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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
to my new Sarah Palin fund:
http://bgladd.com/SkinGrafts4Sarah.org/
Link in my name as well.
No thanks.
Hillary Clinton is a mom too, fyi. As are a number of women in congress, etc.
Once again, Palin has pulled the martyrdom card. How can Palin's decision to quit her office be an act of "self-sacrifice" and concern for the media's intrusion into her personal family life if she also asserted that she did it in order to pursue a career at the national level?
And now there is a new revelation that Palin contacted Cheney and Giuliani before announcing her decision to resign--
Further evidence that her decision was based purely on her future political ambitions and NOT in consideration of the welfare of her family or the state of Alaska.
...and *then* decided to turn on the 'mama grizzly' response. There are a number of other female politicians who are truly strong and maternal; Palin's just a poser in that regard, too.
Or should that be, also. Wink.
That was almost a courageous article you wrote there, Amanda, but you chickened out, didn't you?
There's a difference between being a truly strong maternal figure, and using one's maternal status - hyped to the roof - as a political prop. It's like elevating McCain as a father figure, when he can't even get along with his own kids. Or all those Republican "family men" who dump their first, and sometimes second and third, wives.
If Palin really wanted to protect her family from the onslaught of press coverage and political diviseveness, then I might understand her resigning her office early - assuming she then retreated from the public eye. But as she has made clear with every action starting with her resignation, she has resigned because she has a "higher calling" and wants to affect policy on "another scale," obviously a national scale. (If not a world or cosmic scale; she is nothing if not grandiose.) This is not exactly going to take her family members off the table as public figures.
For someone horrified by attacks on her family, she sure knows how to magnify those attacks, keep them in the media spotlight, and use them to improve her position as America's Martyr.
The woman who drug her entire family, including minors, around the entire country for months in order to win an election is now some symbol of motherhood?
Please.
Hardly. It's what she was selling, but I never bought it. Not once, not ever. Popping out kids doesn't make you maternal. Sarah Palin is all about Sarah Palin, and there's no room for those kids. What kind of mother forces a 7-year-old to stand there for a long speech like that? There is no doubt that she uses them as political props. And that poor baby?
Have you had a baby, Amanda? Have you seen the way Palin holds him? It's not natural. Most mothers hold their babies face in, close to their chest, and hug and kiss them fairly frequently, especially young ones. Did you see her kiss Trig once? Bristol smiled at Trig more often.
And most mothers would rather actually take care of their kids than slay fake dragons over Photoshopped photos not insulting babies too young to get the insult anyway.
So, no, Palin's no mama grizzly, just an opportunistic jackass using her kids like too many politicians before her.
I'm sorry, but this article was almost as incoherent as Palin's resignation speech.
What Palin did with her children is unremarkable: as a politician, she gathered them around her in public appearances; as a mother, she defended them against sleights both perceived and real. Neither action deviated from the norm in politics or motherhood.
As for being tough, I'd say that Palin is more deranged and sociopathic and devoid of empathy for anyone or anything weaker than herself.
What's next, an article lauding George Bush as steadfast and resolute?
Palin acted like a frantic get-away driver throwing her kids out of the car hoping that would slow down her pursuers. Every scandal, every criticism, every political opportunity and another Palin kid got jettisoned and left to fend for themselves.
Frankly I'd answer "hell yes" as well if Sarah was my mom and offered to stop cynically exploiting me.
And considering numerous people have suggested she has NPD, and ALSO considering she's exploited her children for political gain, you'll have to forgive me if I don't see her as a model maternal figure.
There have been SO many other strong, maternal figures in politics--past and present (Hillary, anyone?), that the odd need to find a positive take on Palin to the deliberate exclusion of these other women is extremely distasteful. Just knock it off, already. Several writers on Broadsheet have bent over backwards to convince us she's not so bad after all; problem being that she IS that bad, and we all know it. Let's move on.
1. Amanda, you have a cool sounding name. Good luck with Salon.
2. This doesn't make a very good liberal bed time story, but there are some facts that must be remembered.
First, the Atlantic Magazine reacted to Palin's nomination by publishing rumors that Bristol, not Sarah, gave birth to Trig. Nothing Sarah did "invited" such a story. The Washington Post then ran with a story on the existence of rumors -- but not the alleged facts underlying them. Of course, if you wished to learn more, you could go to the Atlantic for details.
This was perhaps the scummiest act of journalism in modern memory, but where is the commemoration of it? Is there no hall of shame for such behavior? Apparently not, if the target is a pro-life Christian.
Second, recall that Bristol could have stayed home and out of the spotlight, and her pregnancy would have become known to few nationally. But once the Atlantic and the Washington Post fingered her as the mother of the VP's child, McCain/Palin felt they had no choice -- maybe right, maybe wrong -- but to clarify the subject with Bristol's pregnancy. They called for privacy, but of course the media gleefully ignored it. If the hall of shame is ever built, and has at least two wings, we have now have exhibts for both.
3. I saw two of Palin's children, Willow and Piper, at a rally in Indiana. As a parent myself, I have a feel for these things. I thought the kids looked absolutely on top of the world, as did their parents.
4. And speaking of on top of the world, has anyone seen the Runners World picture of Sarah, standing next to the flag? Not to sound too superficial, but goodness gracious. To be a mother of five and a presidential aspirant and look like that, with her "sub-four marathon" and such. It's really unusual.
5. And speaking of images, anyone interested in Sarah Palin and motherhood should go to Youtube and watch her video message to the Special Olympics in Idaho last year with Trig. It's really quite adorable.
6. I've explained on Joan Walsh's posts why Sarah Palin is not really finished with presidential politics. Her biannual PAC fund raising closed on 6/30, and will release figures by 7/31. She's putting on war paint right now to get back in the arena and throw Huckabee over the ropes in Iowa. It's one man's opinion, but I think I'm right, and explained why in some detail.
7. Amanda, tell your boss "thank for" you writing a nice headline, and some decent content, on Palin. She deserves it.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
Salon headlines in your mailbox
