No Pity Party 4 Palin: Pundit Pressures

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Registered: 09-08-2008
No Pity Party 4 Palin: Pundit Pressures
1
Tue, 09-30-2008 - 12:43am

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/30/palin_pity/index1.html

The Sarah Palin pity party

Sarah Palin is no wilting flower. She is a politician who took the national stage and sneered at the work of community activists. She boldly tries to pass off incuriosity and lassitude as regular-people qualities, thereby doing a disservice to all those Americans who also work two jobs and do not come from families that hand out passports and backpacking trips, yet still manage to pick up a paper and read about their government and seek out experience and knowledge.

When you stage a train wreck of this magnitude -- trying to pass one underqualified chick off as another highly qualified chick with the lame hope that no one will notice -- well, then, I don't feel bad for you.

When you treat women as your toys, as gullible and insensate pawns in your Big Fat Presidential Bid -- or in Palin's case, in your Big Fat Chance to Be the First Woman Vice President Thanks to All the Cracks Hillary Put in the Ceiling -- I don't feel bad for you.

When you don't take your own career and reputation seriously enough to pause before striding onto a national stage and lying about your record of opposing a Bridge to Nowhere or using your special-needs child to garner the support of Americans in need of healthcare reform you don't support, I don't feel bad for you.

When you don't have enough regard for your country or its politics to cram effectively for the test -- a test that helps determine whether or not you get to run that country and participate in its politics -- I don't feel bad for you.

When your project is reliant on gaining the support of women whose reproductive rights you would limit, whose access to birth control and sex education you would curtail, whose healthcare options you would decrease, whose civil liberties you would take away and whose children and husbands and brothers (and sisters and daughters and friends) you would send to war in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and wherever else you saw fit without actually understanding international relations, I don't feel bad for you.

I don't want to be played by the girl-strings anymore. Shaking our heads and wringing our hands in sympathy with Sarah Palin is a disservice to every woman who has ever been unfairly dismissed based on her gender, because this is an utterly fair dismissal, based on an utter lack of ability and readiness. It's a disservice to minority populations of every stripe whose place in the political spectrum has been unfairly spotlighted as mere tokenism; it is a disservice to women throughout this country who have gone from watching a woman who -- love her or hate her -- was able to show us what female leadership could look like to squirming in front of their televisions as they watch the woman sent to replace her struggle to string a complete sentence together.

In fact, the only people I feel sorry for are Americans who invested in a hopeful, progressive vision of female leadership, but who are now stuck watching, verbatim, a "Saturday Night Live" skit.

Palin is tough as nails. She will bite the head off a moose and move on. So, no, I don't feel sorry for her. I feel sorry for women who have to live with what she and her running mate have wrought.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 10-01-2008 - 1:17am

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a2zkznweF1fk&refer=home

Palin Heads to Debate as Advantage Wanes Among `Wal-Mart' Moms

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin achieved the objective of energizing the party's evangelical and social-conservative base. The other goal, winning over women voters, is fizzling.

From her hairstyle and her one-liners to her teenage daughter's pregnancy and her work-family balance, Palin's life has been dissected by the media, in coffee shops and at office water coolers since she was nominated as John McCain's running mate last month.

Yet the ``Palin Effect'' -- the notion that the 44-year-old Alaska governor would lure women, especially supporters of Hillary Clinton -- so far hasn't been borne out in the reaction of voters or polls. Following television interviews during which she stumbled, the McCain camp is counting on her debate with Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden tomorrow night to rehabilitate her image.

It may not work, said Ruth Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

``Nothing whatsoever in the polling indicates women have crossed over to support the Republican ticket as a result of anything, including Sarah Palin,'' said Mandel, a founder of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers.

Unqualified

In a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times national poll last week, 49 percent of women said they planned to vote for the Democratic ticket led by Barack Obama; 40 percent picked McCain and Palin. In addition, fewer women than men said they were more likely to vote Republican because of her presence on the ticket, and a plurality of female voters said she was unqualified to be president; men were evenly split.

Among women who supported New York Senator Clinton in the Democratic primaries, about a third said the Palin pick made it less likely they would vote Republican, and almost four in 10 said it made no difference, the poll showed. Half of female Clinton supporters said Palin isn't qualified to be president.

The survey is consistent with past voting patterns. In every election since a ``gender gap'' was quantified in 1980, women have voted for Democratic presidential candidates more than men have, by an average of almost 8 percentage points.

Social Issues

Palin's record of opposition to abortion and her pro-family image have appeased the evangelical and social conservatives who form the Republican Party's core voters and were mistrustful of McCain. Yet she hasn't been able to hold on to an early bounce with another important constituency: older, non-college-educated white females, many of whom have defected to the Democrats over the last few weeks, said Republican pollster Ed Goeas.

``Many `Wal-Mart suburban moms' who moved to McCain are moving back to Obama,'' Goeas said.

Palin's candidacy, like that of Clinton, 60, has spurred satire and some inappropriate commentary. Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner said he wanted Palin to pose nude if she loses the election; CNBC host Donny Deutsch said on air he wanted her ``laying next to me in bed.'' Her fumbles in recent television interviews were parodied by comedian Tina Fey in two consecutive skits on NBC's ``Saturday Night Live.''

Even some conservatives have suggested she lacks experience. Columnist Kathleen Parker, in an article for the National Review Online titled ``She's Out of Her League,'' urged Palin to bow out. ``Do it for your country,'' Parker wrote.

Juggling Career, Family

Still, many Republicans, who for years railed against Clinton for supposedly prioritizing her career and political ambitions over family, hailed Palin for juggling a career while raising five children, including an infant with Down syndrome. And the McCain campaign has condemned the criticism of her scant national experience as sexist.

As women voters learn more about Palin's record -- from the policy while she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, of charging rape victims for collecting specimens for police evidence, to her lack of fluency on topics such as foreign affairs and the financial crisis -- her negative ratings have risen.

``The whole notion that she was brought to the ticket to attract Hillary supporters is an embarrassment and insult to Hillary supporters,'' said Jane Gellman, 59, a retired physical education teacher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who plans to vote for Obama. ``The fundamental things Hillary supports are diametrically opposed by Palin.''

`Least Worrisome'

Patricia McGrath, 63, a YMCA manager in Asheboro, North Carolina, said she voted for Clinton as the ``least worrisome candidate'' in the Democratic primary, and will vote for Arizona Senator McCain in November because she agrees with him on issues, not because of his choice of running mate.

Linda Basch, president of the New York-based National Council for Research on Women, said the attention generated by Palin ``indicates how strongly women want to see images of themselves in the public sphere.''

Yet Basch said if Palin is ``being put forth as the women's candidate,'' it is legitimate to ask how she would represent women, who by wide margins favor abortion rights, government funding for day care and children's health insurance and equal- pay legislation, which McCain and Palin haven't supported.

The St. Louis debate with Delaware Senator Biden this week will be Palin's chance to convince women voters she will champion their issues, women's advocates said.

``Her record raises questions,'' Basch said. ``I think women in the country will be watching closely to see what stances she takes.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Indira Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 1, 2008 00:01 EDT