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Sarah Palin--Feminist Or Victim Of Sexism?By Bonnie Erbe Oct 9, 2008 (US News) The Republican right, in all its glory, is going bonkers over a Newsweek cover with what some call a highly unflattering picture of their fearless leader, Gov. Sarah Palin. Despite countless magazine pictures and covers with similarly unflattering pix of Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama (and his wife, Michelle), this one, they whine, shows too many wrinkles and too much unsightly facial hair and was taken from too close an angle. Apparently you've got to see one in person to get the full effect. Meanwhile,...

Joe Biden sent me an email tonight, ok, not really, it’s actually the Obama campaign channeling Joe Biden, but an email nonetheless came ‘from’ Joe Biden and he is mad. And he wants money for his madness. The email starts by Joe telling me that the McCain campaign is on the ropes and they are telling outright lies. Biden goes on to say that he has heard ‘unspeakable’ things in this campaign season that are ‘deeply offensive smears.’ The email then says that McCain-Palin is running a ‘dishonorable” campaign and he and Barack are fighting back but they need my...

Why is it that her daughter’s sex life or her husband’s 1986 DUI is fair game for the front page, but not Obama’s past drug use, his twenty-year relationship with a rabidly racist preacher (who has now mysteriously disappeared from public life), or for that matter his relationship with an admitted and proud left-wing terrorist? Does equality stop at the door of ideology? Writing in the New York Post, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann described Palin as an “existential threat to the Democratic Party” because her rise, like that of Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, or Clarence Thomas, threatens the party’s...

When historians write about the 2008 election, it may be remembered as the year of the woman. The candidacies of Hillary Clinton, and now of John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, have opened a national dialogue on a subject long ignored: The role of women in politics and the sexism some believe they still face. It's a topic Dee Dee Myers, former press secretary to Bill Clinton, will take up next week in Tucson at the 20th Annual YWCA Women's Leadership Conference. Myers, the keynote speaker and author of "Why Women Should Rule the World," talked to the Star about...

Obama Pays Women Only 78 Percent of What He Pays Men Thursday, September 18, 2008 By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) – While Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has produced a television ad criticizing Sen. John McCain’s position on equal pay for women and pointing out that women in America are paid only 77 cents on the dollar compared to men, Obama pays his own female Senate staffers, on average, only 78 percent of what he pays male staffers. Women on McCain’s staff, meanwhile, earn 24 percent more on average than women on Obama’s Senate staff. McCain also pays his...

“The portrait was very dismissive of the substance of Sarah Palin, and so in that sense, they were defining Hillary Clinton as very substantive, and Sarah Palin as totally superficial,” McCain advisor Carly Fiorina told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday. “I think that continues the line of argument that is disrespectful in the extreme, and yes I would say sexist.”

Or is Sarah Palin’s nomination as VP bringing out the closet sexists? You know, the way that Obama’s candidacy allegedly is scrubbing off our post-racial veneer and demonstrating our underneath-the-surface hatred of uppity black men. Except, in Palin’s case, I think the chauvinism is genuine. This is honest-to-J,M&J bigotry, up to and including the use of sexual slurs. The Obama campaign has had to stoop to reclassifying almost every adjective in the English language as code for racist besmirchment of their candidate. You’ve heard it: “Flashy” is racist; “elitist” is racist. (And here you had just mastered not ever using...

Monsters from the Id: Good-bye to All That's DemocratThe monsters from the id that now control the Democrat Party have transformed that party into a mob of undead extras from The Dawn of the Dead. It's an indecent and disgusting spectacle and I suspect there's more than a few million long-time Democrats who are revolted by it. That certainly seems to be creeping into the polls. No matter the good it once did, the Democrats today present as sick and crazed political party that is so greedy and hungry for power that it will do anything, including selling its...

Racism, sexism, ageism . . . evidently, we're all victims now. At least that's what partisans would have us believe. The political reality, of course, is quite different. "Exoticism" in the political realm is no longer an impediment, it's a significant asset. And Republicans, whether they admit it or not, were yearning for the excitement Barack Obama generated — that is, before Sarah Palin came along. Palin's frontier mystique has captivated conservatives. Both the lipstick and the pitbull. It's also discombobulated many Democrats, now fumbling to find a strategy to deal with a conservative woman. We've witnessed accusations of racism...

These are just a few of the foul thoughts from the left. Let them keep talking, because they're goring their own pigs. The country now knows that the lies they've told us about equal treatment for all women and all people was just a way to get them headlines and make them money. I'm no bra-burning hippy chick who faints at the sight of a former community organizer, but my estrogen is on fire with this hateful treatment of a woman. Attacking her because of her policies is one thing. But going after her because you don't like her hair,...

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A comment by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama about putting lipstick on a pig has some Republican women in New Mexico glossing their lips and telling him to kiss off. On Wednesday evening they were writing their least-favorite Democrat and puckering up to seal the letters with a kiss. Obama touched off the latest bit of campaign stagecraft with a comment he made Tuesday and which he said was directed at Republican John McCain's economic policies. "You know you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig," the Democrat said. Republicans pounced saying the comment...

Kirsten Powers does a good job ticking off how the various bungled attacks on Sarah Palin by the left have only energized Republicans and hurt Barack Obama. This latest attempt by Juan Cole, using a cutesy play on Palin's "hockey mom" joke from her convention speech to equate her to a Muslim fundamentalist, is more of the same: While the Obama campaign spent a great deal of effort yesterday trying to knock down Palin's credentials as a reformer over her position on the Bridge to Nowhere, his supporters in the media like Keith Olbermann were busy openly mocking her former...

Why are people so shocked by liberals’ sexist attacks on vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin? Sure, they’ve created Photoshopped images of her as a porn star and bikini model, nicknamed her VPILF (a spin on MILF) and, for good measure, suggested she should be at home raising kids instead of running for office. But this is nothing new. Although certain members of the left love to accuse Republicans of ignoring women’s interests and being the “party of white males,” they’re also fine with vile, woman-hating attacks on conservative women. As columnist Michelle Malkin noted last week, “Liberals hold a special...

I can already see the pattern repeating itself with the Obama campaign. Challenged by a woman, he uses subtle (and sometimes shokingly overt) sexism. I'd like to establish a tread to track these, because if we don't call him on it he will continue to use it. Things he said about Hillary: His response to Mrs Clinton's reminiscences about learning to shoot as a girl at her grandfather's summer cabin in Pennsylvania. Miss Ferraro said: "He walked up and down the stage with his microphone like a stand-up comic and ridiculed her as an Annie Oakley," she said, quoting his...

If Barack Obama's past had been subjected to one tenth the media scrutiny during the full year of his candidacy, to which Sarah Palin has been subjected during the last 11 days, Obama very probably still would be junior senator from Illinois, and Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee. Deny it though she will, this galling reality cannot have escaped Hillary's awareness. As she watches the media devote its considerable resources to a smear and destroy attack on Governor Palin, Hillary must be seriously annoyed. And rightly so. For during the last week-and-a-half we have been treated to an...

Hypocrisy is only bad when it is improperly used. —George Bernard Shaw I never thought I would live long enough to see the day when the Republican presidential candidate would cite membership in the PTA as evidence of executive experience, when the far right would laud the full-time working mothers of newborns, when social conservatives would stare down teenage pregnancy and replace their pursed-lip accusations of promiscuity with hosannas about choosing life. The Republican Party has undergone a surprising metamorphosis since Sarah Palin was chosen as its vice presidential candidate. In Palin I recognize a fellow traveler, a woman whose...

Attention fellow feminists our national media just set us back 100 years. In the most disgusting example of biased, anti-feminist questions, our media has proclaimed: "Women can't and shouldn't ever have it all." Women as a species should stay home with the babies and never aspire to public office. OK I'm a tad disgusted. As soon as Sarah Palin shocked the nation by being named the vice presidential running mate with Republican presidential candidate John McCain members of the press started questioning her ability to be both a mom and member of the executive branch - thus firmly installing the...

ST. PAUL-The one thing that Democrats, Republicans and analysts agreed on regarding Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin was that the double standards on parenting directed toward her crossed all kinds of lines. “I think it is highly sexist to suggest that Sarah Palin cannot be a good mom and run for office,” said Kate Michelman, an adviser to Democrat Barack Obama. Michelman, a premier advocate of abortion rights, faced a different form of sexism during the run-up to the Democrats’ primaries: MSNBC hardballer Chris Matthews asserted that she had “abandoned her commitment to the women’s movement” by backing Obama instead...

Sarah Palin wowed a small Town Hall crowd in Chicago's south side today, with the following scary speech: "I want you all to know that this is going to be a brutal campaign. My opponents and their media enablers, will pull out all the cards in the deck to demonize me, and more important, TO SCARE YOU. They will tell you that I don't 'look like a normal Vice President". They will tell you that I don't eat arugula and tofu, but instead, that I kill, field dress and eat, endangered, cute and defenseless animals. They will tell you that...

EU wants to ban 'sexist' TV commercials Adverts which use sex to sell or promote gender stereotypes could be banned by the EU. By Chris Irvine MEPs want TV regulators in the EU to set guidelines which would see the end of anything deemed to portray women as sex objects or reinforce gender stereotypes. This could potentially mean an end to attractive women advertising perfume, housewives in the kitchen or men doing DIY. Such classic adverts as the Diet Coke commercial featuring the bare-chested builder, or Wonderbra's "Hello Boys" featuring model Eva Herzigova would have been banned. The new rules...

This week's treatment of Sarah Palin has been an appalling display of sexism and elitism. But the hatchet-men are in for a rude awakening. The attacks over the past few days come down to two things: First, Sarah Palin is supposedly out of her depth. She's only been in high office for two years, age 44, and has no foreign policy or national security experience. They say she's not ready for the big game. Second, they imply she's a bad mother. She has a Down syndrome baby, and her 17-year-old daughter soon will have a baby as well. Some are...

Psst, Obama is a Weakling — Pass it on. News last night from The NY Times, via Riverdaughter, that Obama has run home to Big Sister to plead with her to fight his battle with Saracuda Palin for him. Oh, the poor Precious! Can’t face a tough woman on his own, huh? What’s the matter Barack? Just tell Saracuda that she’s likable enough. Call her a Sweetie and tell the media that she gets moody and bitchy periodically when she’s feeling down. That oughtta work. Or send Sebelius — woo-hoo! I’m sure she can take on Palin and come out...

By Sandy Froman This week’s treatment of Sarah Palin has been an appalling display of sexism and elitism. But the hatchet-men are in for a rude awakening. The attacks over the past few days come down to two things: First, Sarah Palin is supposedly out of her depth. She’s only been in high office for two years, age 44, and has no foreign policy or national security experience. They say she’s not ready for the big game. Second, they imply she’s a bad mother. She has a Down Syndrome baby, and her seventeen-year-old daughter soon will have a baby as...

ST. PAUL -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, accepting the GOP nomination for vice president Wednesday night, sought to silence critics and strike an accord with American voters in one of the most anticipated speeches in the race for the White House. Unknown even to many Republicans a week ago, Palin wrapped a personal profile and philosophical pitch into a 40-minute talk that brought thundering ovations from delegates at the Republican National Convention.

The Obama and MSM liberal spin on Sarah's speech is that she didn't write it. We all know this was never brought up regarding Obambi or Biden's speeches last week and rarely is it ever brought up because it's a given that everyone has a speech writer. These comments stink of sexism and can be interpreted as "A WOMAN IS NOT CAPABLE OF GIVING A SPEECH WITHOUT SOMEONE WRITING IT FOR HER". We need to call Obambi and the MSM out on their sexist deplorable observations. This is clearly sexism that the Obambi dampaign is engaging in and the MSM...

I opened the International Herald Tribune today here in Korea and read an absolutely precious letter from a Mr. Bruce Joffe of Piedmont, California (who, as far as I can tell is a professional writer of leftist letters to the editor): "How can I say this in a politically correct manner? A four-month baby needs a lot of time in the arms of its mother. Most mothers feel a similar need to be close to their baby. And a Downs Syndrome baby needs even more maternal attention. So what kind of family values is Palin exhibiting by going off on...

On behalf of the media, I would like to say we are sorry. On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry. We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked. We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was...

Sarah Palin found some unlikely allies Wednesday as leading academics and even former top aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton endorsed the Republican charge that John McCain’s running mate has been subject to a sexist double standard by the news media and Democrats. Georgetown University professor Deborah Tannen, who has written best-selling books on gender differences, said she agrees with complaints that Palin skeptics — including prominent voices in the news media — have crossed a line by speculating about whether the Alaska governor is neglecting her family in pursuit of national office. “What we’re dealing with now, there’s nothing subtle...

Prospective first lady Cindy McCain tells ABC News' "Good Morning America" she "absolutely" believes sexism is behind critical coverage of her husband's vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- even though Palin months ago slammed Hillary Clinton's "perceived whine" in making similar complaints during the Democratic primary. Speaking to Diane Sawyer, Cindy McCain blasted the overall coverage of Palin as sexist -- and specifically an Us Weekly cover headlined "Babies, Lies and Scandal." "I think it's insulting," McCain told Sawyer. "I think it's outlandish. And for whatever reason, the media has decided to treat her differently, because, I believe,...

For months, we thought Democratic party leaders and left-wing journalists and blogs had torpedoed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid because of Clinton fatigue. But since Sen. John McCain named Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin his running mate, it has become clear sexism bordering on misogyny is at work. Early on, some Democrats, journalists and blogs wondered why she isn't staying home to care for her infant with Down syndrome. Barefoot and pregnant, indeed. If Gov. Palin were a man, would they argue "a man's place is in the kitchen"? They also doubt "a former beauty queen" has the brains to...

ST. PAUL -- Top Republican women held a fiery press conference today to denounce what they consider to be sexist smears from the Obama campaign and the media against Gov. Sarah Palin. "We want to call attention to the outrageous smear campaign against Sarah Palin," said former Mass. Gov. Jane Swift. "With her years of executive experience and legislative accomplishments, she is more experienced than Sen. Barack Obama" to become president. "Gov. Palin's experience is in running a state," added Swift. "Barack Obama's experience, as he himself has said, is in running a campaign."

An A-list of women in politics backing John McCain went on the offensive Wednesday, accusing the media and the Obama campaign of blatant sexism in their treatment of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a move intended to clear the brush ahead of her public debut at the Republican National Convention. McCain’s running mate, who greeted the Arizona senator as he arrived in St. Paul, is scheduled to headline the convention Wednesday night. It will be a chance for her to address, or simply ignore, reports surrounding her unmarried teenage daughter’s pregnancy, ethical questions regarding her actions as Alaska’s governor and a...

Female students scored higher in tests they believed were going to be marked by sexist examiners, the research found. Scientists believe that blatant sexism could act as a spur to drive some women to achieve as they want to prove chauvanistic attitudes are wrong. *snip* Students who had earlier been judged as sensitive to sexism, as measured by a questionnaire, scored worse if they had sat in the supposedly neutral office. But those assigned to the sexist office did well, achieving a higher score than their less sensitive peers.

ABC’s Good Morning America interviewed 1984 vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in the 7:30 half hour on Wednesday, asking her about how Palin will handle the pressure of her speech. Robin Roberts tried to get Ferraro, a Hillary supporter, to condemn a video of Palin in a Newsweek interview suggesting Hillary Clinton’s “perceived whining” is not a help to women candidates. Ferraro did lament it briefly, but went on to warn the media: “A lot of those PUMA [Party Unity My A--] people and I will be watching very carefully to make sure that you treat her just like anybody else....

Imagine this. Upon hearing of the pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s daughter, John McCain chooses someone else off his short list for vice president, like Tim Pawlenty. Over the course of the week that followed, word leaks out that McCain had closely considered Palin — known at this point only as a maverick Republican woman who took on the Establishment — but went another way because of the pregnancy of her teenage daughter.

A fantastic article appeared in the New York Post today entitled The Time-Warped Sexist Assault on Sarah Palin, by columnist Andrea Peyser. The article highlights all the hypocrisies currently being dished out by the good ol' liberal left and their partners in crime the Media. Gov. Palin has been on VP campaign for less than a week and already she is being demonized by the MSM as a horrible mother figure for her career choices (among other things). Peyser writes: "When Joe Biden tragically lost his wife and infant daughter in a car wreck in 1972, not a single colleague,...

She had enormous hair, I mean, vast hair, but I'm not going to hold that against her. It was 20 years ago, after all, when Sarah Palin -- then Sarah Heath -- worked as a local sportscaster for KTUU in Alaska. "The Iditarod, of course, is the biggie, but it's not the only mushing going on," she said. "This race is part of Gillingham's Beaver Roundup." From the Beaver Roundup to the Republican Roundup. Is this a great country or what? Tonight, Palin will address the nation as the Republicans' vice presidential candidate. Some people wonder if she was a...

"There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women," former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once remarked. Where, then, are the liberal women when it comes to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin? Palin became the first woman to grace a Republican ticket on Friday, August 29, when Senator John McCain selected her as his running mate. The following day, a diarist at the mainstream left-wing Daily Kos (Barack Obama himself appeared as a Kos diarist back in 2005) suggested without any evidence whatsoever that Sarah Palin's son, Trig, recently born and with Down syndrome, was...

And apparently, they will NOT be voting for McCain, because (gasp, shudder, pee in pants in fear) Sarah Palin is a WOMAN! I’m at a loss for words, although I am not surprised, really. Just sitting here with one of those bemused frowny-faces at comments like this (from a poster over at iSteve): "I always thought that I was a conservative. But if being a conservative means having to vote for a woman, then I guess that I’m not one." I guess I AM sorta flummoxed. Even my dad would vote for a woman. He’d vote for a black conservative....

John McCain aced the Obama campaign on Friday with the announcement of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential choice and then on Monday with Palin’s announcement that their daughter, Bristol, is pregnant with a child she is going to keep. The far left -- abortion at all costs and under any circumstances believers -- couldn’t imagine that the 40-something mother of 4 would choose to have and not abort a Down’s Syndrome child and raise it proudly. With baby Trig in the arms of his big sister and the children in tow, Sarah Palin showed the world...

A women's group that hosted Hillary Rodham Clinton during an event at the Democratic convention last week is expressing outrage "against misogynist smears" directed at Sarah Palin. WomenCount, a nonprofit organization focused on women’s issues, released a statement on Tuesday titled "Sexism and Sarah Palin." "We will defend Sarah Palin against misogynist smears not because we like her or support her, but because that's how feminism works," the group’s statement reads. WomenCount established a political action committee (PAC) in May in response to pressure for Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) to bow out of the Democratic presidential primary.

Why is it OK for the man to be inexperienced, but not the woman?As further evidence that they are reading my blog, the McCain campaign’s selection of Sarah Palin for Vice President again shows that they are starting to track with the themes that resonate with grassroots conservatives.Predictably, the Obiden campaign and their media handmaidens immediately called the kettle black by pouncing on the experience them. “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.” huffed Adrianne Marsh, a spokeswoman for Democrat Barack Obama. Continuing the...

Palin Rocks- Don’t Go There Boys and Girls! Dora L. Collier (AKA “DRA”) An American Freedomist As a mother of two children and a daughter of a mother who gave birth to 6 daughters; I found myself appalled and sickened to hear the critics of Palin unapologetically lay out her family’s personal life without regard for her daughter’s feelings. For what? A political punch in the gut? How dare you wag your finger at Palin’s family values as if she had control over her daughter’s decisions who by the way, was only being human. We all know someone who has...

In an interview with Fox News from St. Paul, Laura Bush warns the media about potential blowback and overt sexism regarding Republican vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin. When questioned about whether Laura Bush thought that Sarah Palin would face sexism from the media the way Clinton supporters claim that Hilary Clinton did, Bush responded by saying, "I think that's a possibility," as reported by The Politico. Bush also goes on to warn the media, "The other side will have to be particularly careful. because that’s something we all looked at." The First Lady went on to express pride in John...

A Democrat walks into a bar at the airport and sees a very attractive, professional looking woman seated there, having a drink. He sits down next to her and surreptitiously slides off his wedding ring. "Hey there," he says, ordering a drink. "You look like you're traveling on business." "Yes," she says. "Well, kind of. I used to run a business, but now I'm in the public sector." "That's impressive," says the Democrat. "You know, I really respect that. I always said that women were more capable than most men. You can run businesses, run for office, do anything a...

Look at the video. Morons at Daily Kos now suggest sexual appeal between McCain and Palin and imply this was the reason she was chosen ! Here is the line of DK added to the linked video : "You know, there was a time when he didn't stare at an ass for five and a half years..." Outrageous liberal pigs. Stand to them !

On a plane from Denver to Charlotte following the Democrats' convention, I found myself seated behind former National Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Don Fowler and Congressman John Spratt of South Carolina. Their conversation was interesting to say the least. For example, they made fun of Sarah Palin for several minutes, Fowler calling her "Dan Quayle" on steroids and Spratt creatively describing her as "just terrible." They both agreed that, "Other than the simple fact that she's a female," she has nothing to offer. Then there was this gem of a moment from Fowler: VIDEO So you see, it's...

Someone e-mailed me about this earlier and made it sound like she was laying into Hillary, a righteous development in most cases but not on the day she made her pitch to the PUMAs. Not to worry: It’s not a slam, just a gentle nudge that the sisterhood is ill served by a posture of perpetual grievance, especially when the aggrieved is one of the most powerful women in the world. Not to go too far into the tank but I think she strikes just the right note between sympathy and impatience with victimization. But Ben Smith’s right: God help...

Some “isms” are more egregious and horrific than others, apparently. Here I find myself in the embarrassing and unusual position of empathizing with Hillary Clinton. Folks from all over the political spectrum scoffed at her claims of misogyny. We chided her for “acting like a girl,” and told her to “get over it.” Hillary nutcrackers? Hilarious! Brilliant! (And they were.) But the road did not, in fact, go both ways. The geometry was a vector—uni-directional. We were certain that any mockery or criticism of Hillary had only to do with her Hillary-ness and not her sex; so certain that we...