Posted on 09/02/2008 9:48:13 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Troopergate scandals and sex outside marriage don't normally trouble the mainstream media. At least they didn't during the Clinton years. But Sarah Palin is another story. Among her other sins, she is a "creationist" and once wore a Pat Buchanan for President button. No scrap of scandal about her or her family, therefore, can go uninvestigated.
The all-hands-on-deck coverage designed to embarrass Palin on Monday was laughable. CNN, for example, seemed to treat Palin's views on abstinence with a solemnity equal to or greater than its coverage of Hurricane Gustav. A reporter was hastily dispatched to Anchorage to get to the bottom of her record on sex ed and her dust-up with a trooper brother-in-law.
Reporters who usually gush about multi-tasking moms arched their brows over a female candidate assuming so many responsibilities to the detriment of her family. The media can't decide if Palin is Phyllis Schlafly or a reckless feminist pursuing careerism at the expense of her children.
Roles have been bewilderingly reversed: cultural conservatives see in Palin Joan of Arc while liberals demand to know why she isn't toiling in the nursery.
Reporters are still steamed at John McCain for selecting a politician who once asked in an interview what vice presidents actually do. That's a reasonable question, or used to be until recent times transformed the vice presidency into a busy post. But if vice presidents principally go to state funerals, as the cliche goes, Palin would be able to juggle the job and motherhood to John Roberts' satisfaction (the CNN host suggested the job would preclude her from taking care of her baby with Down syndrome).
News of the teen pregnancy in the Palin household generated gotcha journalism on a scarcely believable scale on Monday. On Fox, Bill Kristol deserves points for nailing Mort Kondracke for absurdly politicizing the issue, though Kondracke was far from alone in doing so. As Kristol implied, how does the media know if Palin's daughter didn't adhere to its approved safe-sex methods and they just failed? Would that cause them to reconsider their stance in favor of sex ed?
This much is clear: the Palin family is horrifying to the Margaret Sanger left. In Palin, it envisions messy, unplanned Middle America coming to the White House. First off, Palin has too many children, a dismaying five. Second, she bore a child late in life who has Down syndrome, and knew this beforehand. Finally, she has a daughter who is pregnant out of wedlock, plans to have the child and marry the father -- all of which smacks of the 1950s rather than the Sexual Revolution and its tidy solutions.
Before the news of her daughter's pregancy broke, the media had Pallin marked down as an easy target. Her first scandal, and most important one to the liberal media, are the views she holds. Because, for example, she thinks students should be exposed to more than one theory about nature, she is a "creationist." But could the reporters casually charging her with this even define the term?
An unwillingness to treat Darwinism as the only theory permissible to mention in class is not synonmous with creationism. But who cares? reporters figure. We'll slap the label on her anyways.
The media can't resist the narrative of her as a reactionary from a backwoods state even when facts in her life complicate it, starting with a fact that typically excites reporters: she is a working mother. Female reporters who cheer the sight of women in combat appear to wince at the images of Palin firing guns or the stories of her ordering up moose burgers.
Hillary Clinton's stories about hunting with her family, or her throwing back whiskeys in Indiana (when it was useful against Obama to portray herself as a populist), met with their approval. But Palin is a member of the dreaded NRA and this sort of female politician just can't be abided. After all, her success could inspire other non-liberal women to enter politics and erode the feminist left's control of it. And that's a story the media never wants to cover.
Bristol is really Trigs mom.....FALSE
Sarah supported Buchannon....FALSE
Sarah was in AIP......FALSE
Next....
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel< II Palelologus
Of course they don’t find it heartwarming. Since Bristol is unlikely to end up welfare there is no lib payoff in it.
So her daughter made a mistake that is common among teenagers and can be handled with forgiveness and kindness. Contrast that with Clinton getting BJ’s in the Whitehouse from a woman
half his age while his wife slept upstairs. That was OK though, he was a Demoncrat (sic).
BOOM
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel< II Palelologus
The political affiliation of the mother determines how the Left will treat the pregnant teen.
The teen's condition doesn't matter, and their own convictions on teen pregnancy doesn't matter - ONLY the political affiliation of the mother matters.
Is there anything more ridiculous than a leftist?
There is nothing in the world they hate more, than to have their fragile little image of how things ought to be, shattered before their very eyes.
You gotta love it; I know I do!
I know this isn’t popular, but I really wish Sarah would have sat this one out. I love Tim Pawlenty and he was ready to go and the convention is in his backyard. Sarah could have had a chance in a few years without any of these distractions. Bristol is going to be on the cover of the Enquirer for the next 4 months. I just saw that they have their team in Alaska. It’s not going to stop.
Did you see Frank Luntz on TV today. Americans are not going to be happy, and will sympathize with Palin, if this keeps up. Plus, Democrats are totally distracted from their message if they pursue this. The story of this election was supposed to be how badly Republicans have done the last 4 years. Wello, if the Dems and the media want to change the subject to villifying this woman and her 17 year-old daughter, they are shooting themselves.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel< II Palelologus
Any publicity is good publicity as long as the spell your name correctly. And probably even if they don't.
I hope Bristol & Levi can stand up to the circus this is going to be, but I see nothing but good for the Republicans coming from it. No, teenage pregnancy is not a good thing, but it isn't the end of the world either. Levi is somehow going to get absorbed into the family fishing business, and the Palins will show the world how to treat this issue with compassion.
The Palin Church Video (MSM attacking Palin for praying!)
Of course, if she attemded a certain Trinity United Church of Christ instead, it'd be OK!
Lipstick
Very astute observations! Thank you!
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