Hillary’s Top Aides, Feminists, Angrily Defend Palin Against Leftist Media’s “Sexism”
Politico:
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Sarah Palin found some unlikely allies Wednesday as leading academics and even former top aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton endorsed the Republican charge that John McCain’s running mate has been subject to a sexist double standard by the news media and Democrats.
Georgetown University professor Deborah Tannen, who has written best-selling books on gender differences, said she agrees with complaints that Palin skeptics — including prominent voices in the news media — have crossed a line by speculating about whether the Alaska governor is neglecting her family in pursuit of national office.
“What we’re dealing with now, there’s nothing subtle about it,” said Tannen. “We’re dealing with the assumption that child-rearing is the job of women and not men. Is it sexist? Yes.”
“There’s no way those questions would be asked of a male candidate,” said Howard Wolfson a former top strategist for Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The sexism charge was hurled with new intensity Wednesday afternoon by McCain surrogates, all women, at a news conference just hours before she was to make her acceptance speech here.
The tense encounter with reporters showed how McCain’s team has abandoned all pretense that this convention is about anything but Palin, her thin résumé and her wildly unexpected ascension to the GOP ticket.
A choice that was intended to shake up the race did so with more ferocity than McCain ever intended. The mother of five — with one pregnant teenage daughter and an infant son with Down syndrome — has joined a parade of personalities from Anita Hill to O.J. Simpson to Monica Lewinsky to become a cultural flash point.
Many media and liberal voices have made the job easy for McCain’s spin squadrons. Among the eyebrow-raising comments in recent days:
*Democratic Joe Biden, in what he intended as self-deprecating remark, observed, “There’s a gigantic difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and between me and I suspect my vice presidential opponent…. She’s good looking.”
*A spokeswoman for the National Organization for Women, noting Palin’s opposition to abortion rights and support of other parts of the social conservative agenda, told Politico, “She’s more a conservative man than she is a woman on women’s issues. Very disappointing.”
*Liberal radio host Ed Schultz used the words “bimbo alert” to refer to Palin, and the Huffington Post featured a photo montage of Palin with the headline, “Former Beauty Queen, Future VP?”
*CNN’s John Roberts recently pondered on air: “Children with Down’s syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of vice president, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?”
This line of inquiry was echoed by writer Sally Quinn, who in her “On Faith” column for washingtonpost.com agreed that Palin is a “bright, attractive, impressive person,” but also asked, “is she prepared for the all-consuming nature of the job?”
“Her first priority has to be her children,” Quinn wrote. “When the phone rings at 3 in the morning and one of her children is really sick what choice will she make?”
There is little question that these questions are being asked around kitchen tables. But there are recent examples of a double standard.
Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) was more frequently praised for his perseverance than hazed for misplaced priorities when he continued his presidential campaign even after wife Elizabeth Edwards was diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer. The couple has two children still at home, ages 10 and 8.
Edwards was himself a close finalist for a vice presidential nod in 2000, when Al Gore nearly tapped him at a time when he had served the same amount of time in the U.S. Senate that Palin has as Alaska governor, and about the same amount of time that Barack Obama had served when he began his presidential quest two years ago.
Phil Singer, who worked with Wolfson on Clinton’s campaign, said the news media tend to focus on different sets of subjects when covering women candidates. He noted articles on Clinton’s cleavage, and whether she had the personality of a “bitch.”
“There’s no question that the issues a woman has to deal with are different,” Singer said, adding that, “The real indictment that needs to be prosecuted is about her views, not her personal life.”
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“Her first priority has to be her children,” [Sally] Quinn wrote. “When the phone rings at 3 in the morning and one of her children is really sick what choice will she make?”
So many of the liberal Democrats have live-in nannies, but they just can’t comprehend that “knuckle-dragging” Republicans (to quote a regular to this blog) have that same option.
The truth is, to fit their snarky stereotypes, liberals don’t want conservative women exhibiting anything other than total subservience to their husbands, and God forbid they work outside the home rather than watch soap operas while still dressed in their robes.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:36 pmwish we could have jihadi killer hour tonight
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:59 pmThis is what I think of every time people mention Palin:
Pal-AD-in
pal·a·din Audio Help /ˈpælədɪn/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[pal-uh-din] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. any one of the 12 legendary peers or knightly champions in attendance on Charlemagne.
2. any knightly or heroic champion.
3. any determined advocate or defender of a noble cause.
The added D and A stand for democrat ass kicker!
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:05 pmWow, she must really have these guys by the short hairs (or in Sally Quinns case, testicle hairs) to have them all going after her like this. Sally is just upset that she’ll be out of a job soon when the Post has to cut jobs and liberal schrews are at the top of the list.
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:49 pmBASH…can you make this a frontpage article ^_^
http://www.conservativeedge.com/Old-School-aholes-demanded-Trigs-birth-certificate
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:55 pmWe’re on for tomorrow night. It’ll be interesting for us all to discuss the reality of what we saw and heard tonight versus what the Douche Troopers of the American Axis of Evil have to say about it. Or try to tell us we didn’t see what we in fact did.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:40 pmMan, I’m so sick of their yappin traps. They’ve been whining since the Gorical lost and I’d really like to give them a time out. Vote McCain/Palin. Maybe they’ll finally leave the country or have a heart attack or maybe just maybe they’ll stop acting like a toddler throwing a temper tamptrum and grow up.
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:25 pmThe reality of what you saw is the reality of what you saw.
Simple
September 4th, 2008 at 8:13 am