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I don’t know enough about Sarah Palin to make an informed observation, so let me start writing and think this through. I saw her on a Frontline broadcast last year and thought at the time that she was very articulate and real (as you have to be to be a success in Alaska). I remember thinking that it was a pity that she was in Alaska, a place that offers unusual opportunities to people like her but not a place likely to catapult her to the national stage.
Still….hunh. She’s got idealism and the courage of her convictions. She’s a MILF, if people really vote on that sort of thing. She’ll be the mother of a deployed soldier come September. Her husband’s indigenous (Yup’ik) and her youngest son has Down’s Syndrome. She’s a hunter, a member of the NRA, a person who has owned a small business. She’s a devout anti-abortion Christian. She really knows her energy policy, even if her ideas run (somewhat predictably) to oil, oil, and more oil.
I can see why he chose her. It’s not a dumb choice, but it is sort of the equivalent of the big Hail Mary, isn’t it? He’s going to have to stop using the “not experienced enough to be President” thing, isn’t he? She’s been the governor of Northern Exposure (low population western state) for less than two years. He might be counting on the Clinton Cougars and the PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) people who wanted to see a woman in office — well, not all women are alike and choosing the less experienced pretty girl who is the policy antithesis of the aging tough broad to be the number two (not the HBIC) is an old and embittering story. And I really wonder if the hard-core evangelical voters will ever want to vote for a ticket where a woman might wind up in a position of high leadership. It might be my misconception (I have a metric ton of them), but I would think that the same Pauline prohibitions about women in the ministry would apply to women as president.
Well, if he’s going down, he’s going down swinging, I guess. The vice-presidential debates will be interesting, with both of them outdoing the other to be “regular folks.”
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My Beautiful Wickedness 
I think she’s sufficiently anti-choice (and anti-birth control), and clearly enough less experienced than and subservient to the head of the ticket to counterbalance some of the more Pauline concerns about a female on the ticket.
Comment by nm August 29, 2008 @ 12:11 pmI think she’s prettier than Cindy. I’m guessing that CampaignMcStain is going to be Stalinist when it comes to folks wandering around the hotel at nigh. The Hillary supporters (who are beginning to sound more than a bit unhinged) who would vote for this woman ARE selling out feminism. She’s anti-choice for Mother Jones’ sake!
Comment by democommie August 29, 2008 @ 12:27 pmWell, she IS the only person running this year who isn’t a millionaire, I think.
🙂
I used to think McCain was a hothead, not-so-bright senator. But, he’s outmaneuvering Obama every step of the way. He’s driving the news coverage.
nm, do you really think cultural conservatives, in any number, are that backwards? Will liberals ever stop insulting people who don’t agree with them politically? Or am I just grumpy because my knuckles hurt, you know, dragging the ground and all…
Comment by Slartibartfast August 29, 2008 @ 1:35 pmI think this election has demonstrated post-modernism at its clearest.
The only thing that matters is which pre-digested version of her carries the day via the mass media. It isn’t the event or the person, it is the distilled version of the event or person that matters.
I guess my take is that whether she is a winning choice will depend on whether enough people are persuaded she is a winning choice.
Comment by Gerald August 29, 2008 @ 1:47 pmLet’s see, Slarti … Bridgett wondered whether hard-core evangelical voters could accept a woman on the ticket and I pointed out that I thought that they could accept this woman, because she is active in issues that they consider core, and because she won’t be perceived as challenging the man on the ticket. That is, I suggest that hardcore evangelical voters are likely to see a woman as completely qualified to represent them on certain issues that affect women; and that I don’t think that they have a straight “women should be seen and not heard” attitude that can’t be affected by other circumstances. Yet you do not suggest that Bridgett is insulting cultural conservatives, but you are suggesting that I am. (Although since I don’t consider that “cultural conservatives” = “hardcore evangelical voters” I don’t see how I said anything, good or bad, about the former.) I don’t suggest that you are grouchy and certainly have no insight into why you would be, if you were, but I do suggest that you are annoyed at me for reasons that don’t have a thing to do with anything I’ve said here, or else that you are prepared to give Bridgett a pass that you won’t give me.
Comment by nm August 29, 2008 @ 2:22 pm[…] Bridgett- “She’s got idealism and the courage of her convictions. She’s a MILF, if people really vote on that sort of thing.” […]
Pingback by Tennesseefree.com » Sarah Palin- Brilliant Choice August 29, 2008 @ 9:01 pmI think she’s sufficiently anti-choice (and anti-birth control),
Why? Because she has a successful career AND five children?
Comment by theflatwhite August 30, 2008 @ 7:35 amActually, she is pro-contraceptive and pro-life.
It’s hard to rip her on this – Palin lives the standard she preaches.
You’ve come to the wrong blog if you’re looking to pick a fight with someone about the compatibility of career and family. Happily, I have both. However, unlike Palin, I am not willing to impose my beliefs on other people. It’s lovely that she’s successful and has both the drive and the financial/emotional support to have a large family, but not everyone will have those things.
To boil it down, I’m good with her “living the standard.” My objection is the preaching.
Comment by bridgett August 30, 2008 @ 8:39 amIt’s hard to understand why McCain would want to ditch the ‘experience’ argument. It’s one of his better arguments.
I’ll be interested to see how many Hilary voters do admit to voting for the McCain ticket due to Palin
Comment by imfunny2 August 30, 2008 @ 9:43 am[…] Like Bridgett, I’m not sure I know enough about Sarah Palin yet to have a considered opinion. But some of […]
Pingback by Sarah Palin « Crazy Raspberry Aunt August 30, 2008 @ 1:41 pmIt turns out that for the extreme extremists, Palin is too uppity and, as a woman, shouldn’t be telling men what to do. Ed Brayton from ScienceBlogs found the Christian Reconstructionists saying this:
Comment by nm September 16, 2008 @ 11:58 amhttp://www.covenantnews.com/trewhella080910.htm
Yeah, that’s what I thought. It doesn’t fit the “fundamentalists LOVE her!” story that we’re all supposed to be buying, though, so I don’t see it covered much.
That guy’s interpretation of Deborah is pretty wack too. Deborah’s rebuke is typically interpreted as a reminder of the importance of faith — Barak’s not being denied glory because he’s asking a woman to come along, but because he’s not trusting God. Doh.
Comment by bridgett September 16, 2008 @ 12:17 pmWell, in fairness to most fundamentalists, the Reconstructionists are a bit much even for them.
I hesitate to comment on Christian interpretations of Deborah, since I have no idea what they are. But, yes, Barak lacks faith. He also lacks standing: from our point of view, Deborah is both a prophet and a judge, i.e. a wielder of the highest spiritual and secular authority available to individuals at the time, and (as a judge) an embodiment of the communal will. And while it’s rare for a woman to hold those positions and wield that power, nowhere in Scripture is it presented as problematic. Moreover, by showing Deborah commanding armies and Yael (a tremendous hero to us, responsible for a glut of Yaels in the generation just before mine) as executing Sisera, Scripture shows that our freedom is dependent on women, as well as men, being involved in the struggle. Which is the complete opposite of the way this guy reads it.
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