BlogHer - The Pitbull in Lipstick Mommy: Five Questions for Sarah Palin - Comments

AAAAAMEN

DCSweetie — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:10:49 -0500

DCSweetie (http://dcsweetie.blogspot.com/)

Or should I say, "a-woman"? I especially like #5 here. Does it concern anyone else that Palin returned to work THREE DAYS after giving birth to her 5th kid? That doesn't bode well for her support of extended family leave.

Thanks for your insightful piece.

Palin Gaffe's on her first public question

topsyturvy86 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:01:21 -0500

She's still not allowed to give interveiws but this was when she was with the rest of her team speaking to voters. I guess she still has a lot of schooling to do!

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Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."

Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.

You could find the rest of the story here : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/08/palin-makes-her-first-gaf_n_124792.html

Temi

well said

ynnej — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:41:13 -0500

I was thinking these things but unable to verablize them enough to blog. Thanks for summarizing so well!

http://ConscientiousConfusion.blogspot.com

That's It!!!

Southerngirl — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:35:40 -0500

Reality Chick

I have stayed away from this for the last few days because I needed to figure out why this whole thing pissed me off soo much. You hit it on the head. I was that teenager shuttling the younger ones around and making sure they got off to school in the morning. There are many more pictures of me holding the younger kids than my mom. My family was not well off and my mom worked from 6am to 6pm most days and my dad worked 2 jobs so someone had to step in and it was often me. I see that in the Palin family. I realize now that I feel this poor child's pain and Gov. Palin has choices that my mom never had but wants me to think she is just like me. I really resented being put in that position even though I was smart enough to understand why. I too see a very different picture.

Michelle

Ditto, reality chick. And

miteegirl — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:23:58 -0500

Ditto, reality chick. And it took me years to get over the resentment I had at being forced to be "the little mother". I wouldn't have minded if we were all in day care or had a nanny, actually. Anyone who could have let me just be a kid and not a mini-mom at age 10.

In fact, so did my cousin and she went out and got pregnant in high school to try and escape her mother's clutches. That was a serious cry for help.

Thank you Rebecca

reality chick — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:19:46 -0500

For getting back to the issues. I'm disheartened by the figure Sarah Palin offers as a feminist role model: a woman who does everything to the point of exhaustion -- badly. "If I can do it, you can too."

I was a teenage daughter who grew up with my mother's youngest offspring on my hip, as Bristol Palin is photographed now. To some this may seem a picture of family togetherness -- but I see a different picture.

Many more than 5

Kelly Wickham — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:55:37 -0500

You asked good questions and ones which we have all the rights to know if this is a serious contender. But I'm still skeptical about that. Is she a contender? Mostly, however, I ask, "Is she SERIOUS?"

I've heard her mention that glass celing and every time I wonder if she secretly has the duct tape and super glue with which to patch that sucker up - there's no way she wants another woman to have the rights we've worked so hard to get.

Mocha Momma

Step One

rebellious thinker — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:50:54 -0500

Well, she is apparently back in Alaska getting ready to be on the campaign trail. Someone must have realized that she can't answer these questions without nastily attacking Obama and city folk as being less American than those who live in small towns. Maybe now, after this huge ego up-do, she can think about these questions and decide, maybe I'm not up to it, and maybe I'm not really able to put America first, because I've lived my entire life in a tiny town in Alaska and have no idea who Americans are, how diverse they are, how colorful they are, how far-removed from my life they are. Maybe she'll do herself, her family, and us and favor and retire back into the bear den.

Laura, www.RebelliousThoughtsofaWoman.com

The Pitbull in Lipstick Mommy: Five Questions for Sarah Palin

Rebecca Walker — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:47:43 -0500

Okay, I think we all agree that even though she's probably a very nice human
being, the Sarah Palin VP pick is deeply problematic.

From the looks of how she's being positioned in the GOP, she's the foil for
a host of horrifying scenarios they've got planned, from the continued
erosion of first amendment rights to the exponential growth of the prison-industrial complex.

Anyway.

If I ran into her at a hunting-themed bar at the Anchorage airport, I'd
walk right up and ask some questions--because she's so accessible, you
know?

1. I really, truly respect your privacy, but I read on the net that your
fifth baby may be your daughter's. Even if that is just a vicious lefty-commie smear,
your seventeen year-old is really pregnant, right? Listen, I love
babies, and I get you're anti-abortion and pro-abstinence, but don't
you think you should be pro-birth control, too? And teen moms who aren't your daughter?

2. What on earth does the bear on your office sofa symbolize? Bear market?
Bear Stearns? Father Bear, Black Bear, Childbearing, Bearing down? Your victory against environmentalists who want to protect polar bears from extinction?
I know I'm not alone when I wonder what you feel when you rest your
back against all that dark fur. Dominance, protection, hunger,
compassion? It would tell us a lot about who you are and what you would
do with the living organism we call earth.

3. Your mother-in-law says you don't bring anything to the table other
than your gender and political affiliation. What did you do to her
last Thanksgiving? Is she responsible for the Eskimo-Yupiik part of
your husband and if so, is she upset he married a woman who wants to
drill on native lands? Or is your husband's mom pro-sovereignty, and still coming to terms with the whole Alaskan statehoood thing?

4. The way you congratulated and undermined Hillary at the same time
was clever. That part about 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, and
the American people being ready to break all the way through. But
Hillary has faced down some of the most dangerous forces on the planet,
and won eighteen million votes, too. What experience do you have surviving physical, psychological, cultural or any other kind of warfare?

What's your position on Darfur? Tibet? North Korea? I think you and Sarkozy
might get on, but what about Putin? Are you ready to go over the fine
points with Vladimir? Are you up for challenging Hu Jintao on the age
of the gymnasts on the Chinese Olympic team, or on the oil pipeline
China is running from Somalia?

And finally:

5. Have you sat down and had a long talk with your husband about this
whole thing? I'm not saying it's an issue, but we're talking five kids,
in Washington, DC. We're talking state dinners, applications to Sidwell Friends, and a landmine of completely uncharted masculinity issues. Can your marriage hold up? Just how secure is your husband?

And maybe more important, would your husband's role in your life encourage
you to support a broader Family Leave Act? Like the one in Sweden, where parents are entitled to eighteen months paid Parental Leave?

But seriously. I hope you're making the right choice. Because should you
manage to pull off a miracle and end up VP, it's going to get very hot
in your kitchen. And if you don't, you're going to have to live knowing
your nomination may have unified and cemented the victory of the
democratic party in 2008 and beyond.

Either way, I wish you and your family the best. Like it or not, we really are all in this together.