Palin: Bad Mother, Bad Woman

What in the world has happened to liberal/Democrat values in the last 48 hours? It seems like the appearance of Sarah Palin on the GOP ticket has caused an immediate disintegration of all of the hard-fast rules and values that have been preached at us ‘lo these many years.

Palin was not a half hour in the ring, when a male reporter wondered, “Shouldn’t she be home raising” that Down Syndrome baby. He needed to be reminded by a female reporter that a male politician would not be asked that question, especially when there was a loving spouse in support.

Then, Alan Colmes posted (and apparently immediately took down) a piece basically questioning Sarah Palin’s instincts as a mother (does he even have children?) because she, a month before her due date, and far away from her doctor, did not immediately fall apart when she noticed some amniotic fluid leaking.

This not being her first pregnancy, Palin did what a prudent, experienced woman who knows her own body would do; she called her own doctor, kept him apprised and did not panic. She made a scheduled speech, traveled home and went to the doctor.

The left is going to try to run with this? If Palin had a “D” after her name, she’d be praised for her calm, collected manner in the situation and we’d hear how it reflects how steady she would be “a heartbeat away from the presidency”, and we would all know, because everyone would keep saying it, that – of course she would have seen a doctor had she needed to – but every woman wants HER doctor with her when she delivers, if it’s possible.

People seem to forget that women managed to birth their children – and gain some wisdom about the process – long before hospitals and the AMA were around.

The left will try to make hay about Palin’s judgment. Most women will say, however, that Palin trusted what she knew about her body, and in God.

The left seems terrified of Palin, (and with good reason; even Camille Paglia knows Palin is formidable, as she said of Palin’s first, teleprompter-free speech here):

“We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling…That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.”

Actually the Dems and their women are ready to make hay about everything they can think of, but with every issue they open a mirror reflecting back to themselves. My email is full of “talking points” about the evil that is Sarah Palin, but I like the comment left in another post, by a “fab forty” woman who sees terrible, terrible things in Alaska’s governor. And, it goes without saying, John McCain.

Palin does not need my help addressing the feminists; she can easily pivot in those great shoes, but I’ll help, anyway.

There are press releases that spout how great it is that Palin was back at work, as Governor, the day after delivering her youngest child… but, that child is severely disabled! Seems she’s more interested in the photo op than her responsibilities. As a special ed. teacher, I’m appalled that she is leaving her youngest child, an infant with special needs, to a nanny to raise while she romps around the country to become VP. VP is not a ‘job’ it is your entire life… these are the “Family Values” she espouses?!? Having the income to hire a household staff is not the same as being a ‘working mom;’ it is simply managing a business. In addition, she is under investigation for an Ethics violation (abuse of power); she was for the “Bridge to Nowhere,” in a 2006 interview; then when it became a political liability she flip-flopped over to voice opposition for the project, and she owns three houses, but doesn’t apparently count two of them as they’re only vacation homes… whose the elitist? Every move she’s ever made has been to attain ‘fame,’ not to be in politics for service to the country, (beauty pageants, journalism, sports announcing, politics). No wonder McCain likes her – it’s someone just like him. I look at her and see “Handmaid’s Tale.”

I think she covered most of the talking points in that, so, I responded (slightly amended):

Comments are moderated, and that is why you were in a holding pattern. No need to keep posting the same thing. I see you have all of your talking points. I have a lot of folks on the left moralizing to me today about how Mrs. Palin needs to be home raising her child. Quite extraordinary, really. The same people who say they are all about CHOICE, and who say we should have government-sponsored day care so that moms can immediately go back to work are having issues with Palin’s choice.

Palin has chosen to raise Trig – his name is Trig, not “that child” – the same way she raised the rest of her family: with the support of her husband, Trig’s siblings and “grandparents aunts and uncles.” You know…the way kids used to be raised, with the help of the whole FAMILY, not the village. Suddenly a woman with children and ambitions and ideas who actually chooses to pursue a career is a “bad” mother, “traipsing” around the country. She should be home “having teas and baking cookies,” as Hillary sneered, I guess? Is that it?

See, that’s the problem with the left preaching to us all these years…we’ve listened to them and now we’re simply reminding you of all the things you used to believe…because suddenly it seems you’ve forgotten!

As a “special ed teacher” you probably know that the best environment for a Downs Syndrome baby is in a supportive family, one that does not treat the child any differently than the rest of the brood. Growing up, we had two DS babies in the neighborhood (bad Catholics, you know, having babies into their forties) and both boys were simply “part of the family” and part of the gangs. They played with us, they did the dishes and helped with chores; they were not “severely disabled.” They were just different.

Oh, and so the Palins have a few houses? How horrible of them. Did they buy the houses themselves or did they have Tony Rezko help them out? How many houses did John Kerry marry into? That never bothered you, I bet? How many houses do the Clintons own? I know of at least two, the mansion in Georgetown, and the house in Chappaqua they hardly use, which gives Hillary her NYS residency, and supposedly they’re building one in the Dominican Republic. I don’t begrudge them any of their good fortune…why do you begrudge the Palins theirs? And what do houses owned have to do with competency?

Let’s see…what else are you grousing about here…the class-warrior stuff:“Having the income to hire a household staff is not the same as being a ‘working mom;’ it is simply managing a business.”

Oh…and managing a business is easy? Managing a business takes some smarts. Also managing a state. Palin has been a Mayor and a Governor, and she’s “managed a business” to boot. Seems to me she has more executive experience than either Obama or Biden…or even McCain (although he did run a squadron, so that’s something). Think for a moment before you make the “she isn’t a real working mom” charge: Hillary had government staff help her raise her ONE child for the child’s whole life but was a “working mom.” Katie Couric has a staff to help with her TWO children, but she’s a “working mom.”

Oh, the big “Ethics Violation” (capitalized, even) that the left wants to whisper about but not actually discuss…go over to Flopping Aces – but only if you’re really interested in doing more than just acting scandalized, and the facts, the reports and the timelines. Palin wasn’t even governor when the events took place, and -unlike Obama, who wouldn’t even produce his damn birth certificate or actual medical records; unlike Hillary who never met an investigation she could not stall – the investigators didn’t even have to subpoena Palin because she was so forthcoming about the details.

So, you can try to peddle your smear with all this innuendo “oh….an ETHICS violation….ooooooooo” but be aware of the fact that we all know that William Jefferson is still in congress even though he had $100,000 in his freezer, and Al Gore got his Buddhist nun money because “there was no controlling legal authority”, that Harry Reid has some questionable land deals in Nevada, and so on, and so on, so if you want to play “Ethics Violations” be prepared. I suspect you’ll want to actually pack that one away.

“Every move she’s ever made has been to attain ‘fame,’ not to be in politics for service to the country, (beauty pageants, journalism, sports announcing, politics).”

Oh. My. Gawd. Do I see cat-claws? Palin used her pageant money to go to college because – as she has said – her folks were not rich; her father was a teacher and her mother a secretary. And she studied journalism (gasp!) so, are you saying that all of the great journalist/patriots like Keith Olbermann (who was also a sports announcer) and Cronkite and Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell and the rest – they cannot have a serious love of their country?

If Matthews or Olbermann run for office someday, they shouldn’t because they were “journalists and sports announcers?” Is that really what you’re telling me, after all?

“No wonder McCain likes her – it’s someone just like him. I look at her and see “Handmaid’s Tale.”

Oh! A literary allusion! How impressive. I am not sure how you relate Palin choosing to have a large family and accomplishing a great deal on her own – without coattails and such – with a story about women who are repressed and kept down, whose children are provided by obedient handmaids, and whose husbands are controlling freaks. But I suspect that deep down inside you, you are desperate – really desperate – to repeat the DU/Kos dementia that Palin actually is claiming Trig as the child of her daughter, (who had been raped by her father) but you know better to go there, because you are decent enough to know how incredibly sick that whole line of thought is. THAT is the only reason, I can think of for you alluding to The Handmaid’s Tale.

Funny, I look at Sarah Palin and think more of the feminist film “Nine to Five”. I look at her, and I see everything that someone like you, or your political party, has told women they ought to strive to be. You and your party have told us, over and over (and quite rightly) that women should be respected for the choices they make and the opportunities they bravely take, but you suddenly – when confronted with such a woman tagged with the wrong letter after her name – seem to be made ill by those things.

I look at Palin and I see a REAL “working” mom, one who actually worked “with her hands” – she and her husband BOTH were union members and BOTH commercial fishermen – a person who got involved and, because of her smarts and passion, (not because of her marriage or her connections) she progressed to the highest office in her state, all while raising a family.

But even before I see her womanhood, I see her well thought-out policies, I see her priorities. I see her not just talking the talk, but walking the walk.

I know you’re all about the identity-politics; the race card, the gender card, but I’m really more interested in Palin’s policies than her periods. And the talking points you’ve sent to me seem pretty lame. Politically pubescent.

Thanks for stopping by. When you have more talking points, just drop them in the queue and they’ll be duly posted.

Meanwhile: more on Palin and the whole election from around the ‘sphere – relevant and random stuff-:

Hot Air/Allah: on The GOP replacing the convention with service; as I said yesterday, it’s a great idea, and we shouldn’t let the predictable negative responses from the Dems and the press keep us from doing it. Instapundit has a poll on what you think.

Blackfive notes that Palin is CIC of Alaska and its missile defenses – cough – Obama got that sort of experience?
SDA: Scratch Alan Colmes
Brutally Honest: Palin’s husband is no metrosexual
WaPo: Palin pick not a panic
Roger L. Simon: Palin, Abortion and Gay Marriage.
Bookworm: on Nervous Democrats and also on the unborn
Broder: Not the Obama we Knew
John Allen on the religion angle
EvilRove: Is Biden exaggerating?
LATimes: Palin with Moose PETA will hate.
Iconic Midwest: Looks at how important Alaska is to our National Security
Protein Wisdom: O the HYPOCRISY! and more and a song parody
Melissa Clouthier: on knowing your body and childbirth
Estate Vaults on the changes being made this election.
IHT: Campaign shifts
Kerry: takes offense for all of us wimmenfolk.
Strata: Dem Males Sound Like Taliban (some of the Dem women, too)
Ambinder: Obama campaign was surprised
NRO: a tiff
Lefty Loons: Hurricane Gustav is Palin’s fault!
Althouse: Selective Outrage
Villainous Company: The Gay Polar Bear Vote
Douthat: He in love!
Wide Awake Cafe Sarah Northstar
Press: “Women are baffled!” (!)
Kirsten Powers: Male Chauvinist Dems