Sarah Palin Screwed Women

Let me be clear: I do not like Sarah Palin. I don't agree with the positions she attempts to articulate. I believe she's a hypocrite (e.g., against premaritial sex and birth control as she paraded her pregnant, unmarried teenage daughter all around the country). I believe she was so far in over her head as John McCain's running mate that she had no idea she was in over her head. I believe she was condescending and disrespectful on the campaign trail. Mostly, I believe that she wasn't even close to being ready for the glare of national politics.

But for all the reasons I don't like her, she has also been a trailblazing woman. She's a member of an elite club of 31 women who have ever served as Governor. Can you believe that? In the almost 250 year history of the United States, only 31 women have ever been the CEO of their state. Although the list of female vice presidential candidates is longer, only two women have ever received the vice presidential nomination of a major party - Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin.

As everyone knows by now, she resigned last week as Governor of Alaska. Rumors had been swirling for weeks that she would not run again in 2010 because she wanted to focus on running for president in 2012. Okay. Maybe she'd use the time between November 2008 and early/mid 2011 when she might declare her candidacy to bone up on the issues and crystalize her positions on them, develop a platform that was more than soundbites and had actual substance, have a solid track record of performance, practice her public speaking skills, grow some thicker skin, and learn how not to make mountains out of mole hills.

And then she quit, which took me by surprise as it took many people around the country, including some of her closest advisors if the media reports are to be believed. According to her word salad resignation speech, one of the reasons for quitting the job she was elected to do for four years, could essentially be boiled down to "people picked on me." So what.

Any woman who has ever accomplished anything in life has been picked on. Does Sarah Palin think that Suffragettes were greated with open arms? They weren't. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was rumored to have been a lesbian. So what if she was. Rosa Parks was arrested and lost her job for not giving up a seat on a bus. Ask any of the handful of women running Fortune 500 companies if the red carpet was rolled out for them or if they had to worked harder and overcome more obstacles than their male counterparts. Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor has endured horrific comments including a statement by G. Gordon Liddy (of Watergate fame) hoping she doesn't have her period during her confirmation hearings (for the record, she's well past the age of menopause, so there's not much chance of that happening). And, of course, the woman Sarah Palin liked to compare herself to during the campaign, Hillary Clinton, has had a lifetime of people picking on her and her family. In fact, it was Sarah Palin who essentially said Hillary Clinton just needed to suck it up and get over that she had a tough road to hoe.

But it's not just women who publicly broke glass ceilings, but ordinary women who achieved any success in their lives who have faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We each have our own stories of when people tried to beat us down, but we kept going. Partly, we kept going for ourselves. But I'm sure that each woman who ever faced any sort of harassment or discrimination in her life and fought through it, did it not only for herself, but at some level, also for the daughters and granddaughters she had or may have and the millions of women who would come after her.

By quitting her job as the CEO of Alaska, and including Sarah Palin there are currently only 7 female Governors, Sarah Palin just added one more obstacle for any woman wanting to hold a position of significance. Who among us hasn't heard the words, "oh, don't mind her. She's just emotional because she's got her period" when we were appropriately outraged. It's not enough that we know that people wonder if we'll leave when we start to have babies or if we have thick enough skin, but now there is rock solid evidence that when the going get tough women leave. I mean, if Sarah Baracuda can't handle the stress, how can the rest of us?

Sarah likes to speak about how she took the difficult road and quit because she could have more impact outside of the state house. She claimed that hunkering down and getting to work in the face of great challenges was the easy way out. I can't imagine that Hillary Clinton ever thought the obstacles and humiliation she faced were "easy." Or that Rosa Parks thought being arrested and fired was "easy." Whether or not she knows it, Sarah Palin is a role model. And she just told countless girls across the country that when the going gets tough, the tough walk away.

Thanks Sarah.

The Vet Who Did Not Vet

As usual, Balancing Boyfriends has the best stuff! Thanks Tim! xoxo

As Tim says, this is an important civics lesson.

Sarah Palin's Hometown Paper Endorses . . . . OBAMA!

The Anchorage Daily News, Alaska's largest paper, has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

Here's the entire endorsement. All emphasis is mine.

Obama for president
Palin's rise captivates us but nation needs a steady hand

Published: October 25th, 2008 07:37 PM
Last Modified: October 25th, 2008 08:10 PM

Alaska enters its 50th-anniversary year in the glow of an improbable and highly memorable event: the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate. For the first time ever, an Alaskan is making a serious bid for national office, and in doing so she brings broad attention and recognition not only to herself, but also to the state she leads.

Alaska's founders were optimistic people, but even the most farsighted might have been stretched to imagine this scenario. No matter the outcome in November, this election will mark a signal moment in the history of the 49th state. Many Alaskans are proud to see their governor, and their state, so prominent on the national stage.

Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency -- but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.

Since his early acknowledgement that economic policy is not his strong suit, Sen. McCain has stumbled and fumbled badly in dealing with the accelerating crisis as it emerged. He declared that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" at 9 a.m. one day and by 11 a.m. was describing an economy in crisis. He is both a longtime advocate of less market regulation and a supporter of the huge taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout. His behavior in this crisis -- erratic is a kind description -- shows him to be ill-equipped to lead the essential effort of reining in a runaway financial system and setting an anxious nation on course to economic recovery.

Sen. Obama warned regulators and the nation 19 months ago that the subprime lending crisis was a disaster in the making. Sen. McCain backed tighter rules for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but didn't do much to advance that legislation. Of the two candidates, Sen. Obama better understands the mortgage meltdown's root causes and has the judgment and intelligence to shape a solution, as well as the leadership to rally the country behind it. It is easy to look at Sen. Obama and see a return to the smart, bipartisan economic policies of the last Democratic administration in Washington, which left the country with the momentum of growth and a budget surplus that President George Bush has squandered.

On the most important issue of the day, Sen. Obama is a clear choice.

Sen. McCain describes himself as a maverick, by which he seems to mean that he spent 25 years trying unsuccessfully to persuade his own party to follow his bipartisan, centrist lead. Sadly, maverick John McCain didn't show up for the campaign. Instead we have candidate McCain, who embraces the extreme Republican orthodoxy he once resisted and cynically asks Americans to buy for another four years.

It is Sen. Obama who truly promises fundamental change in Washington. You need look no further than the guilt-by-association lies and sound-bite distortions of the degenerating McCain campaign to see how readily he embraces the divisive, fear-mongering tactics of Karl Rove. And while Sen. McCain points to the fragile success of the troop surge in stabilizing conditions in Iraq, it is also plain that he was fundamentally wrong about the more crucial early decisions. Contrary to his assurances, we were not greeted as liberators; it was not a short, easy war; and Americans -- not Iraqi oil -- have had to pay for it. It was Sen. Obama who more clearly saw the danger ahead.

The unqualified endorsement of Sen. Obama by a seasoned, respected soldier and diplomat like Gen. Colin Powell, a Republican icon, should reassure all Americans that the Democratic candidate will pass muster as commander in chief.

On a matter of parochial interest, Sen. Obama opposes the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but so does Sen. McCain. We think both are wrong, and hope a President Obama can be convinced to support environmentally responsible development of that resource.

Gov. Palin has shown the country why she has been so successful in her young political career. Passionate, charismatic and indefatigable, she draws huge crowds and sows excitement in her wake. She has made it clear she's a force to be reckoned with, and you can be sure politicians and political professionals across the country have taken note. Her future, in Alaska and on the national stage, seems certain to be played out in the limelight.

Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.
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Ouch! That's gotta hurt. Who knows you better than your hometown newspaper? And then it goes and calls you "too risky" and says the job would "stretch [you] beyond [your] range." Damn.

President Sarah Palin

Just in case you need one more reason to go vote early or on November 4th for Barack Obama, click on the website below and once there, click around (make sure your volume is turned up).

You'll throw up a little bit in the back of your throat. I promise.

President Sarah Palin (I said it so you don't have to).

Picture from AMERICAblog.

Sarah Palin Interview!

Do you have questions you'd like to pose to Governor Palin? Of course you do!

Here's your chance to speak directly with Sarah. Ask her anything you want.

Want to know why she gave her kids such bizarre names? Just ask. Want to know the foundation for her crazy anti-choice beliefs? Just ask. Wondering what she REALLY thinks of her husband Todd? Ask! Ever question whether Sarah had sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky? Go for it! Curious about what she thinks about global warming. Feel free to query her on it.

Interview Sarah Palin!

The Morning After Pill & Sarah Palin

Tip of the hat to FranIAm for alerting me to this very funny post over at Psychology, Dogs, Politics, and Wine.

Enjoy!

Palinex - Because You Shouldn't Have to Suffer for the Biggest Mistake of Your Political Career

Sarah Palin & Hillary Clinton Joint Appearance!

Okay, so SNL was a repeat tonight (side note: We're not even a month into the season and they're already out of fresh material? Really?) and we weren't blessed with any new Sarah Palin/Tina Fey sketches.

Luckily, this Sarah Palin & Hillary Clinton Joint Appearance never gets old.

Enjoy!



Note the "this one" reference weeks before John McCain said it.

Sarah Palin Bingo!

Have a little fun tonight while you watch the debate with Sarah Palin Bingo! Fun for the whole family!

Truly, this fun game is good not only for the debate, but anytime she opens her mouth.

Sarah Palin's Debate Prep

If you are unfamilar with Sara Benincasa and her impressions of Sarah Palin, I urge you to immediately educate yourself. She is brilliant and spot on. Her impressions are different from Tina Fey's in that they let us see into Sarah Palin's psyche.

Pull up a chair and get comfy. I warn you, however, you may laugh so hard you injure yourself. It'll be worth it, I assure you.

Sarah Palin: I Memorized 10 Words and Those Will Answer All Questions

I swear, it's Christmas morning when I was 6 and still believed in Santa.

Just when you think Sarah Palin can't top herself, she goes and let's Katie Couric interview her AGAIN.

Thank you God!

I will only hope and pray that she shows this same defensiveness, snarkiness, arrogance, and lack of intelligible thought in the debate on Thursday night.

At the risk of sounding snarky myself, if you're reading my blog and you are honestly supporting the McCain/Palin ticket, can you please explain to me in terms other than "she's pretty," "she's nice and personable," "she's a hockey mom," etc. WHY she is remotely qualified to be the Vice President and maybe the President. And please don't give me the tired answer of "she's more qualified than Barack because she was the Mayor and the Governor of Alaska and he was just a silly community organizer." Please, I beg you. Please explain this to me.

Onto today's gift from above . . . .

WARNING: Remove all liquids and solids from your mouth and empty your bladder before watching this video.



By the way, does it bother anyone else that Sarah Palin was a JOURNALISM MAJOR in college and can't handle answering the most basic questions?

SNL's Sarah Palin's Interview by Katie Couric

So very glad I stay up to watch SNL tonight. Tina Fey is pure genius.

Sarah Palin Should Bow Out?

Kathleen Parker, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, wrote a column today saying that Sarah Palin should bow out of the campaign. Her reasons are numerous and I could not disagree more.

I started to leave a comment, but the more I wrote, the more I realized this was really a blog post.

Kathleen Parker: "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."

Let me just say I do not and have never thought Sarah Palin was a good choice for McCain's VP. I loathe Sarah Palin and everything she believes in. As a rape survivor, I am sick at the idea of having to pay for my own rape kit and that if she had her way, I would not be allowed the choice to terminate any resulting pregnancy (I was fortunate enough to not get pregnant). My head wants to explode when I think about what she would do to the progress in women's equality.

Sarah Palin's understanding of foreign policy and the economy, the biggest issues of this election and probably of the next 4 to 8 years or more, is embarrassing for her and the country. That the GOP could not find a better qualified running mate to "shake up" John McCain's campaign is laughable and insulting. It is inexcusable that the GOP has not been able to better educate and prepare their Vice Presidential candidate for even the most obvious questions.

That said, Sarah Palin CANNOT withdraw.

John McCain chose her and the GOP celebrated her. As we have seen time and time again, they obviously did both without any sort of vetting. Had Barack Obama not vetted his running mate (and let's be clear, John McCain had almost 6 months to find and vet his choice, but Barack Obama had less than half that time), we would see non-stop 24/7 ads about it from the GOP all the way to the election.

Kathleen Parker falsely believes that "no one would criticize a mother who wants to put her family first" and I could not disagree more. If Sarah Palin were to drop out citing her family as her reason, there would be very loud whispers for years to come that a woman couldn't really take on the task of being Vice President, much less being President. Future women candidates for President will be scrutinized with "are you SURE you can put the Country above your family?" It will be used as evidence to bolster the "women can't really do it all" argument that some people still believe.

18 million cracks in the glass ceiling will become barely visible.

Don't misunderstand me, I believe that motherhood is the most important (and least appreciated and underpaid) job in the world. And I believe that women CAN have it all. I believe that women SHOULD be CEOs, Nobel Prize winners, and Heads of State. But there are choices we all have to make in our lives and a balance we each have to strike for ourselves. When the choice you make is to become a heart beat away from being the President, unfortunately, you've lost the luxury of saying "I change my mind" 38 days before the election.

The impulsiveness of both John McCain and Sarah Palin says volumes about the type of judgement they both have, but they both made this bed and it's time they slept in it.

As I've said, I'm no fan of Sarah Palin and I pray every night that the McCain-Palin ticket loses this election, but Sarah Palin has to see this through. She owes that to the women and girls of America.

I Have Foreign Policy Experience According to Sarah Palin's Logic!

Yes I do! How? Well, let me explain it to you . . .

I live in Illinois, just outside of Chicago. Chicago is on Lake Michigan, one of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes not only share borders with the United States, but also with Canada (a foreign country). I've spent time in Texas and California. Both states share borders with Mexico (ANOTHER foreign country). I ALSO used to live in Washington DC, where there are many embassies. All of those embassies are not really part of the US. They are actually part of the territory of their home countries. That means that all the time I spent on Embassy Row, I was really visiting foreign countries. Furthermore, I personally travelled to the Bahamas when I was 10. And, I have been heavily involved in foreign trade due to the fact that most of what I purchase all has "Made in China" stamped on it somewhere. My junior high boyfriend was also 100% Greek, so I have personally been involved in numerous diplomatic missions and negotiations. I also regularly provide economic stimulus packages to Thailand by eating at my favorite Thai restaurant. See, I really am a foreign policy expert.

Let's watch Sarah Palin's logic about her foreign policy experience in her interview with Katie Couric . . . . And you'll love how she's finally figured out that Canada is her neighbor too! I think my favorite part is the disgust on Katie's face and also that no one can say there was sexism involved since Katie Couric is a woman.


Watch CBS Videos Online

Here's the transcript from America Blog.