Posted on 09/26/2008 3:24:39 AM PDT by acsuc99
WASHINGTON -- If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream -- away from Sarah Palin.
To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president -- and possibly president -- is to risk being labeled anti-woman.
Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.
Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick -- what a difference a financial crisis makes -- and a more complicated picture has emerged.
As we've seen and heard more from John McCain's running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn't know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.
Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan's president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)
And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she's had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).
Finally, Palin's narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain's running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood -- a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.
Palin didn't make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I've been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I've also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.
Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there's not much content there. Here's but one example of many from her interview with Hannity "Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we're talking about today. And that's something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this."
When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama's numbers, Palin blustered wordily: "I'm not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who's more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who's actually done it?"
If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.
If Palin were a man, we'd all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she's a woman -- and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket -- we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.
What to do?
McCain can't repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP's unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.
Only Palin can save McCain, her party and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.
Do it for your country.
This broad, on the other hand, I don't know what, if anything she's got going for her. To much Kool Aide tends to have that effect.
>If she claims that Senator Biden is laughable, where is her call for him to step down?
Are you kidding? Biden is the underperforming chimp who keeps on giving us the rope to hang him with.
While I don’t completely agree with Parker about Palin, I’m not very happy with her performance lately. The answers on Katie Couric, especially the one about Russia and Putin... ouch.
because she can’t get over her beloved romney...who would have fallen straight into Obama’s class envy trap.
especially when that enemy is a total socialist who wants to give up national defense and give in to iran.
Given what Sarah Palin has had to put up with, the fact that she’s taken it all with grace and is still standing says a lot. I really don’t know who else could possibly take this abuse and not break down or lash back. I admire her strength, and stand by her all the way. Your misguided article will only feed the vicious haters on the left.
My guess is that Kathleen Parker is very young and inexperienced and an example of the quality of education today in our ineffective government schools. I say this because having common sense, guided by a strong moral compass is EXACTLY what this country needs in a Vice President and a President.
I guessed that Parker is young and historically challenged because she does not seem to know about President Truman, one of our great Presidents who also had common sense, and was guided by a strong moral compass. He made some tough decisions. He accepted the responsibility of his office, "the buck stops here." In contrast, Clinton said the "buck never got here," figuratively speaking after the Waco fiasco.
Mindless drivel from another "journalist" desperate to make her chops and score a "gotcha" coup on Palin, while completely ignoring that her criticisms apply even more directly to Obama.
Further, she deliberately attempts to side-step and avoid the fact that it is Obama and McCain who are at the tops of their respective tickets, and who are the ones responsible for laying out the principles and specifics of their plans. The proper roles of their VP running mates is to simply be supportive of their candidates while avoiding any contradictory gotcha traps laid by a media out to destroy them. Palin is doing a much better job of this than shoot-from-the-lip Biden, and the media is simply livid about it.
Governor Palin will be fine.
Yes, we all wish Mitt was standing there right now, but for me as the Prez, not McCain.
Saracudda will be just fine.
Nothing new here - she’s been running down Palin since the announcement. It’s tough being irrelevant, isn’t it, Kathleen?
This has got to be satire. I cannot believe that she meant what she said, any of it.
he’s really really great with words. I liked all of his speeches. I can understand why many conservatives liked him.
But then I looked at his record and it really bothered me.
And not only that, McCain and Obama (and Biden) are all sitting Senators who have claimed authority over and expertise about the national economy, including the banking system that is currently in turmoil. If there's anything we can be sure about, it's that the Governor of Alaska doesn't have any responsibility for the mess that the FEDERAL government has made of this.
Someone might point out to the nit wit that wrote this piece that it's the "brilliant" politicians and "professwional money men(?)" i.e. those who are "in their league" who did this to the nation in the first place. Does (whoever is) the author of this piece really think these clowns can be trusted to fix it? Haven't they already done enough damage?
I wonder if some plain old common sense might be in order. Bush isn't the guy either, although he belongs at the wheel. That's his job. Still, he won't be around to do the heavy lifting when the fix is completed. At lease some Republicans in DC have said, "Slow down just a bit." I doubt they can fix it either, as we really are going where few men have gone before.
Perhaps the person who really wrote this article can explain which person running for the Big Chair has the knowledge and experience to make things better. It says right here that I would trust Sarah Palin's judgement at least as much and probably more than anyone else, and way more than the two Bozos on the Democratic ticket.
yes, I see character and conviction in palin. You need to have that to be commander in chief. Some very smart people have no character and they back down easily during a crisis or when the poll numbers change
And even if it were between Palin and Obama, Palin is clearly more qualified, especially on the economic front over Obama. You can make fun of Palin running a small state population wise but Obama’s experience is running his household budget and zippo more.
Bow out?
Parker, you just jumped the shark.
Whatever the validity of your observations of Palin’s performance to date, and there is some validity, for any supposedly astute political observer to suggest that ANY vice presidential nominee drop out at this point in the race is just plain ignorant.
Did it ever occur to you, Kathleen, that, instead of reacting only emotionally to what you view as Palin’s lack of substantive skills (which, as you note, is typical of politicians in general, it’s just that you[re more okay with it when it’s a man-thing), some sort of analysis about the impact on the election, and, therefore, on the country was what was appropriate and warranted-—before you published your OMG-feelings-rant?
How do your think your embarrassing half-baked suggestion that Palin withdraw from the race because she filibusters only as well as typical Washington pols would affect McCain’s chance of winning the White House?
How do you think aiding and abetting the election of Obambi, which is the first immediate effect if Palin were to drop out of the race, would help the country?
Would you be happier with Joe Biden as Vice President? Oh, wait: that’s not as emotionally painful for you to watch because he’s a man.
How do you think following your suggestion would impact, not only the outcome of the election, but our country right now-—while McCain is in the midst of trying to get his hands around the throat of this financial crisis, you come along whining that he ought to go back to the drawing table and spend valuable time and money finding a new VP?
Obviously, Kathleen, you didn’t think.
May I suggest that next time you feel like hitting the mute button, you hit “delete” on your computer instead.
And those are her examples of how inept and hopeless Palin is? What did she expect Palin to say?
Seriously — who is this woman, and what has she accomplished?
LLS
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