Quasi-political rant

[sc_angel72]

So, my disclaimer here is that I'm not getting into whether or not Sarah Palin is qualified to be the VP. I'm still doing my own research on her background in politics, because I take everything the news & print media says with a BIG grain of salt, because the days of unbiased reporting are long, long past.

Comments

[thistle_verse]

Palin scares the shit out of me, and I don't want her anywhere near the White House. This is based on her politics, not her gender. I agree that we've seen some rampant sexism come out after she was announced as the VP candidate. And I too find the focus on her daughter's pregnancy to be extremely distasteful. I was a very young mother as well, and simply the way it's painted as a huge "stain" of some sort gets my back up. But you know what? It's that kind of attitude that is rampant among the religious base she represents. I find the way she's using her daughter's pregnancy and her own last one to somehow trumpet her anti-abortion stance just as distasteful. She likes to crow about how wonderful it is to choose to carry a pregnancy and parent, but really? She will do everything she can to take that choice away from all of us. I think she's a nut and totally unprepared, plus her politics, "morality," and world view seem to be pretty much the opposite of mine. It's a shame we're seeing some of that sexism. I'd like to see her eviscerated on her politics alone.

[neveridle]

You know what, though? I've been thinking that the one silver lining in all this is that maybe at least a few people out there on the right who have been so down on teen mothers will see this situation and say, "Hey, wait a minute, that CAN happen to one of us." and maybe lighten up just a little bit. /eternal optimist.

find the way she's using her daughter's pregnancy and her own last one to somehow trumpet her anti-abortion stance just as distasteful.

I haven't seen her do this. The only comments I've seen from her stated that they were proud of her daughter's choice, and given her political stance, I would think that any other comment would be hypocritical. But then, I'm coming from the POV where I think it's actually refreshing to see a conservative walk the walk, as opposed to my own Catholic anti-abortion mother who offered to take me for an abortion the minute I told her I was having a pregnancy scare as a teenager.

I do hate her politics, and it scares the crap out of me that she wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, but I don't see her views in opposition to the party line that she's trumpeting.

[thistle_verse]

I don't think her views are out of line with her party, either. But I do hate to see her using the phrase "choice" when describing her daughter's situation given that she doesn't want any of us to have a choice. And I see what you're saying about the teen mothers thing, but I still see how it's phrased..."no one can control their teen 100%," "even Christians make mistakes," etc. I've seen those and variants all over. It's still a stigma you have to overcome. I don't think she's a hypocrite aside from her stupid "choice" comments. And I agree that she walks her walk. But her walk scares the shit out of me. Trying to fire a librarian who refused to remove her list of banned books? Oh hell no.

XO

[neveridle]

Now, I guess I saw the choice comment as her acknowledging that her daughter was 17 and that abortion is legal, despite what Palin herself would prefer. I kind of got the impression that the "choice" was made before the daughter even told the parents, and that's what they were happy about.

Oh, I totally agree about her politics. I watched part of her speech last night and thought, "Now THOSE are the reasons to take issue with Sarah Palin" and I can't quite figure out why everyone is so hung up on her home life. I still think this is a big plot by Karl Rove to get the Democrats so busy fighting over their own hypocrisy (Um, hello? What happened to the party that used to welcome working mothers and support unwed mothers?) that McCain and Palin can slip by on a really frightening platform.

[thistle_verse]

I don't like the spotlight on her kids at all, either, or the questions I'm seeing about her running with kids. We don't ask that of male candidates, we don't need to ask it of her. Period. I will say I don't see any of that coming from Obama, who when asked about Bristol reminded people that his own mother had him at 18, and candidates children were off limits for this kind of talk.

[sc_angel72]

I totally respect Obama for stepping out and saying that. It would have been very easy and very traditional for him to just keep his mouth shut and let the feeding frenzy continue. And if nothing else, I think last night told the media that slamming her family and being sexist wasn't going to chase her off, so NOW they'll look at the real issues: her political background/choices.

I had to say though, I had to shake my head at two things last night. One was some of the "left" media saying they had no clue about what the sexist claims were about and it just made the McCain/Palin camp look whiny. Talk about ludicrous. The second was a commentator on the ground at the RNC saying that if Sarah Palin didn't want her children in the spotlight, then she shouldn't have had them there at the convention or even worse, up on stage at the end. Can you imagine what they would have said if she hadn't, though? That's as tradition for either party's campaign as you get -- the families of the candidates seated for their speech, then up on stage afterwards. If she'd not had them there, she would have gotten smeared for being ashamed or trying to avoid or "hide" the issue. Make up your mind, press!

Of course, I'm not commenting on her politics because I am, admittedly, a moderate Republican, so at lot of her beliefs aren't way out of line with mine. Still, I'm withholding judgement on my vote -- despite my party of choice, I vote for the country, not just blindly for a party -- until I see how things play out. For Palin, in particular, I need to know more specifics of what she has and hasn't done.