Sarah Palin: what really matters?
I am conflicted. One part of me says, “Sarah Palin’s personal and family life don’t matter. At all.”
Another part of me says, “but one of the best ways to judge a person is how they interact with their family, so it DOES matter.”
Another part of me says, “but all that matters to whether or not a person should be hired for a particular job is whether or not they can function in that position.”
And the mom in me says, “but, seriously, WHAT THE #$^%?!”
The pragmatist in me researches Palin’s political career. And that, my dear readers, is when things get interesting. Palin has only been in politics for a fragment of her life. She has a minor in Political Science, but that was from a long time ago, practically another life time. She paints herself for the media as a simple homefry girl who fell into politics more or less in a vacuum. She felt that things for her small home town needed to change, so she ran for mayor. And she changed things. Her reelection to mayor was contested by the previous mayor, but her election to Governor of Alaska wasn’t so heatedly contended. She’s pretty, she’s well spoken, she thinks fast on her feet. She fills out her pantsuit well.
But what makes her special? She’s a politician. One one hand she rabidly attacks governmental corruption, but on the other hand she was sued for personally motivated firings, a suit that was settled not with a decision of “not guilty” but “within her rights.” So she was “within her rights” to fire people, even if it was motivated out of personal and political interest, and not for the good of the people. She’s currently under investigation for corruption. She rabidly attacks corruption, she vows to work against it, but she courts Ted Stevens (currently under indictment) for his sponsorship and doesn’t denounce him when the other shoe drops. In fact, she talks out of both sides of her mouth by both denouncing his corruption but lending her personal support and gratitude for his kindness to her.
Seriously, what the frak?
When she first became governor, she moved heaven and earth to cancel the destruction of a government sponsored dairy farm because of the jobs it would cost her state. Later in her term when it became clear that her promised spending cuts may not be doable, she first put the farm up for auction and then axed it when the auction failed to provide sufficient revenue. I tell you this not because I feel it shows her “flip-flopiness” but because it shows her dangerous lack of experience. Being the Vice President isn’t a learn-as-you-go escapade. Imagine the amount of man-power and time and money wasted in just that one particular instance, where she naively made promises it should have been clear she couldn’t keep. Imagine all of the wasted energy that could go into her Vice-Presidency as she postures and then fails, time and time again.
It’s not that I don’t think a woman can do the job- this woman is just not the right one.
And we haven’t even started talking about her woeful lack of legislative experience. The Vice President is also the President of the Senate. She will have to preside over a system with which she has practically no experience. She will be expected to read and comprehend legal briefings, she will have to hold in her head the minutae of the law. What does she really know about any of this? Yes, being governor has certainly familiarized her with the broad strokes, and I’m sure she’s very familiar with board meetings- and I hear she was on the PTA, so she’s probably presided over town-hall style debates.
But this isn’t the school board we’re talking about, it’s the COUNTRY.
One may point to my consternation and state that all of this also works against Obama. But, let me be clear: Obama has been in the Senate as well as the State Senate. He has had enough time on the national field to be able to pick a cabinet and cadre of advisors who he can trust to not let him fail on a massive scale. Palin is a relative unknown who clearly has a great deal of personal pride and ego to contend with. She has no experience on a national scale, and while McCain will be able to help assign her advisors to guide her through the transition- not only will she have the legislative work to familiarize herself with, but she will be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. McCain is no spring chicken. He has had his share of health problems. While I don’t wish him dead, I also don’t know that something tragic won’t happen.
Is Palin really the person we want to have second in line?
Now, onto the more personal matters. Do I care that her seventeen year old daughter is pregnant and marrying the father? On a political level: No. Why would that matter? Yet here is where, as a mother, I start to say- “What the frak, Sarah?”
- While seven months pregnant with her son, she flew out to speak at a conference. Pregnant women are not allowed to fly in their third trimester due to risk of ruptured membranes and premature labor. Sarah Palin had prematurely ruptured membranes and went into labor. Rather than going to a hospital immediately, she finished up her duties at the conference and then flew back home. Anyone who has had a child can tell you that after your membranes rupture, your doctor will give you twelve hours, tops, to have that baby. The amount of fluid in your uterus will have to be regularly checked, as well as the baby needing to be monitored for stress. You should BE IN A HOSPITAL, NOT AN AIRPLANE. Sarah Palin showed a reckless disregard for the safety of her unborn son. Badly done.
- Her seventeen year old daughter is purportedly five months pregnant. Which wouldn’t matter to me at all, except that I had my daughter at twenty one. And that was hard enough. Even with a lot of family around, even with my mother in the delivery room, even with a relatively easy recovery… I cannot imagine having a child at seventeen. I cannot imagine having a child at seventeen while trying to adjust to the pressures of marriage. I cannot imagine doing all of this while your mother is out of state being sworn in to office. I CANNOT IMAGINE A MOTHER NOT BEING THERE FOR HER DAUGHTER.
- There’s also the fact that Palin is quoted as having said that even if her daughter were brutally raped, she’d still want her daughter to have the child. At the time, her daughter was fourteen. And Palin is an avid supporter of abstinence only sex education- which baffles me. I won’t say “perhaps had her daughter been more educated she wouldn’t be pregnant now”, because I’ve no right to make that judgment, but I WILL say that Palin’s choice to run for VP while knowing that her daughter is pregnant and that it will inevitably make news and inevitably call her morals and the value of said morals into judgment shows a callous disregard for said morals, as well. If I really, truly cared about abstinence only sex-education, if I really truly believed it to be the best moral choice, and I had a seventeen year old pregnant daughter waiting for me backstage, I wouldn’t accept the nomination. Because if my ideals are to hold any water, they have to be more valuable to me than my career.
I just can’t wrap my mind around it. And as much as I wish I could say my pragmatic reasons for disliking Sarah Palin outweigh my WTF about her family life, I have to admit that it’s eighty percent WTF and only twenty percent “she’s just not ready.”
But, of course, I’ve known that I would be voting for Obama for the last four months, so it’s not like it matters.
Hayden Tompkins replied:
“And Palin is an avid supporter of abstinence only sex education- which baffles me.”
It always cracks me up when I hear about “abstinence only” sex education. Seriously. Does no one remember being in high school AT ALL?
What it reminds me of, however, is trying to legislate morality – a la’ the homosexuality thing. If one believes that it is ok, even appropriate, to criminalize homosexuality on the grounds that it is immoral and against God’s law, I would expect the same group of people to be for criminalizing premarital sex.
But they don’t. Probably because they know it won’t work. Ergo, let’s get some freely available birth control and better education methods out there.
And, not to give any parents out there a heart attack, but sex doesn’t start in high school – it starts in middle school. Don’t wait until your child is 14 to start having these conversations. You need to have them before they become teenagers who could care less what you have to say.
September 2, 2008 at 6:47 pm. Permalink.
Katherine replied:
I agree with your WTF reaction regarding Sarah’s family. Here is something else to think about: Her last baby has Down’s Syndrome. A couple of friends told me about a couple of their friends who are raising these children and they require an enormous amount of love, care, and WORK to reach their full potential, which might not be very much, but they really take dedication in their upbringing.
How does Sarah plan to give her Down’s Syndrome son the amount of nurturing he needs for the next four years while she’s either assisting in running or actually running the United States of America?
Now it’s not up to me to judge and maybe I should just leave the logistics to Sarah, but isn’t she spreading herself way to thin. If her family really means that much to her, why did she accept the nomination? She has a really large family with a great deal of things going on and it seems that, sooner or later, either her family or the country is going to suffer.
It’s really difficult to even consider voting for McCain when I don’t want to remove Sarah from her family. Now she’s already done that herself by accepting the nomination, but it just doesn’t seem right. There are so many questions about Sarah. I have questions about Obama as well, but the issues with Palin are solidifying my vote for him.
September 2, 2008 at 8:31 pm. Permalink.
mssc54 replied:
OMG, Lindsey!
Are you seriously condending with Govern Palin because she naively made promises she couldn’t keep? You are kidding right? I mean it’s not like she promised to give us all free health care.
1. Reckless disregard for the safety of her son? Perhaps she had knowledge from a Higher source. It can happen you know.
2. I can’t believe you are critizing Governor Palin for “NOT BEING THERE FOR HER DAUGHTER”. Give me a friggn break! How in the world do you know if she will be there or not. From all that I have seen (in news reports) whe absolutely supports her daughter.
And be very careful about judging someone elses’ family by your own experiences. Just because you seemed to have such a difficult time having a your baby at the age of twenty one doesn’t mean that Palin’s daughter will have it harder or easier.
3. Wow, just wow! Spoken as a mother who has NEVER HAD A TEENAGE DAUGHTER! You assume that because the mother is an ardent pro-life supporter that she did not educate her daughter on the subject and too teach her about the consequences.
And with regard to her wanting her daughter to have the baby even if she is raped…. SO WHAT! Maybe her faith in what God will do after such a horrific attack is greater than most! I have personally heard of people pressing through that most difficult decision only to find in spite of the way things began they turned out beautifully. Is that so hard to believe?
Lindsey, I must say that I am quite surprised by your 1-3 comments calling into question Governor Palin’s personal integrity. It all smells of a Michael More-ish attack.
I’m just stunned.
September 2, 2008 at 11:51 pm. Permalink.
Lindsey replied:
mssc54: Yes, I am seriously contending with her because she naively made promises she couldn’t keep- because if McCain were to die and she were to become president, I would want someone with better judgment than to say “This cannot possibly happen, for the good of the country”, only to be forced to make it happen. It calls into question her professional judgment.
As for my saying I couldn’t believe a mother not being there for her daughter- It’s simply statistics. Right now it is September. Her daughter is five months pregnant. That means that she will be delivering the child in January, when her mother will be taking office.
How- exactly- is Mrs. Palin supposed to take the time to be there, with her child, to be available for her child- when she is going through the extremely difficult transition into her new position?
And, for the record, I’ve yet to meet a single woman who had an easy time with her first child. Infants are difficult, even if you know exactly what to expect.
I never said that I supposed that Palin didn’t educate her daughter. As a matter of fact I said that’s not a judgment call I can make. What I did infer is that Palin should’ve known the cost that her running for office with a teenaged pregnant daughter would have for her cause. I’m NOT saying that Palin’s ethics are to blame for her daughter’s condition- but as you and I both know plenty of people are.
And, also, for the record: I strongly believe that carrying a child to term, even a child of rape, can be a beautiful spiritual experience. I even wrote a novel to that effect that I’m currently in the process of submitting to publishers. But I also know the extreme stress that sexual abuse can have on a person, I know the pain that women go through, I could never ask a woman who was raped to bear that child if it wasn’t her decision.
And I simply cannot imagine making that kind of statement about your own child. I have to wonder what Bristol thought. Who knows- perhaps she agreed.
But Palin’s statements and attitude and decisions have a lot of people scratching their heads, and that comes at a cost for McCain’s agenda.
September 3, 2008 at 12:26 am. Permalink.
Hayden Tompkins replied:
Mssc54, as for #3 -
“There’s also the fact that Palin is quoted as having said that even if her daughter were brutally raped, she’d still want her daughter to have the child.”
What mom wants doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with what the teenager wants. What if teen-momma-to-be convinces dad that an abortion is the right way to go? What if that’s what actually felt? This is so much more complicated than one parent unilaterally making a decision over something that is this life changing.
As for -
“You assume that because the mother is an ardent pro-life supporter that she did not educate her daughter on the subject and too teach her about the consequences”
I assume that it doesn’t really matter what mom did or did not teach her daughter. Most teens really don’t like having their parents lecture them on, well, anything.
I think, however, it is clear that Ms. Palin does believe in abstinence only sex education. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of reasonableness to assume that that’s the approach she took with Bristol.
On a side note, can we PLEASE take Jamie Lynn Spears off the cover of People magazine like it’s ok she’s a teen mother?
The biggest single predictor for whether a child grows up in poverty is the mom’s status. Is she a teenage mother? Did she at least graduate high school? Higher education? Is she single?
Weddings at this point, just for the sake of the child, are usually a disaster. Children raising children.
On an even more random side note, if you want to substantially lower the instances of teen pregnancy – raise the driving age to 18. I’m just saying. Cars are like little rooms on wheels…which may be why my dad got me a bike for my 16th birthday!
September 3, 2008 at 12:57 am. Permalink.
mssc54 replied:
I noticed you didn’t addressed the “free health care for everyone” Obama said he was going to do.
Talk about poor judgement. Where’s that money coming from?
And of course Obama said families are off limits. Isn’t is strange that out of all the four running for office that except for his immediate family you just don’t hear of anyone. Hmmmm
September 3, 2008 at 1:52 am. Permalink.
mssc54 replied:
You know as I looked back over this I think I can see what bugged me most.
“I don’t want to judge” but then the judging begins.
But mostly, I have raised THREE teenaged girls. I know how difficult those years can be… regardless of parenting.
To have someone call into question another’s motivation, values and parenting skills when they themselves are completely clueless about it is a bit much.
All the while never calling into question the history of the family of the “other man” running on the other ticket.
Like her or not Governor Palin has been right up front with her warty family.
Whish that others would find the same value in that. After all which ever ones win this election their family(s) will be the ones running in and out of the White House.
September 3, 2008 at 3:09 am. Permalink.
Kelly replied:
Seeing as how Sarah Palin has been on record as supporting abstinence-only education and that she reportedly home schooled her kids, I’m going to guess that Bristol didn’t get a lot of sex ed, if any.
And also, Mssc54, how many siblings does John McCain have? Or Sarah Palin? How many cousins?
We’re only hearing about everyone’s immediate families.
September 3, 2008 at 4:22 am. Permalink.
Lindsey replied:
Mssc54: I honestly ignored the free health care jab, because Obama has already discussed how he would pay for it, by raising taxes on people making more than 400k a year and cutting military spending.
As for me judging Palin’s parenting skills or blaming her for her daughters pregnancy, I DIDN’T DO THAT. I realize OTHER people are doing that, but I DIDN’T. I simply said that her choosing to run now, in the midst of this family crisis, seems to show a lack of foresight. If Palin had waited another four to eight years to run, she would have more successes on her resume, and Bristol’s situation rather than being an “immediate and shocking” one would simply be a family story, from the past, which hopefully turned out well.
Now, to be fair, I also think Obama running for president right now shows an equal lack of foresight. If he had another eight or twelve years in the Senate, a lot of the accusations people are able to make about him right now would no longer be valid.
Want to know why I support Obama? Because I can’t support McCain. Five years ago McCain was politically pro-choice, and he supported gay marriage. The man has had a total personality change. As far as politics are concerned, I say trust the demon you know. McCain is an unknowable to me, because he was willing to trade his political ethics for a run at the white house. While he once called people like Rick Warren “agents of intolerance” he now courts their support. Who can trust someone who is willing to totally change their stances to align themselves with a political party solely for the purpose of winning an election? Don’t trust it.
At least with Obama he’s been consistent. I honestly am not sure that I want socialized health care or some of the other things he’s offering- but I also know there’s a balance of power, and I’ve got my state Representative and Senator to get my back.
And, I’ll go with Kelly on the family issue. Obama has been REMARKABLY open about who his family is- he’s written BOOKS on the topic. Every family has “unsavories” hidden in the eaves- and I’d guess that Biden, Palin, and McCain have as much to be embarrassed about as Obama does. But the extended family can only matter so much. We know about Obama’s mother and grandmother, who were responsible for his upbringing. We know his conflicted feelings about his father, we know his sister and stepfather, we know as much as we need to.
September 3, 2008 at 9:39 am. Permalink.
Hayden Tompkins replied:
Conservatives don’t want to vote for McCain any more than you do. That’s why they clung to Sarah Palin with the ferver of a drowning man finding a life raft.
Can I just say, though, that I really LIKE Huckabee. I thought it would have been interesting to see him get the Republican nod for President.
September 3, 2008 at 12:00 pm. Permalink.
Rob V. replied:
Lindsey,
I REALLY debated whether or not to post this. It seems I only respond to things you write that I disagree with. (I’ll make a point to do the opposite after this, you wrote something the other day that I liked.)
Anyway, even after reading your clarification, I have to say I’m still very surprised by your feelings on Palin. I don’t want to rehash what mssc54 has already said since I agree with a lot of it, but I will ask you this: does having a bad kid mean you’re a bad parent? Bristol’s not even really a bad kid, just an apparently unwise one. Elders, pastors and other “godly” people are not immune from a rebellious teenager, so why should Palin? And why should it reflect on her ability to parent. I love the phrase, “God has no grandchildren.” It means just because you’re saved doesn’t mean your kids will be. And just because you try to raise your kids your beliefs, it doesn’t mean they’ll end up believing them. But that doesn’t make you a bad parent.
And I absolutely have to ask, would you have even written this post if Palin were a man??
September 3, 2008 at 5:07 pm. Permalink.
Lindsey replied:
Rob: If Obama had a teenaged pregnant daughter, I would say the same thing: he should wait to run for office until after things had blown over.
And WHEN, for the love of GOD, WHEN DID I BLAME SARAH FOR BRISTOL’S PREGNANCY? I didn’t do that! I never did that! I said that I question her judgment on Abstinence Only Sex-Ed, I said that I question her choice to run in the midst of all of this happening right now- but I never blamed her for her daughter’s situation. In fact, I said that I am not capable of making that judgment.
I’m not.
Palin shows a history of poor judgment and foresight. She even needed an aide to do most of the daily governing when she was mayor of a relatively small town, and nearly faced a recall election. I believe I was clear in my post that I saw both a pattern of professional poor judgment as well as a pattern of personal, and that honestly the professional should matter more. It just doesn’t, because I’m human, and occasionally susceptible to these kinds of human failings like getting drawn up in gossipy clap-trap.
September 3, 2008 at 5:15 pm. Permalink.
anita replied:
I’m the same Lindsey and I just keep hoping that someday in my life I’ll have the chance to vote just once for a presidential candidate I can really stand behind and support. I’m growing jaded and weary of basing my voting on default.
September 3, 2008 at 8:12 pm. Permalink.
Hayden Tompkins replied:
I think the Sarah Palin thing is an issue because she does purport to know what to teach teens about sex (i.e. “abstinence only”). It’s probably only Alanis-Morissette-ironic that her daughter is an unwed, teenage mother to be.
For me it’s not so much of her being a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ parent (if only we had that much control over teenagers), but the idea that you can legislate a very specific brand of morality. It is clear that when dealing with teenagers, they are their own people who are going to make their own mistakes.
Abstinence only education is a mistake, clearly, unless you can completely control your child’s environment until they get married. Bristol is lucky that she has a wonderful family to support her, a family that is not destitute.
Many teenage mothers don’t get this opportunity and it’s these children who are at the most risk for abuse or extreme poverty. It’s these children who end up perpetuating the cycle and most often grow up without a father.
Bristol doesn’t make Sarah a bad mom, it just makes it a little clearer that the abstinence only take on sex education is a mistake. And it isn’t Bristol who would be paying the highest price for that.
September 3, 2008 at 9:04 pm. Permalink.
mssc54 replied:
Lindsey; you’ve got to stop getting all of your information from Huffington Post. jk jk jk
September 3, 2008 at 11:57 pm. Permalink.
Lindsey replied:
In what universe do I actually read the Huffington post? *lol*
September 4, 2008 at 1:38 am. Permalink.
Matty replied:
All that I could possibly say, has already been said. I echo Anita’s plea above: “I’m growing jaded and weary of basing my voting on default.”
I’m voting for Ron Paul if he’s on the ballot in California. He’s the only one I feel positive towards.
Matty
September 4, 2008 at 8:53 pm. Permalink.
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