Yeah, like this kind:
Posted on 09/03/2008 4:06:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- If conventions are supposed to be about message discipline and stagecraft, Republicans have been improv street theater to the Democrats' Broadway.
Every day has brought a brand new buzz -- and that was before the convention got started.
Republicans euphoric about vice presidential pick Sarah Palin hardly got to enjoy a news cycle before Hurricane Gustav stole headlines and resurrected the ghosts of Katrina. Then came the news that Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant.
To say that this convention has gotten off to a jaw-dropping start would not be hyperbolic. While Democrats chant, "Yes we can," Republicans have been lip-syncing, "OMG."
There are, of course, other ways to view recent events and Republicans have rallied their best angels. Thus, Gustav wasn't so much an unwelcome interruption as an opportunity to demonstrate priorities: People matter more than agendas.
And so all eyes and resources turned to the Gulf Coast.
Bristol Palin, too, quickly became a humanizing symbol for reckoning and prioritizing. Most Republicans rolled up their sleeves the way families do when trouble comes. Such is life.
To social conservatives within the party, the Palin situation merely underscored the family's commitment to life. Bristol is marrying the father -- and life, indeed, goes on.
From some other quarters, the buzz hasn't been so uplifting. Some bloggers on the left initially suggested that Palin's baby, Trig, was really her grandson. Others have used what should be a private family matter to challenge Palin's preference for abstinence-only sex education.
A notable exception to the ugliness has been Barack Obama, who was both manly and gentlemanly in reiterating his position that candidates' families -- and especially their children -- are off-limits. Bravo. He also reminded Americans that his own mother gave birth to him when she was 18.
Politicizing Bristol Palin's pregnancy, though predictable, is nonetheless repugnant and has often been absurd. It may be darkly ironic that a governor-mother who opposes explicit sex ed has a pregnant daughter, but experienced parents know that what one instructs isn't always practiced by one's little darlings.
We try; we sometimes fail. There are no perfect families and most of us get a turn on the wheel of misfortune.
Were it not for the pain of a teenager who didn't deserve to be exposed and exploited, the left's hypocrisy in questioning Palin's qualifications to be vice president against the backdrop of her family's choices would be delicious. Instead, it leaves a bad taste.
Would anyone ever ask whether a male candidate was qualified for office because his daughter was pregnant?
Some also have questioned whether Palin, whose son Trig has Down syndrome, can be both a mother and a vice president? These questions aren't coming from the right -- so often accused of wanting to keep women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen -- but from the left.
Did someone switch the Kool-Aid?
Palin is everything liberals have always purported to want for women -- freedom to choose, opportunities for both career and family, a shot at the top ranks of American political life. With five children and an impressive resume, Palin should be Miss July in the go-girl calendar.
There's just one hitch: She doesn't believe in abortion except to save a mother's life. That's hardcore, even for pro-life Republicans, most of whom allow for abortion in cases of rape and incest.
Women who won't budge on abortion have hit fast-forward in their heads and, given McCain's age, consider the risk too great that a President Palin would load the Supreme Court with pro-lifers who would overturn Roe v. Wade. Whether that is a realistic concern is debatable, but what's perfectly clear is that feminism today is not about advancing women, but only a certain kind of woman.
While we're exhausting irony, Palin would have been excoriated as a hypocrite had she or her daughter had abortions. That would have been legitimate and, probably, deal-breaking criticism. By choosing life, the Palins acted in accordance with their public positions and were ridiculed for their honesty.
There may yet be reasons to find Palin an unacceptable vice presidential choice, but making pro-life decisions shouldn't be among them. Her candidacy, meanwhile, has cast a bright light on the limitations of our old ideological templates.
Should Palin and McCain prevail come November, feminism can curtsy and treat herself to a hard-earned vacation. The greatest achievement of feminism won't be that a woman reached the vice presidency, but that a woman no longer needed feminists to get there.
needs repeating
Amen, sister. Amen.
There are far more decent “mommy” voters, who are appalled at how Palin and her family have been treated, than there are feminist dike voters. Rest assured, vengence will occur on election day.
I have a sudden epiphany for why certain persons on the left are having their heads somewhat explode over the last few days.
Bad title.
Yeah, like this kind:
The criticism of Palin is a class issue. The upper-middle class reporters, commentators, and lefty bloggers are offended that a non-U person has crashed their party. Had McCain chosen Romney or Pawlenty, they would not have to confront the idea that cultivation of upper-middle behaviors and experiences is not the only ticket to success. This is why the fact that Bristol is keeping her child seems so lurid to the “news” media. Doing so is a non-U marker. A proper upper-middle class teenager would not let something like a child get in the way of college, career, and an eventual position within the ruling elite...
Yup. You can take that to the bank.
By the way, a big thanks to all the rock-ribbed dudes and dudettes here at FR who haven’t gone wobbly in the past couple of days because of the anti-Palin Shi’itestorm.
There’s literally no reason to be afraid, but everywhere I go I read bloggers and pundits I used to respect saying that McCain should’ve chosen someone else.
Screw that.
As someone else said, if we can’t win with Palin, we weren’t going to win anyway.
Spines of steel here, and I appreciate it.
They are SCARED.
Sarah is no lib, lefty, socialist, communist...etc...
She scares the left because they do not and never will understand CONSERVATIVES.
The drive-by were ready to hammer Romney, et al then BAM a suprise pick they were duped and te media does not like that one bit.
A stray dog would not hump the leg of that witch...
Same with blacks. Tow the Dem line, like Obama, and you’re elevated to sainthood. Be a Republican, like Rice, Powell, Thomas, Steele, etc...and you’re an Uncle Tom.
Not exactly. The media impaled her
Well ThomasW, I actually think we DO have reason to be afraid, with NO voice in the MSM, but that being said, I think something I posted yesterday bears repeating -
“the left will try to destroy ANYONE in order to accomplish what they want. That has become abundantly clear. The 2000, and 2004 elections have steeled their will, and they do believe that ANY means to their end is acceptable.
So, do we only choose candidates who have no family to ruin? I admit, that thoughts similar to yours have passed through my head, but something Rush said today, rang true. If Gov. Palin had NOT accepted McCain’s offer, her daughter would have never been able to forget one of the costs of her momentary lapse in judgement...
They are desperate, and the stakes in this, for all of us, are VERY high : \ “
We are definitely headed in the right direction, because I do believe that Gov. Palin TERRIFIES the left. We must stand and fight with, and for her.
Tatt
... and other fake Americans
“rest assured, vengeance will occur on election day.”
how sweet it would be to watch hard-core, leftist, self-appointed-superior-intellectual-geniuses, sent packing and made to vacate the offices that they have so cluttered with socialist/progessive/communist refuse.
IMHO
Golly, what a well-written article.
Palin the Impaled.
— It got my attention.
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