Posted on 11/16/2009 7:46:51 PM PST by ventanax5
I like Sarah Palin. There is something refreshingly genuine and un-smarmy about her. But, after watching Oprah’s interview this afternoon with the former candidate, I have not altered my fundamental opposition as a future president.
I oppose her possible candidacy for two reasons. One, she is not smart and steely enough. Two, she is a feminist.
Granted, she is not an extreme feminist and she differs with the mainstream movement in her opposition to abortion. But Palin wholeheartedly embraces feminist egalitarianism and the radical transformation of society that it entails.
Palin made a number of interesting revelations in this interview. She said she did not tell her husband that the child she was carrying had Down’s Syndrome until three weeks after she learned of it from doctors. It was three weeks before the couple was alone and she could share this important information.
This amount of estrangement due to busy schedules did not, judging from this interview, seem to bother Palin in the least. She also said that when she learned she was pregnant with Trig, even before she knew he had Down’s, she felt understanding for women who choose abortion.
Palin said her daughter Bristol was ”devastated” and embarrassed when she learned the national press had picked up the news that she was pregnant. Palin was unapologetic that she chose to put her daughter in the limelight at a difficult time and instead blamed the media for its excessive interest in her children.
When asked by Oprah how a woman could possibly handle five children and the vice presidency, Palin offered feminist boilerplate. “Things have changed,” she said. “There is so much equality.”
Yes, but children haven’t changed, have they? Of them, Palin said, “The children are my strength. They keep me grounded.” But does she keep them grounded?
(Excerpt) Read more at thinkinghousewife.com ...
I like Sarah Palin. There is something refreshingly genuine and un-smarmy about her. But, after watching Oprah’s interview this afternoon with the former candidate, I have not altered my fundamental opposition to her as a future president.
I oppose her possible candidacy for two reasons. One, she is not smart and steely enough. Two, she is a feminist.
Granted, she is not an extreme feminist and she differs with the mainstream movement in her opposition to abortion. But Palin wholeheartedly embraces feminist egalitarianism and the radical transformation of society that it entails.
Palin made a number of interesting revelations in this interview. She said she did not tell her husband that the child she was carrying had Down’s Syndrome until three weeks after she learned of it from doctors. It was three weeks before the couple was alone and she could share this important information.
This amount of estrangement due to busy schedules did not, judging from this interview, seem to bother Palin in the least. She also said that when she learned she was pregnant with Trig, even before she knew he had Down’s, she felt understanding for women who choose abortion.
Palin said her daughter Bristol was ”devastated” and embarrassed when she learned the national press had picked up the news that she was pregnant. Palin was unapologetic that she chose to put her daughter in the limelight at a difficult time and instead blamed the media for its excessive interest in her children.
When asked by Oprah how a woman could possibly handle five children and the vice presidency, Palin offered feminist boilerplate. “Things have changed,” she said. “There is so much equality.”
Yes, but children haven’t changed, have they? Of them, Palin said, “The children are my strength. They keep me grounded.” But does she keep them grounded?
As for Palin’s intellectual stature, as displayed in this interview, I stand by my previous assertions that she is not articulate enough to be president. I repeat a statement I made at View from the Right last year about another Palin interview. At that time, I wrote:
Palin appears quite close to Bush in this interview in her fundamental limitations. George Bush is a woefully inarticulate man who was unable to publicly reason with his opponents or defend even the good decisions he made. These limitations fueled the hatred of the left and allowed unchallenged lunacies to spread. His inarticulateness was a void, a vast windswept emptiness, at the center of our national life. This interview, in which Palin comes across as quite pleased with her shallow inanities and displays no gravitas at a time of national crisis, shows that Palin falls into the same category. Even if the Republican Party makes wise moves, she will be unable adequately to explain and defend them.
In today’s Oprah interview, Palin justified her decision to leave her gubernatorial position by saying she would have been hounded by accusations of ethical violations for the remainder of her term by Democrats bent on ruining her presidential prospects. This was a poor excuse and she was bumble-tongued as she spoke. If there are no ethical violations, these accusations are mere inconveniences. An elected official has the duty to fulfill his term unless he is incapacitated or elected to higher office.
The interview included a visit to Palin’s family home in Wasilla and naturally took in the obligatory scenes of her and her husband, Todd, with Trig and their youngest daughter, Piper. It also showed Palin visiting her gym and working out in shorts and grungy T-shirt. This scene was unbefitting of a candidate for higher office. But then perhaps Palin is not running. She told Oprah she is not thinking about 2012 yet and that even if she were she would not admit it. She did, however, make a point of mentioning that Trig would be entering kindergarten in 2012, as if to suggest she would be relatively free of family responsibilities at that time.
Oprah was in peak form in this interview: serious, hard-hitting and respectful. She showed none of the snide bitterness of Katie Couric in her famous Palin interview. Oprah grilled Palin about that interview at length. In response, Palin went too far in apologizing for her lame performance with Couric and made things worse by coming up with no good reason for why she didn’t spare the nation some regrets about her candidacy by simply telling Katie what she liked to read.
At the end of the interview, Palin told Oprah that she used to love to watch her show when she was at home with her young children. Palin said she identified with the talk show star because she was another “normal American woman with a lot on your plate.” To the cheers of Oprah Nation, she told the woman who truly leads America, “You have been an inspiration.”
Wonder who Laura contributed to and voted for last go-round?
Another blogger trying to steal wind from Sarah’s sails!
So let me get this straight..Sarah isn’t “Smart” enough to become President, but Obama is a genius LOL..
Also, perhaps someone should remind this woman that they did a poll and this country is becoming more PRO-LIFE
What a stinking load. Or for those of you in Rio Linda, a hit piece.
I believe Laura Wood is a Republican.
Gee, Palin stating that things have changed in America and that there exist equality among the sexes is too extreme??
Sheesh!!!
I guess there are idiots that too far left and idiots too far right.
I think her writings in her blog are very good.
I think her writings in her blog are very good.
If I hear one more moron say that palin isn’t smart enough I am going to go rogue all over their ass.
She was asked to be VP candidate because McCain beleived she would help him get elected. I would suggest that refusing a request to serve in order to protect Bristol from the consequenses of her own bad choices would not have been a good lesson for Bristol, nor good for the country. Just because something is hard doesn't make it wrong.
She (the author) forgot to mention the huge cost of defending oneself - a cost that under existing AK state law apparently must be borne by the individual.
Palin's legal bills were reported to be $500K and rising ("How high's the water, momma ?" sorry, couldn't resist it).
Hardly a "mere inconvenience".
Yes, she's a Frum-Powell Republican.
I reject this article on the basis that it was written by a woman, Ms. Laura Wood, and everyone knows that women can't grasp ideas of a political nature. /sarc>
Who ever this Wood is, she is envious of Palin. She is probably going to get more hits on this than on anything she has ever written. My guess is that she is a ‘never has been’. A loser, in other words.
Lets see, dems: Clinton, Kerry, Gore, Dean, Biden, and Obama are/were all presidential material.... but not conservative Palin. Gotcha....
The writer is a fool.
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