for Palin.
One person one vote. See you in November.
Any of you have evidence that you''re not the ones getting ''duped''? Because usually the first sign somebody is in fact being duped is that the duper''ll tell you ''don''t be fooled'' by other people . . .
Questions to ask yourself:
1) What EVIDENCE do you see as proof that Obama is any more qualified than Palin?
2) Are you able to come up with an equally thorough list of questions you could ask Obama without having a twinge of fear that he might lose if anybody were to ever ask him those questions?
One person one vote. See you in November.
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Posted by SamTheTVCat at 04:58 PM : Sep 13, 2008
I knew it was because he''s black and you''re a racist.
....... this makes just as much sense as Katha Pollitt''s statement!!
............. why does CBS News give space to this kind of garbage??
1) What EVIDENCE do you see as proof that Obama is any more qualified than Palin?
2) Are you able to come up with an equally thorough list of questions you could ask Obama without having a twinge of fear that he might lose if anybody were to ever ask him those questions?
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Posted by SamTheTVCat
That''s the best you can do?? That''s very weak and shallow.
LMAO!!!
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Deut. 30:19
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
"Sarah Palin did not visit troops in Iraq, a spokesperson for the Republican VP nominee confirmed Saturday, as new details emerged about the extent of the Alaska governor''''s foreign travel".
"(In addition) earlier, campaign aides confirmed reports that Palin''''s time in Ireland on that trip had actually been a re-fueling stop" . . . (not for international business transactions as earlier reported).
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Ok Im back with fresh batteries in the LIE detector.
Bzzzzttt !!!
Thats a LIE!
Its not a "distortion"
Or a "contradiction"
Or a "misrepresentation"
Its an out-and-out LIE told by an out-and-out LIAR!
The LIE detector is sittin on dead red.
Freakin LIARS!
This is so much more fun now that its not about the "issues"
What about your response to the fact that she was for the bridge to nowhere until she was against it? Then of course, she took the money.
I''m glad you''ve decided I''m black (I''m not by the way) but what does that have to do with Palin''s hypocrisy? Only a Republican calls white "black" and lies the truth.
Obama 08!!
1) "What EVIDENCE do you see as proof that Obama is any more qualified than Palin?"
Try this:
BA Political Science (specialty International Relations) - Columbia University
JD - Harvard (Editor & President Harvard Law Review)
8 years in Illinois senate
Taught Constitutional Law for 12 years... Sr Lecturer for 8 years.
3 years in the Senate... Senate Foreign Relations Committee... Senate Committee on
Veterans'' Affairs... Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions... Senate
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
List of sponsored legislation... http://tinyurl.com/6nzbg4
And, he just went through an exhaustive Primary Campaign, beating the Clinton Machine...
Palin -
BS Journalism (minor Political Science) - U of Idaho
Wasilla, Alaska - City Council - 4 years - population: under 8,000.
Wasilla, Alasks - Mayor - two terms
Governor Alaska for 18 months - population: under 700,000
2) "Are you able to come up with an equally thorough list of questions you could ask Obama without having a twinge of fear that he might lose if anybody were to ever ask him those questions?"
Senator Obama has been questioned up the wazoo, for the past 18 months, actually since his speech in 2004.
Not to mention that he''s written two books, about his life & politics.
A more appropriate question, would be, make a list of questions he hasn''t been asked?
No need to be calling anyone names, and stoop to the level of the GOP. Truth is on the Dems side, as are the issues.
What''s the point of calling names?
All it does is lower yourself... let them call names, lie, etc. Just state the truth, debate the issues... and leave it at that.
One person one vote. See you in November.
Posted by SamTheTVCat at 04:58 PM
Well I am black. That means nothing to me as far as voting is concerned. I vote with who represents my philosophy for government and whose platform I most agree with. I am voting for Obama as I would have voted for whichever Democrat won the nomination. If Obama was a repub and won that party''s nomination (that will never happen in the GOP), I would not vote for him! I think anyone who would vote for someone because of gender or race is shallow and is an uninformed voter. But vote for who you may as that is your right.
One person one vote. See you in November.
Posted by SamTheTVCat at 04:58 PM
I am white and I am voting for Obama! Are you seriously going to play the race card like hillbilly? By the way John Mccane recently justified voting against a Matin Luther King Jr. Holiday by saying he was unaware of his work! He really is out of touch...Or dishonest. I was 4 at the time of his vote and was aware of MLK''s work.
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How can you print this ***? Sarah Palin did no such thing.
I''m a progressive, sticking up for a republican.
***?! How did that happen?
When "liberals" for uhbama create websites called retardedbaby.com, SORRY but I''VE LOST ALL RESPECT for the uhbama wing of the dem party.
-HillaryDem 4 McCain/Palin
Palin now admits she was never in Iraq.
Oh, and her "visit" to Ireland was an airplane refueling stop.
So this wingnut''s foreign policy experience amounts to looking at Russia across the Bering Sea?
Even that claim must be investigated. Needless to say, Russia is not visible from Juneau or Anchorage. It is only visible from a tiny island in the Aleutians. Has Palin even been there? I doubt it.
Maybe some of the wolves she has shot from an airplane had wandered over from Siberia, though.
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How can you print this ***? Sarah Palin did no such thing.
-HillaryDem 4 McCain/Palin
Posted by destardi1 at 07:56 PM : Sep 13, 2008
Check it out for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H-btXPfhGs
I''''m a progressive, sticking up for a republican.
***?! How did that happen?
Posted by destardi1
You are? I don''t think so! Quote some of your postings showing you to be a "progressive".
I say youre a Bushit Shill.
Prove me wrong, if you can.
They are anti-big-government
They are anti-abortion
They are anti-public-schools
Yet, even when in COMPLETE ownership of our Federal Government for 6 of the last 8 years, with the complete authority and ability to pass laws changing all three, what do they do? NOTHING! Then they hit the campaign trail every four years, and complain about how the ''washington insiders'' need their ''home-town'' recipe for dealing with 1)big-government, 2)abortion, and 3)those evil public schools.
Face it, Repubs: if they actually dealt with these three ''evils'', how on earth would they get elected? How on earth would they get the chance to cut taxes on the richest 1% of Americans, and create a $10 trillion debt behemouth that threatens to drown your children??
I had been trying to figure out HOW republicans could overlook the opportunity to ACT on their ''small government'' credentials with SIX YEARS OF TOTAL CONTROL of our Federal Government: and cut spending (not just taxes, SPENDING). And the answer that kept staring me back in the face was:
they don''t mean it.
They complain about it loudly to anyone who''ll listen, but they LIKE the services government provides just as much as the rest of us. Its just a lot of fairy-tale nonsense, and this country won''t heal until they are forced to own up to their disease.
"Immoral! Liberal Degeneracy!" The Right Wing Culture Warriors shouted.
But they''re all quiet as little church rats when their wingnut darling Bushpilot Barbie''s brat gets preggers at age 17, knocked up by Mr. Backwoods Redneck.
Is there any more phony liar than a Bushit / McClone Neocon scum?
Never!!
McClone = LIAR, speaks with forked tongue.
Posted by JohnR77
Because that woman will still be alive and will be reminded every day when she looks at that child that she was savagely raped. That child will be a living reminder of one of the worst events of her life and no one with a shred of decency would condemn that woman if she decided to abort a rapists'' baby. Outlaw abortion, even in rape or incest, and you will see women raped twice - once by the criminal and once by the government.
I''''m glad you''''ve decided I''''m black (I''''m not by the way) but what does that have to do with Palin''''s hypocrisy? Only a Republican calls white "black" and lies the truth."---
Posted by lhwrites
You''re lying. You don''t fit the profile of a white person supporting Obama.
Posted by WogerWabbit
Doesn''t that by logic make you sexist for not voting for a woman?
PS I voted for Obama in the primaries, so there goes your theory. However mine still holds.
Posted by destardi1
Shall I post links to some of the websites where they show Obama hanging from a tree, like in a lynching? McCain supporters are A-OK with you though, huh?
But that''s OK. Hillary got shafted, so go ahead and vote against your own priciples. Because I didn''t realize that "progressives: like you were for tax cuts for the rich, unlimited drilling, banning abortion and more war in Iraq. Becasue that''s what you get if you vote McCain.
So in sum Barack is superior based on:
1) College ranking - equal to George Bush
2) Con Law professor - who then voted for FISA
3) US Senator - 23 years the junior to McCain
4) And ran an election - but was voted on before the election
Those are after the fact rationalizations. For example isn''t John McCain''s graduation from Annapolis more relevant to being a CIC in a time of war, and doesn''t having 8x the US Senate experience necessarily by logic trump a 3 year US Senator? He also ran an election, and decimated his competition a lot more efficiently than Obama.
Aren''t you by your (ROTFL) logic therefore necessarily compelled to conclude that McCain is therefore necessarily the superior candidate?
Of course not because after the fact rationalizations aren''t the same as rational logic. You can''t possibly conclude that Barack is more qualified than McCain and he''s at the top of the ticket.
It was a trick question because Dems keep forgetting who''s running for President - the majority of people don''t.
Don''t you all think you''re smarter, and more morally superior to others even as you can''t restrain yourself from trying to destroy Palin as the competition?
You say Senator is superior to Governor although Senators only get elected to President once every 50 years. You say one and a half years of US Senate experience is superior to 26 years.
When Barack said it was never about him it was always about you, he was talking about how he was able to make the sale . . .
Posted by PaulStewart9
''Somehow'' . . .
For women in this campaign, the stars aren''t all lined up and history has shown that if the shoe were on the other foot, other underrepresented groups would be just as torn between the parties as we women are this time around.
What has me fed up is the challenges from people who act like that history of underrepresentation ''ought'' to be a non-issue even though they themselves are exactly in the same boat as me, not in this particular election but in the bigger picture.
If a white female Dem won the nomination and passed over a black that could have helped her win for a white person, and it was Powell or Condi and Jindal running as the Repubs, would blacks really still be voting for the Dems in the same numbers? No blacks would swayed by the chance to make history?
---"Well I am black. That means nothing to me as far as voting is concerned. I vote with who represents my philosophy for government and whose platform I most agree with. I am voting for Obama as I would have voted for whichever Democrat won the nomination. If Obama was a repub and won that party''''s nomination (that will never happen in the GOP), I would not vote for him! I think anyone who would vote for someone because of gender or race is shallow and is an uninformed voter. But vote for who you may as that is your right."---
Posted by Tonyd_31
Thanks for that very generous post Tonyd - I''ll try to give you as much respect and courtesy back as you''ve extended to me.
All of us who have been underrepresented in higher office have tended Democratic in the past, and I''ve pointed out that what history has shown is that people have also shown a tendency to vote for people of the same race, age, and gender, even demonstrating a willingess to cross party lines because the identification is so strong.
America - please do not vote Republican again...it''s embarrassing at this point. They call Obama "elite" because he thinks through situations and has some intellectual capacity. But this woman is beyond reproach because she is a gun toting, bible thumping new governor? Please - no woman can do it all....and she scares me.
Obama / Biden lets make it happen for the people this time!! Don''t fall for the right wing tricks again.....the swift boaters are getting antsy.
Exactly! It was Sen. John McCain himself who attacked Sen. Hillary Clinton`s Health Care Plan as `putting lipstick on a pig`! But we all know Republican doctrine is `do as I say and not as I do!`. Republicans are special, Republicans are exempt, Republicans are above the Law, the Rules don`t apply to Republicans only to the rest of America! LOL
What else can I say . . .
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