I'm so sorry for this post

They're making excuses?

Fucking media is just going to keep dragging her through the mud for months until they feel she's totally destroyed. They don't ever want her back. McCain beat McCain. For a war hero, he was sure a big pussy. He refused to play hardball so let him have his defeat with dignity.

After listening to McCain in the debates and in his campaign speeches, it seemed that he doesn't know how to consolidate his position.

If a candidate for the second highest office in the land didn't know Africa is a continent, that IS news.

That's true, Flinty, but I said months ago what would happen-All of the media, and ALMOST the entire entertainment industry (hollywood, et al) had nothing but praise for McCain in the past, giving such comments as: "He's one republican I could vote for", "I have great respect for him", I think he's a republican that would make a good president", etc.etc....UNTIL...he actually GOT THE NOMINATION. He instantly (to the same people) became the Antichrist. "R" after his name.

Add to that the wall street fiasco, which he had no control over (but perhaps billionaires like Soros did(?))and his refusal to go for the jugular, and you have a recipe for disaster. When he took the microphone away from that older woman at his rally that called Obama a socialist and a threat, and angrily said, "No-he's a fine family man, would make a good leader" or whatever the hell he said, I knew he'd lost the election. Bob Dole II. Defeat with honor and dignity. Politics is hardball, not building up your opponent.

Forgot to add....I'll personally never listen to anything McCain has to say again. Oh, he's loved once again by hollywood and the media, now that he's lost-nothing but praise again. I just wish he'd retire and go away. Speaking of Dole, at least we got rid of a few more RHINOS, like Elizabeth.

I don't believe RINO has and "H"

RHINO: "Republican? Ha! In Name Only!"

That was the ORIGINAL version of it-somewhere along the line, the H got dropped, but I still use it.

I've noticed that in the various reports on all Sarah Palin's flaws and stupidity, nobody names a source for the info. No one apparently will go on the record and speak about this supposed McCain-Palin rift, except the people who say that it's not true, or who will answer the claims in context. THEY give THEIR names. http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Politics/Story?id=6196407&page=2

I think most of it's BS. You don't get to be a Governor by being a nitwit. Corrupt, maybe. Arrogant, maybe. But not a nitwit.

You do understand how misogynist this all is, right? It's an American culture thing. Powerful women must be torn down and tripped up.

First, you assign them to a tried-and-true sexist archetype. Hillary Clinton, for example, was the Shrill Bitch. Sarah Palin is the Dumb Blonde (works for brunettes, too!). These characters are so well known to us -- I mean, turn on the TV -- that it isn't much work for detractors to manipulate public perception. Dumb Blonde was totally the obvious choice for Sarah Palin -- the media made an early big deal about her attractiveness to set the stage, and she aided and abetted the archetype assignment by unfortunately not being a very good public speaker, at least not in the way that most Americans are used to hearing people speak. Also, too, as well also! I think the McCain campaign did her no favors, either, by failing to prep her very well for her early interviews and appearances.

Then, you over-amplify the trivia of the women's lives that support the archetypes. In Governor Palin's case, this has included distributing footage of her during her beauty pageant days, questioning her most recent pregnancy (oh, she didn't LOOK pregnant!), questioning her competence as a mother, skewing the presentation of her views on creationism and global warming, calling her a "diva," belittling the scope of her experience, and making a big deal about her hair, her glasses and the cost of her wardrobe as provided by the RNC.

And after THAT, whooo, you can progress to really getting nasty! You know, like hanging a likeness of her in effigy. It's fun! It's funny!

By this point, you've totally demoralized this woman and those who identify with or support her -- or at least that's the goal -- and you've completely defined her by the archetype and taken away all relevant context. In this case, Sarah Palin's leadership abilities, her qualifications, her politics, her ambitions and goals.

Viola! Dumb Blonde. NOBODY wants to elect a Dumb Blonde, right?

And when it's all over, you scapegoat her. Throw her to the wolves. Women are expected to suffer for their causes, after all. They are always to blame. And to be clear, I'm not blaming men by themselves, for this archetype-misogyny. Women do this to each other, too. More blatantly sometimes, in fact. WTF is up with THAT?

Sorry for the long post, but I've thought a lot about this and it pisses me off. I've self-identified as a Democrat since even before I could vote, so obviously I am not on board with Governor Palin on many matters. But between my disappointment over my party's integrity "issues" this year, and my disgust at how Sarah Palin's been treated -- with no defense from N.O.W. or Ms. or the Feminist Majority, who apparently only want to see the "right" kind of women succeed -- you betcha I selected the McCain-Palin ticket on my touchscreen. It was my tiny little one-vote protest and I still feel great about it.

When Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) thinks that Neil Armstrong planted a flag on Mars, the Left doesn't bat an eye. The One also thought there were 57 states. Crickets from the media.

My guess for all these fed but unconfirmed rumors would be the Romney or Huckabee camp-or some other repub with 2012 aspirations. But the media WILL continue to 'Quayle' her, regardless.

McCain went back to doing what he does best-getting along with democrats. Other repubs should hope she stays home, if she runs, they should stay home. I don't see anyone who could take the nomination away from her. And notice how the left is terrified of her!

Terrified in an “I can’t believe that woman is such an arrogant, ignorant woman who wants to set the womens movement back 60 years” not terrified in an “I can’t believe how powerful and threatening this woman is to politics” kind of way.

If this clip proves anything, it shows how in the tank for Republicans Fox News is. Notice how Carl says that he held off on letting the public know because it was "off the record."? Hmmm, thanks for looking out for the public there, Fox News. What would they have reported if McCain would have won? My guess is nothing.

Now that McCain has lost, Fox is doing RNC's bidding by assisting in throwing Palin under the bus. Every loser needs a scapegoat and Palin is that scapegoat. I don't really think she hurt the campaign much, if any. And let's remember, if this stuff is true, the McCain staffers who picked her should be ashamed at their lack of vetting her. Notice how Fox makes her out to be the villain but never mentions that McCain only met her once before adding her to the ticket? Now that's the kind of pandering I expect to see from Faux News...

Watch for the Toledo mention...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/07/lettermans-top-10-sarah-p_n_142082.html

BTW-my complimenmts to jmleong for that GREAT post , it was fantastic. I myself was driven to vote for McPain just because of the senseless attacks and nitpicking on Sarah Palin. Would probably have went for the perennial joke Nader otherwise.

Thanks, Darkseid.

Ace_Face mentions that Palin probably didn't hurt McCain's campaign that much, if at all. According to Rasmussen, 91 percent of Republicans have a "favorable" or "very favorable" opinion of Sarah Palin, and 69 percent of them say she helped the ticket. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_2012/69_of_gop_voters_say_palin_helped_mccain

LOL @ Ryan. Setting the women's movement back 60 years? Because she's a very successful working mother by choice, one who seems to have a pretty egalitarian marriage? One who doesn't apologize for stating her opinions loud and clear, even if those opinions are unpopular? She's the very epitome of classic feminism in that regard.

That would be true if she were not an ignorant and arrogant wann-be in the boy's club at ANY cost insufferable hack that wants to reverse Roe v Wade.

Charging women for their rape kits... against contraceptives... etc. etc.

There are plenty of reasons why women voted against her. She doesn't even understand what feminism is.

Campbell Brown takes on those from McCain's campaign who are blaming Palin

(scroll down for the video)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/07/campbell-brown-defends-sa_n_142043.html

jmleong-forget these people. It's ALWAYS about unrestricted , unlimited abortion on demand. Nothing else. That's the #1 litmus test. Hillary, on the other hand, would have been ideal, even though she has a dysfunctional marriage, questionable sexual preferences, suspected criminal acts, and any and all other flaws....simply because she passes that one almighty litmus test. In other words-sure, a powerful woman is fine-but it must be a LIBERAL powerful woman. All others are to be ridiculed and are considered worthless, regardless of achievement. Funny, many prominent females in NOW and other feminist orgs backed her-which I was glad to see. We need to get past abortion as the most important issue. By the way, now they're claiming the bathrobe/towel incident and a few other things were complete lies.

Ahhhh, Ryan. I see. You object to Sarah Palin wanting to be in "the boys' club," as you put it. That says a lot. The nerve of her! I suppose you have your hate on for Hillary Clinton, too? And Nancy Pelosi?

And no, Palin never said she'd reverse Roe v. Wade. I've heard her say in interviews that she'd "counsel toward life," speaking in the hypothetical. I've also heard her say that she doesn't believe abortion access should be governed on a federal level.

As a private citizen, would she like to see Roe reversed? Oh, most definitely. And as I said above, there are matters on which I do not agree with Palin. Safe and reasonably accessible abortion is one of those matters. (Although I recently gave up my membership in NARAL; Ryan, perhaps you'd like it, since you care so much?) However, she made it clear that reversing Roe as a public official is not one of her priorities.

And can I just say? I'm really tired of the whole Roe thing being dangled in front of women as a scare tactic. As if that's all women care about. As if women voters are so one-dimensional that they cannot possibly consider energy policy or the economy or national security when making a voting decision. Nope, all that matters is the abortion issue. Never mind that since 1973, neither Nixon-R, nor Ford-R, nor Reagan-R, nor Bush I-R, nor Bush II-R have actually moved to reverse Roe. There have been limitations on abortion access in individual states, to be sure, but you need to look at your state reps and senators for that, not at the executive government. And don't give me that SCOTUS crap, either. John McCain said he was opposed to any litmus test in appointing justices. Barack Obama was the one who said a justice would have to agree with his ideology to be appointed to the Court.

***

Toledolen, Sarah Palin never charged any women for their rape kits. The police department in her city did until 2000; actually they charged the women's insurance companies. I agree this is reprehensible, but it is unclear if Palin knew this was going on, or if it was at her direction, or if it was something that was going on prior to her becoming mayor or what. She's never commented directly on it (that I can find). Per FactCheck, a spokesperson said during the recent campaign that the governor has never believed that rape victims should have to pay for rape kits.

I suppose that it is just as likely that Sarah Palin knew about the rape kit charges as it is likely that Barack Obama knew about all the slum conditions in his Illinois state senate district or that his pastor of 20 years hates America. Wasilla hasn't charged for the kits since 8 years ago, but what of those slums and Pastor Wright?

Also, everything I can find on Sarah Palin and her views on contraception indicates that she's on record as being pro-contraception and even supports kids learning about condoms in school.

And since Sarah Palin "doesn't even know what feminism is," could you please define it for me? I mean, I guess maybe we should all be working with the same definition, right? I'd really like to know what you think.

I believe the last part of this decade will see us revisit feminism as a concept. Call it another "wave" or whatever. There has always been some dischord in the movement which has been, more or less, eventually worked out except amongst radicals, whether it was friction between lesbians and straight women, or between homemakers and career women, or between white women and women of color -- I recall discussing that last one a lot when I was minoring in Women's Studies in the early '90s. Now we see dischord between women on the left and women on the right. This, too, will work itself out. Wise women know that we will never be equal with men across the board until we embrace each other as equals.

***

Darkseid, hey, hey HEY now. I was a Hillary Clinton supporter during the primaries.

And actually, if NOW endorsed her as an organization I am unaware of it. It is my recollection that NOW didn't endorse anyone until after the primaries were over and then they endorsed Obama. NARAL ticked me off because they endorsed Obama in the middle of the primaries, even though Hillary Clinton had the strongest record in terms of women's health, although I suspect she was (get this!) too conservative for NARAL. The only feminist org that I was aware of backing Senator Clinton was Emily's List.

As for the flaws you've listed, ugh, I don't want to have those arguments anymore. At least not right now. I can't fight Hillary Clinton Derangement Syndrome and Sarah Palin Derangement Syndrome all at the same time! Although they're sort of the same thing, with different targets. But you are spot-on in calling out a certain sort of feminist hypocrisy that has become evident this election season.

Ahhhh, Ryan. I see. You object to Sarah Palin wanting to be in "the boys' club," as you put it. That says a lot. The nerve of her! I suppose you have your hate on for Hillary Clinton, too? And Nancy Pelosi?
posted by jmleong on Nov 11, 2008 at 03:07:10 am #

The problem here is 99.9% of her campaign was about her urge to break that club up, when in fact she just wanted one of them. The only thing new that woman had to offer was the fact that she was just that, a woman.
And actually I love me some Hillary.

I think your opinion that Palin wanted to be "an ol' boy" is a rare one because I've never heard anyone express it before. And that you claim 99.9 percent of her campaign was about breaking up "the boys' club" tells me you actually weren't listening much to her campaign. But that's OK. You didn't really have to. The news media translated it all for us: Dumb Blonde. As I wrote above.

But that is a non-sequitur, anyway. Anyone who campaigns to go to D.C. as an "outsider," is, after all, Campaigning To Go To D.C. It is a silly argument.