McCain's Hail Mary Pass

[spenceraloysius]

I might as well just write this now, since I learned that the Republican VP choice Sarah Palin has both a Down's Syndrome child and a pregnant teenage daughter. I do not think she is a good mother and I think it is hypocritical to espouse the moral values of abstinence and family when you aren't spending enough time with your children to convince

Comments

[jmjoyce]

Lieberman would've been a good choice, but he's very divisive, especially in the Republican party. I heard somewhere that the party elders were threatening McCain if he chose Lieberman. IMHO, McCain went with Palin to appease the social conservatives and lure more Hillary supporters from voting for Obama. Apparently Rick Santorum (ugh, him again) and some others were leary of McCain, but his choice of the pro-life Palin assuaged them. I think he's just grasping at straws.

[thistle_chaser]

How can she give the child the attention he needs if she's off campaigning?

And she has a newborn, too. Really, all my other issues with her aside, I wish she'd be a mother before everything else. The older kids, fine, they could probably get by with less attention, but the baby? And the special needs kid? What's she thinking?

[spenceraloysius]

The newborn is the one with Down's Syndrome.

[thistle_chaser]

Oh! Ack, I was confused.

I heard something interesting on the radio on the way back to work though. Know how she said that with her in office, people with special needs would get all the help they need, blah blah blah? In her state, she cut funding to them by 62%. Way to go!

[spenceraloysius]

The hypocrisy kills me.

[chrysoula]

I admit I've had dubious thoughts about her based on this very issue-- how can she take good care of her children and also be a good VP? But at the same time I've been concerned by that reaction, because as some people have pointed out, male candidates are often fathers, sometimes of younger children, and nobody ever questions their role as a father. Culturally we're divided between men as providers and women as nurturers, so I can see where that comes from but I don't like falling prey to it, all the same

[spenceraloysius]

But the platform of family values really makes it click and not feel totally like culturally conditioned sexism-- I have the right to judge her on her motherhood if she's making motherhood-- her own and that of other women-- a core platform.

Exactly! This is what I object to. I am certainly a woman who has put career ahead of being home taking care of my kids, but I'm not standing up proclaiming that I'm Mom-of-the-Year while being an absentee parent.

[ambar]

I think the country cannot afford to have her a heartbeat away from the Presidency when McCain, if elected, would be the oldest President /ever/.

He's looking awfully tired /now/, and he hasn't even had that hard a campaign, for heaven's sakes.