Palin is Everywoman

Palin is not every woman.  I'm a working-breadearner mother of 3, but other than that, we have NOTHING in common. The crux of it is this:  why any woman would encourage/support/force her daughter, whose teen pregnancy is bankrolled anyway, to marry an such an idiot (see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/01/levi-john...

is beyond me.  And if I sound like I'm judging, I'm OK with that.  To think she represents "everywoman" is hallucinatory.

http://nakedanarchists.wordpress.com ( http://nakedanarchists.wordpress.com/ )

Palin is all about Alaska and the resources, everyone in that state is.

She wonders if the lower 48 have unlocked resources and are the corporations preventing them from developing?  Is it the environmentalist?  She can see the effect on the environment but is she sincere to protect them? 

Developing resources in Alaska will benefit Alaska, it will barely count in the lower 48 only if they rely less on the federal government, have to wonder why the most federally subsidized state has a surplus?  Petroleum and taxes, that’s high prices benefits Alaska. 

Getting the oil and natural gas out of Alaska will not reduce prices, not noticeably but it will raise the tax base for Alaskans. 

She may be good to address these scenarios state by state, but can she get the scenarios in each state down, she does not live in them and she is not directly connected with them, her husband works for BP in that she has a personal consult she can trust.  

That’s very much reality, that she talks about matters at hand within the family.  Very common sense, but getting into it nationally can she handle that.  

Energy policy that seems to be her role.  Figuring out who what and why? 

If this woman had an engineering degree or environmental science education, with her personality I would be all enamored with her, but she may just have an aptitude an ability to comprehend, but without a more comprehensive knowledge, but my god the VP has access to all sorts of information, but you have to wonder if the party would apply a filter on that.   Resource data can be biased.  

Not to mention the energy industry is very manipulated and controlled, that is her agenda but it is very complex, Alaska is simple compared to the rest of the nation and the global markets.  

We could through technology change everything, prices are high that makes things possible, the scenario of why do anything is corporate, they offer less and charge more, they do not want increased supply, nor do they want the increased cost of the alternatives.

 This is what Sarah Palin is all about,

American voters don't choose their leaders in the same way that they choose their physicians

I know.  It is sad.  It's how we end up with a boss who is so inept and treats us so poorly, because the CEO plays golf with his dad.

It's how our daughters or our sisters get passed over for promotion because the hiring manager wants someone "he can relate to".

And it's how we ended up with George Bush, who took us from a record budget surplus into a record budget deficit.

I really wish that we were better than that, as a country.  That we took choosing an elected official--an official who has power over our security and economic circumstances and our children's education--as seriously as we took choosing a car.  Or a house.  This reliance on how someone looks like us or how attractive they are makes us look foolish and uneducated.

I'm 53 and not yet a grandparent.

I like it that way. Lucky her... ten years younger and headed for grandmotherhood. Noooooo, nooo nooo nooo.

This way my illusion of adolescence extends onward. :)

Seriously... young women occasionally find themselves preggers. I'm not about to think that that particular occurrence is a reflection upon anyone, rather a reflection of a moment in time in a life.  

nelle ( http://refractivethoughts.org/ )

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llhaesa ( http://llhaesa.org/ )

Michelle (my 18 year old) and I talked about that a little bit today.

I do think we have to be careful about looking for our reflections in our leaders - I just don't think most of us have the time or the energy or the interest to look deeper and harder. And that's why our candidates run the types of campaigns that they run. It's why they choose the running mates that they choose. It's also why they distance themselves from people they respect when they become damaging to their image. Does that make sense my comments clearer? I feel like I'm muddling it, heh.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )

What are the thoughts on her 17 year old being 5 months pregnant? Does that make her more everywoman (and I agree with the blog post)? I haven't seen a post on this yet, and I don't feel qualified enough to write it. Thoughts?

Clare Ondrey

Stirring and Whirring ( http://stirringandwhirring.blogspot.com )

cooking, writing, and anything that comes along

How do I know I'd want to hang out with her? I personally don't go trolling for friends with manly husbands, so there's that.

Sorry, joke - this is all getting to be a bit much to take (not just this post, the aggregate of everything, vaguely speaking.)

First of all, it disturbs me that you begin with "she's attractive." Can we stop making that the first qualification for a woman to do anything, much less to be our friend or a world leader? Second of all, in answer to your question, I really doubt I'd want her as my "best girlfriend" - my best friend in college was a card-carrying NRA member and I just couldn't get with that program - but I don't know. I don't know her, not really. I could make a sweeping generalization and say I'd like Joe Biden to be my surrogate grandpa but again, I have no idea.

I think you're right, Denise, in that we see what we need and/or want to see in people. I just don't know how far we can take that.

Laurie

A journalist who covered Bush early on said that he was a lot of fun, someone he'd love to have a beer and shoot the breeze with. It was the thought of him running the country that scared him to death.

American voters don't choose their leaders in the same way that they choose their physicians, though I can say that I know a lot of people who do choose their doctors based on their personality, their school affiliation, their race, gender and their religion. And, I did recently suggest that my partner should choose a doctor who had great shoes... all of the doctors she was choosing from had good credentials and I wanted her to choose someone she would enjoy going to see. :-)

So - again, I said that I agree with you but in my experience, Americans like people who are like them. They trust people who are like them. And that's why Senator Obama asks that we forget about his million dollar home and remember that he's just got one house and remember that Senator McCain has a lot of houses. Americans don't vote for people they can't relate to or who they don't believe can relate to them.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )

Denise--

Let's imagine, for a moment, that your daughter has the chance to take her dream job.  It is the job that represents everything that she feels passionate about, she has amazing experience, and skills and knowledge that align very well with what the position requires.

And the hiring manager, a white man in his 50's, says to her:

"Well, you've accomplished a lot.  Sure.  But John Smith here is a lot more like me than you are.   I can't help but like him and respect him because I'm human - and humans look for people to work with who we think can relate to us or who we think we can relate to.

So, sorry.  You didn't get the job.  I like him more because he's more like me."

I know that it happens.  It's how we got George Bush. 

 If I needed to have brain surgery, I wouldn't want the doctor who I liked best, who was just like me.  I would want the doctor who was the best collection of skills and experience.  The one who had worked on the most diverse collecton of patients because, when I'm laying there on the operating table and my skull is open?  I want to feel confident that this doctor will have seen a variety of problems so nothing that is in there would throw him/her.  That I would live to see my daughter graduate from college.

At that moment, it wouldn't matter to me whether my doctor looked the same way I did from the waist down, or liked the same brand of peanut butter I did, or whether the doctor was someone who I could have a beer with.

I wouldn't want a beer.  I would want the best doctor for the job.

the struggling isn't over, not in terms of how I feel.

Palin generates a strong pull, and if she were pro choice, things would be incredibly tougher for me. I hate that Obama chose such that it created this dilemma, when he could have stood and embraced change for so many out there who desired it.

I've said this elsewhere, but... if Hillary had won, and had she ignored those who voted for Obama, my words would be excoriating her as well. This isn't a nelle supported Hillary, so will skewer Obama thing. Both sides needed to be represented in some fashion, and whichever of the two won, the winner had to recognise why the other had so much support.

Instead it looks like "I won and can damn well do what I wish!" sort of thing, to hell with true change, to hell with so many who were leaning towards the Democratic Party.

I'd like to see Obama do *something* for those of us who so wish for women to be represented. He blew it on the veepship, but America is 51% women, and he would do well to bring his cabinet somewhere near that figure. If he gives a 'my cabinet will look like America' spiel, well... call him on this element.

nelle ( http://refractivethoughts.org/ )

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llhaesa ( http://llhaesa.org/ )

You idealistic die hard liberal, you. And I mean that will only respect and appreciation (and can only needle you because I've known you for so long.)

There was never any doubt in my mind that you would vote Obama but it has been interesting watching you struggle with the choice. The fact that you struggled so much and for so long and that I'm voting off party is a sign that all is not well in the Democratic party.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )

if there was a vp candidate anywhere near like me running. ;-)

I've really been doing a lot of soul searching over where my vote will go in this election. McCain/Palin? Obama/Biden? write in? The latter two were most likely from the moment the candidates had shaped their respective tickets.

We don't often think of the Republican Party as being home to working class folk who wander into politics, so on this score, Palin is a huge positive.

In the end though, after kicking this around a lot in my mind, my vote is going to go to Obama. There are people very very dear to me who stand to gain or lose much depending on who wins, and those ties sufficiently influence my thoughts as to send me in that direction.

That's just me. I lament that others cannot understand and appreciate why it is someone would view the same set of facts differently, and lead them to vote in a different way. People I greatly respect are going to vote for McCain/Palin, and well...

it makes me crazy that people are getting all pissy about how those they interact with are voting. I've taken a hell of a beating for having the audacity to suggest Obama erred in his selection, but he did. If he selected Sebelius, me and many others would not have spent the last 10 days agonising over where our votes would go. 

nelle ( http://refractivethoughts.org/ )

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llhaesa ( http://llhaesa.org/ )

During an election, every candidate tries to make himself "relatable" to the voters. It's why the Obama camp jumped on McCain for telling reporters to ask his staff about how many houses he had. Because Obama wants voters to think of HIM as being just like them because he knows how many homes he owns. (He trusts that the voter will forget that his home is a big ticket mansion sitting in the Loop and not one sitting on a sink hole.)

Palin isn't just like me, none of the candidates are - but she's a heck of a lot more like me than Obama or McCain or even Clinton (which is pretty interesting since I'm a Democrat...a non-Christian... and I really dislike hunting and fishing.) I can't help but like her and respect her because I'm human - and humans look for leaders who we think can relate to us or who we think we can relate to.

Don't we start with the personal, the basics, the history, the character - and then dig deeper, often finding that the person we could most relate to is the one who most aligns with us on the issues?

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )

I understand the feeling YOU must have about Gov. Palin but this statement:

"Palin embodies what we are, what we want to be, what we can be." is true for you and those women who agree with you.

Again - I am thrilled for women who are the conservative side of the aisle to feel that they now have someone too with whom they can ID, but in no way does Gov. Palin embody what I am, what I want to be or what I can be.  Many of us really do not see anything remotely like that.

Jill
Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

Palin is a women.  Just like the rest of us.  Just like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Condeleeza Rice, KB Hutchinson and my grandmother.

There is no "everywoman."  Every woman is different.

Lumping all women together into one archetype is a bit insulting to the diversity of women and is every bit as strange as a man who believes that every woman should be barefoot and pregnant.

I find it disconcerting that there has been quite a bit of talk about "Palin is just like me!" or "I would shop for shoes with Palin!"

Because that is not how one should choose a leader, a consultant, a co-worker, or anyone who needs to fulfill a professional obligation.

If we accept that any woman is justified in choosing a Vice-President or a President who is "just like me", then we would have to accept that it is acceptable for any MAN in a position of power to vote for or hire someone who is just like him.  Male, white, etc.

Is that acceptable to you?  That people should consider whether someone is just like them when choosing them for a job or political office?

It's not acceptable to me.  And, if you have daughters, it shouldn't be acceptable to you.

Talk about Palin's accomplishments, her skills compared to the requirements of the job, her knowledge of things related to the work that needs to be done.  And I'll respect that.