Tag Archives: Sarah Palin

Three Candidates for Vice President : NO QUARTER

Three Candidates for Vice President : NO QUARTER.

Blogger, Bud White contrasts JFK’s choice of Lyndon Johnson to unite the party and give it geographical balance with Obama’s refusal to choose his closest contender Hillary Clinton, defining it as a poor political decision, reinforcing his worst traits.  He also goes on to cast it as a sexist decision which has infuriated and energized some women and as turning the tide of some women against him.

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(Cartoon by Pat Racimora)

Although I ignore Dick Morris when he speaks about the Clintons, his Machiavellian view of politics is often worth listening to closely. Here’s Morris on Palin and women:

Anecdotal evidence already suggests that women may have a gut reaction to the establishment’s sexist assault on a woman candidate – and flock to McCain. They’ve seen him stake everything on this one big move of turning toward a woman – in direct contrast to Obama’s deliberate decision not to name a woman.

They’ve seen the media and Democrats gang up on her and do their worst. And they’ve seen Palin stand up and stuff the challenge right back down the establishment’s throat. All this may have created an entirely new dynamic in the race.

Recent polling data is confirming Morris’ prediction:

An ABC News-Washington Post survey showed white women have moved from backing Obama by 8 points to supporting McCain by 12 points, with majorities viewing Palin favorably and saying she boosts their faith in McCain’s decisions.

For many women, I believe, Obama-Biden represents the worst of the boys club and McCain-Palin have become the agents of change…

Instead of making a peace offering to women by picking Hillary, Obama is now in the position of attacking another woman candidate. It’s starting to look like a pattern. The headline today from the Associated Press, written by Nedra Pickler, is “Obama puts heat on Palin as she boosts GOP ticket.” She writes:

Obama said last week’s Republican National Convention did a good job of highlighting Palin’s biography — “Mother, governor, moose shooter. That’s cool,” he said. But he said Palin really is just another Republican politician, one who is stretching the truth about her record.

“When John McCain gets up there with Sarah Palin and says, `We’re for change,’ … what are they talking about?” Obama said Monday. (emphasis added)

Obama’s use of the pedestrian “cool” is meant to assure us that he is unfazed by Palin, but his need to sound unconcerned makes the desperation almost palpable. Obama is now running against Palin. He doesn’t have a choice. Obama is hemorrhaging women voters. He must stop the bleeding, but his attacks on her only serve to diminish him. Palin has become Obama’s opponent, and his attacks on her inexperience only remind voters of his own inexperience and, even worse, they remind women of what he and his supporters did to Hillary. The attacks on Palin, a woman friend told me today, are beginning to feel like personal attacks on all women.

Instead of having two political giants like Kennedy and Johnson, we have three candidates for vice president, of which Palin is the best, and McCain is reaping the benefit.

Lipstick on a Pig

Lipstick on a Pig – The Corner on National Review Online.

Well, to my question “does anybody really think Obama meant to call Sarah Palin a pig?” the answer appears to be “yes, about a gazillion and a half emailers do think so,” though another half a gazillion don’t. And the video without question looks very very bad. The audience certainly seems to take him to refer to Palin. I think Obama’s choice of words was unbelievably stupid (as it so very often is when he’s not chained to a teleprompter), and I certainly think both he and Biden have completely lost their cool because of Palin and are getting hysterical—Biden’s ugly reference to Palin’s Down syndrome child and stem cell research today is one example. But did he set out to call Palin (or McCain) names? I think it’s a bad gaffe, not an attack. That’s bad enough, but the McCain folks themselves shouldn’t overreact. Let them melt down. Roger Kimball has it right.

Reconsidering Palin – The Corner on National Review Online

Reconsidering Palin – The Corner on National Review Online.

Ramesh Ponnuru

One smart blogger has corrected his vision, deciding from the results that he got it wrong the first time:

In my initial list of pros and cons on the Palin pick, I underestimated the pros and overestimated the cons. Among the pros, I neglected to mention the possibility that she would have a capacity to connect with ordinary people that few of her politico peers do.

As for the cons: I did not foresee the way the experience issue would play out. I thought that picking Palin would reduce the salience of the experience question: Any time that Republicans brought it up, Democrats would use Palin to make Obama look experienced. I did not imagine that the Democrats would instead raise the salience of the issue by going on offense against Palin’s inexperience, because it seemed to me such a foolish play. And I don’t think it’s worked out well for them. For one thing, Obama has diminished himself on a few occasions by getting into an Obama vs. Palin contest.

Finally, I did not foresee how vicious the reaction in some quarters of the left, and of the media, would be.

I thought her lack of experience in dealing with national issues, including foreign-policy issues, was a serious strike against her. I still do. I cannot say that I am confident that she would be “ready on day one” to be commander-in-chief. But I cannot say that about Obama, either, and I like my odds better with the McCain-Palin ticket than with the Obama-Biden one.”

Ramesh Ponnuru has joined a large and growing group of people, even progressive, pro-choice women who’ve found reason to be comfortable with Palin. And contrary to what the mainstream media (MSM) is putting out, some of those people are former Hillary supporters

Clash of the Titans – Dowd Predicts Clinton vs Palin in 2012

Clash of the Titans (Wizbang).

Posted by Bill Jempty
Published: September 7, 2008 – 3:42 PM

NY Times Columnist Maureen Dowd has an interesting view of the future.

If Barack Obama had chosen Hillary Clinton as his running mate, we would now be looking forward to the greatest night in the history of American politics: the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate between Ma Barker and Sarah Barracuda.Now, alas, we’ll have to wait until 2012 when the two fiercest competitors on the trail will no doubt face off in the presidential debate, with Palin still riding high from her 2008 field-dressing of Obama

Dowd goes on to predict President McCain will be too worn out to continue beyond 2012. (She characterizes Palin and Clinton as), as ideological opposites: the gun-toting hockey mom and the shot-swilling Warrior Queen of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuits are opposites. The rest of Ms. Dowd’s column is her usual mix of balderash, but could she be right about the candidates four years from now?

Why the Smears Won’t Work (Wizbang)

Why the Smears Won’t Work (Wizbang).

“If partisan supporters have not figured it out yet, I’ll give them a tip — their scandal strategy isn’t going to work. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Sympathy. They started off with a vile rumor that Palin faked the pregnancy of her fifth child, then turned it into an attack on her 17-year-old pregnant daughter. The fake pregnancy rumor was false. Not only were they shockingly nasty and vicious, they were also wrong. They lost their credibility and created sympathy for Palin in the process. Palin has shown she doesn’t want or need anyone’s sympathy, but she got it just the same, thanks to those who sought to destroy her.

2. Sarah Palin has connected with the American people. 37 million people heard her speak, in her own words, without interruption or editing from the Obamedia. It will be harder to make a scandal stick to someone America feels they know. Who ya gonna believe? The witty, down-to-earth straight talker with the beautiful family and the inspiring life story or the slimy rumor mongers who already tried to feed you a pack of lies?

3. People want someone to work to solve their problems. Are they going to be more likely to have a good opinion of a campaign that is addressing the problems they have or the campaign that appears to be obsessed with tearing their opponent apart?

4. The Obamedia has been exposed. Over the past year or more the media have fawned over Barack Obama. Over the past week the media have hit Sarah Palin with dozens of accusations based on little more than nutty leftwing hate site rumors. Recent polls show over 50 percent of the American public believe the media is trying to hurt Sarah Palin.

5. They just don’t know how to do subtle. Instead of picking one or two really good scandals, they are throwing scores of them out there willy nilly, without fact checking or even, in some cases, bothering to read them in their entirety.”

Most fair minded Americans don’t want dirt on the candidates.  They want to know what the candidates are going to do to improve *our* lives.  And many fair minded women want to see a woman candidate have a level playing field without a constant barrage of harassment, innuendos and plain false accusations


Palin Does What Hillary Couldn’t — Scares Obama Silly (Wizbang)

Palin Does What Hillary Couldn’t — Scares Obama Silly (Wizbang).

Posted by Lorie Byrd
Published: September 6, 2008 – 2:49 AM

Hillary in her smart pantsuit, with her 18 million voters and whatever is left of the Clinton machine behind her, didn’t scare Barack Obama. It took a small town former beauty queen in heels, skirt and chignon with a baby on her hip to do that. And there is no doubt that he is afraid of her considering how his supporters have thrown everything, including the kitchen sink, at her over the past week. Considering that in less than a week Sarah Palin achieved a higher approval rating than either McCain or Obama, drew an audience 10 million larger than that of Joe Biden (just 1 million less than Obama) and united and energized the Republican party like no one has since Ronald Reagan, Obama has reason to fear.

He announced yesterday though, that he is not going to be bullied.

“We’re not going to be bullied, we’re not going to be smeared, we’re not going to be lied about,” Obama said. “I don’t believe in coming in second.”

If anyone needs to worry about being smeared and lied about, it is not Barack Obama. The coming in second part though — he should worry

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The Difference Between Democrats and Republicans Handling of Sexism

The Difference : NO QUARTER.

Between how the Republicans deal with sexism in this election, and how the Democrats have dealt with sexism is mighty telling. The latter were mum, until after Hillary conceded the race then they made some noise about how things weren’t so great on the whole woman thing. The one exception was Geraldine Ferraro standing up for Hillary. She got labeled a racist for her trouble. I should add, not only did the DNC not speak up, they actually got in a few digs, too.

Not so the Republicans. I take NO credit for these next two pieces at all – they came from alert readers at No Quarter. The first one is from “Hope Floats,” who posted the following article:

“Gov. Palin’s experience is in running a state,” added Swift. “Barack Obama’s experience, as he himself has said, is in running a campaign.”

Joining Swift in her denunciations were senior McCain aide Carly Fiorina, Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin and Renee Amore, Deputy Chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party.

“The Republican Party will not stand by while Gov. Palin is subjected to sexist attacks,” said Fiorina, who explained that all the women on stage had experienced sexism in their careers. “I don’t believe American women are going to stand for it either.”

“It is quite interesting that Gov. Palin has managed the state of Alaska with 24,000 employees and a $10 billion budget,” said Blackburn. “How many men have done that?”

Amore was more direct. Referring to the media, she said, “You never talk about that Barack Obama hasn’t run anything.”

“These smears are meant to distract from the fact that Gov. Palin has more experience than Barack Obama,” said Amore. She then issued a humorous, if also serious, challenge: “Let me use some ebonics … We will get with you, if you keep messing with us.”

There wasn’t a link to the post, but here is a VIDEO you can watch.

And then, frequent commenter Paul Villareal has several YouTube videos up, particularly this one in which Newt Gingrich (I know – I am as surprised by this as anybody) lays into a MSNBC reporter on the differences between Governor Palin and Barack Obama (again, she’s second on the ticket, Obama is first – and HE STILL COMES UP SHORT IN THE COMPARISON!!!). Anyway, take a look The end is a hoot:

Ouch, the Media Might Need to Put a Little Ice on that (Wizbang)

Ouch, the Media Might Need to Put a Little Ice on that (Wizbang).

The most amusing thing to watch following the Palin speech last night was the journalists pretending not to know why on earth Sarah Palin would be so critical of them. She definitely landed a punch with her criticism. Roger Simon shot back with a sarcastic, dare I say “shrill,” column listing the reasons the media does not owe Palin an apology. My answer to Simon’s silliness is to tell him that Republicans have no problem with the media asking questions. We would love to see the media ask all kinds of questions, not just of our candidates though. There are hundreds of questions that have not been asked of Barack Obama, but the media had plenty of time to go around in search of DNA samples.

A FEMINIST DREAM AT THE GOP

A FEMINIST DREAM AT THE GOP by Kirsten Powers

“If you drive around my home state of Alaska for very long, you’re sure to see a bumper sticker exclaiming, “Alaska girls kick ass.”

Last night, “Sarah Barracuda” more than lived up to that slogan as she fought back at the media and Washington naysayers who’ve ridiculed her as a bimbo bumpkin interloper and showed she isn’t going to be pushed around.

Had the media not been viciously attacking her family for the last few days, the speech might’ve seemed too tough. With that backdrop, it was more than appropriate.

The Obama camp also gave her the perfect chance to smack it around for being elitists – since its first response to John McCain picking her was to ridicule the size of her home town.

On that stage last night, Sarah Palin represented everything the feminist movement claims to strive for: a successful working woman with a happy family life and a husband who helps raise the children. Yet, rather than hailing her accomplishment, the feminist establishment has sat by silently as she’s savaged for being a working mother…

Turns out old feminism is really just a bunch of good ‘ole girls telling you what to think.

Ladies, don’t you worry your pretty little heads about deciding what you believe; the audaciously named National Organization for Women is here to speak on your behalf.

NOW put out a press release saying that Sarah Palin doesn’t speak for women’s rights. That’s NOW’s job.

Except if a conservative woman is being smeared in the media with sexist attacks and held to a completely different standard than her male counterparts. Then NOW has nothing to say about women’s rights.

Time for a little truth in advertising.

Liberal women have been furiously penning identical screeds against Sarah Palin – blasting McCain for not understanding women and then announcing, “Now, let me speak on behalf of all women and tell you what women want in a candidate.”

Talk about condescending.

Where is the condemnation for the sickening misogyny, such as the DailyKOS’s mock Playboy cover with Palin? The Huffington Post’s photo montage of Palin, headlined “Former Beauty Queen, Future VP?” The Washington Post’s Sally Quinn criticizing Palin for being a working mother?

Well, I suppose she could’ve stayed home and baked cookies.

But conservatives shouldn’t get too self-satisfied – they have plenty to atone for, too. Having discovered sexism now that their darling Sarah is under attack doesn’t get them off the hook for their part in tearing down liberal working women in the past. (See: Clinton, Hillary, cookies.)

Many liberal women remember how infuriating it was to watch the conservative Phyllis Schlafly travel the country lecturing women about the evils of equal rights and urging them to not work (as she worked and was away from her family). Now, she supports Sarah Palin.

At the 1992 Republican National Convention, Pat Buchanan demonized Hillary Clinton as a “radical feminist” who hated the institution of marriage despite her seeming attachment to her own marriage against all odds.

When asked during the primary by a supporter about Hillary, “How do we beat the bitch?” McCain laughed and answered: “That’s an excellent question.”

Both sides suffer from the same illness: Ideology trumps all.

Now it’s time for both sides to move past this and embrace some postpartisan feminism. Sexism will never stop if both sides are blind to it when it happens to their opponents. ”

For all the new women’s groups, progressive or conservative, who are supporting Palin’s right to run without being harassed by the media, or denigrated by other political groups, AdvancingWomen.com says: “Kudos!”