September 3rd, 2008 by Jemaleddin Cole

I was, like most Amer­i­cans, very con­fused by the choice of Alaska Gov­er­nor Sarah Palin to be John McCain’s run­ning mate. Lib­eral women weren’t going to vote for her both because her selec­tion seemed like such a ham-​handed grab for Hillary voters, and because of her anti-​woman polit­i­cal posi­tions. Con­ser­v­a­tive women would reject her because, as dis­cussed while Hillary was in the run­ning, they don’t think a woman should be pres­i­dent, and espe­cially not one with young chil­dren. Doubly so for a woman with a spe­cial needs infant.

But then the news came out that her seventeen-​year-​old daugh­ter is preg­nant, and it all made sense. In fact, she will appeal to con­ser­v­a­tive women: if they too believe in abstinence-​only edu­ca­tion, they prob­a­bly have preg­nant teenage daugh­ters of their own.

2 Responses to “What Does Palin Bring to the Table?”

1. Makes sense. One of the most char­i­ta­ble expla­na­tions I’ve heard for why social con­ser­v­a­tives are so excitable about divorce and teen preg­nancy is simply that social con­ser­v­a­tives see so much more of it than college-​educated lib­er­als.

   Anyway, I don’t get the Sarah Palin thing either. I guess she might moti­vate some con­ser­v­a­tive voters who hate John McCain. Other than that, it’s a big popcorn-​fest watch­ing the Repub­li­cans trying to spin her as an expert on Soviet rela­tions, Com­man­der in Chief of the Night’s Watch, et cetera.

   — Evan Goer September 3rd, 2008 at 1:09 pm #

2. I’m just amused by watch­ing con­ser­v­a­tives try to spell misog­yny when they decry the way people talk about her appear­ance. Which is, admit­tedly, a dif­fi­cult word to spell the first time, and much harder when you’ve spent the morn­ing check­ing out her glam­our shots.

   Also, as a BIG fan of hypocrisy - and really, who isn’t? - I like the fris­son of her can­di­dacy:

   McCain says “country before politics” - then chooses a VP for polit­i­cal rea­sons, good of the coun­try be damned.

   The Repub­li­cans say that we shouldn’t make her family an issue - but did you hear that her hus­band is a cham­pion snow­mo­bile racer? Or that she totally didn’t have an abor­tion when she found out her kid had Trisomy-21? And that she’s a “hockey mom”?

   McCain says that Obama is inex­pe­ri­enced, and that specif­i­cally he doesn’t have a for­eign policy back­ground - then chooses some­one with even less expe­ri­ence.

   Palin says she’s against ear­marks and the “bridge to nowhere.” Except that she was the requester of 3 of the ear­marks that McCain has specif­i­cally bitched about and not only sup­ported the “bridge to nowhere,” but instead of telling con­gress “thanks but no thanks,” which is her cur­rent rec­ol­lec­tion of events, she actu­ally kept the money and didn’t build the bridge.

   Oh politi­cians, you never dis­ap­point.

   — Jemaleddin Cole September 3rd, 2008 at 4:01 pm #