Slog

Oh, snap. GIT IT, "Dr." Laura!

Well she is consistent. Though she has said some awful things, she was also taken of a number of Christian talk radio stations for supporting gay adoption.

Wait, I'm confused. Which ignorant bitch am I supposed to be rooting for now?

I guess Dr. Laura is consistent these days, at least.

Wait... I agree with Dr. Laura? Truly, the fires of hell are icebergs.

Yeah... whoa, she has a good point. I kinda passed out for a minute.

Consistently Sexist. Obama has young children, too. Argh!

She's off-message.

Here's an example of an editoral in a smaller city conservative newspaper that is also not 100% behind Palin:

http://thecourier.com/opinion/editoral/2008/Sep/03/ar_ed_090308.asp?d=090308,2008,Sep,03&c=e_0

"She ought to stay close to home and take care of her children."

@6, listen, I'm a feminist working mom (seriously, I have real political and publication credentials as an outspoken feminist) and the truth is, taking care of kids is HARD and requires ATTENTION. Yes, Obama has young kids, AND he has a partner taking care of those young kids. If Palen's husband were staying home to help with their kids, fine, but he isn't. The fact is they have a baby with special needs, a pregnant teenager -- if they really do believe in family, for fuck's sake, someone in that marriage should get off their career ass and help take care of those kids who need help. It doesn't have to be Sarah, but if it isn't her, fine, where the hell is the dad? (Heaven knows she probably could have picked a better father to her kids if she hadn't had premarital sex and felt the need to marry the idiot who got her pregnant.)

This makes me like Palin a little bit more.

@9: I'm sure that on a VP's salary, they can afford a decent nanny.

Yeah, but he's like, a world champion snowmobiler. Those guys really know how to fuck.

@11: Well, at least in terms of frequency.

Word up, Feminist Working Mom. *Someone* should be taking care of those kids.

And you know, that's the weird contradiction of conservative bitches like Palin. Somehow she's internalized the message that she can be exactly who she wants to be when she grows up - yay - but completely rejects the other, very necessary, flip side of that: that men need to step up and assume some of the responsibilities women have had for millenia. No one person can do it all; there are only 24 hours in a day, for the love of Christ.

And finally, no amount of paid staff can substitute for parenting. As we see ample evidence of in this family's case.

Didn't we just learn that Competent women with adult children look too old for the media & the public to handle, even when they are the same age as their male counterparts?

Let's hope there are MANY, MANY more out there like her, for Obama's sake.

Rock on, Feminist Working Mom, I completely agree and, for the record, I would disapprove of her choosing ambition over children just as much if she were a man. Yesterday I asked my own staunch feminist, former hippie, career woman mom if she would have accepted a promotion that kept her away from home more if I'd gotten pregnant as a teenager and she'd had a handicapped infant to take care of. She said "Of course not." And that promotion would not have been to the second highest office in the country. Or required a campaign that kept her hundreds of miles from home in the late months of my pregnancy. And my mom's not making a career of touting conservative "family values." These are the realities of balancing family and career, which both mothers and fathers must do. I'm sure the Palins can afford a nanny, but I don't think paying other people to raise the kids that you are forced to have is in the standard family values rhetoric. Standard conservative hypocrisy and classic valuing the child until it's actually born. Sarah Palin's had 5 children, including one with special needs, and so conservatives must worship her. Once they're born, it doesn't matter if she's actually raising them.

What do mom normally tell their 16 year old daughter when the daughter insists that she's gonna marry and have kids with her high school sweetheart?

The other issue that stands out to me about Palin's choices is returning to work 3 days after birth. What is her stance on family leave? Does she believe women (and/or men) who choose to stay home with their children deserve support? Does she support humane family leave--paid, with benefits, and a guarantee that your job will be there when you return? At least six weeks, ideally three months?

Sarah Palin has a right to choose her career path and how to raise her family. I disagree with many of the choices she's chosen to spin for the media--encouraging her pregnant 17yo to get married, returning to work 3 days after giving birth, flying her young children all over the country for photo ops...but I won't say she's a bad mom or these decisions make her a bad potential VP. I really don't want to see the debate re: her fitness turned into a flame war over mothering/parenting decisions.

What makes me believe she'd be a terrible VP, and a terrifying POTUS, is that the decisions she's made in her personal life reflect how she votes and what kind of policy she supports.

Let's keep the focus on her political agenda. Sarah Palin reflects a set of "family values" that makes me cringe as a person and outrage me as a voter.