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Friday, September 26, 2008
Palin Problem: She’s out of her league
Palin Problem: She’s out of her league
By Kathleen Parker
September 26th, 2008
If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.
To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.
Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.
Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick — what a difference a financial crisis makes — and a more complicated picture has emerged.
As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.
Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan’s president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)
And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she’s had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).
Finally, Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.
Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
Read the rest of the story:
Palin Problem: She’s out of her league
By Kathleen Parker
September 26th, 2008
If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.
To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.
Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.
Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick — what a difference a financial crisis makes — and a more complicated picture has emerged.
As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.
Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan’s president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)
And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she’s had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).
Finally, Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.
Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
Read the rest of the story:
Palin Problem: She’s out of her league
The question is, can Palin give a coherent answer?
The question is, can Palin give a coherent answer?
DAVID USBORNE - SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
September 26th, 2008
The reviews of Sarah Palin's latest television appearance tumbled in yesterday and they were ugly. In only the third major broadcast interview since she was selected by John McCain as his running mate at the end of August, she seemed at times lost for words and not all those she spoke fitted together.
The financial crisis means less attention will be paid to it than might otherwise have been the case. It could be, meanwhile, that Palin's unhappy performance will lower expectations ahead of her encounter with Sen. Joe Biden at the vice-presidential debate in St. Louis next Thursday.
It remains possible that the CBS interview will be known as the moment when the high gloss that Palin wore upon her selection before the Republican convention -- burnished by her performance in St. Paul -- began to fade.
Even as members of the American media strive to avoid appearing snobbish or elitist in their treatment of Palin, most commentators seemed unable to disguise their sheer consternation at a performance that at times seemed worthy less of a candidate for vice-president than for school president.
"Marginally responsive," was the gentle verdict of the Los Angeles Times after watching the interview of Palin by Katie Couric, the anchor of the CBS Evening News, shown on Wednesday and Thursday. The influential blogger Andrew Sullivan complained that the governor was skittering not between "talking points" but "babbling points."
Read the rest of the story:
The question is, can Palin give a coherent answer?
DAVID USBORNE - SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
September 26th, 2008
The reviews of Sarah Palin's latest television appearance tumbled in yesterday and they were ugly. In only the third major broadcast interview since she was selected by John McCain as his running mate at the end of August, she seemed at times lost for words and not all those she spoke fitted together.
The financial crisis means less attention will be paid to it than might otherwise have been the case. It could be, meanwhile, that Palin's unhappy performance will lower expectations ahead of her encounter with Sen. Joe Biden at the vice-presidential debate in St. Louis next Thursday.
It remains possible that the CBS interview will be known as the moment when the high gloss that Palin wore upon her selection before the Republican convention -- burnished by her performance in St. Paul -- began to fade.
Even as members of the American media strive to avoid appearing snobbish or elitist in their treatment of Palin, most commentators seemed unable to disguise their sheer consternation at a performance that at times seemed worthy less of a candidate for vice-president than for school president.
"Marginally responsive," was the gentle verdict of the Los Angeles Times after watching the interview of Palin by Katie Couric, the anchor of the CBS Evening News, shown on Wednesday and Thursday. The influential blogger Andrew Sullivan complained that the governor was skittering not between "talking points" but "babbling points."
Read the rest of the story:
The question is, can Palin give a coherent answer?
Palin gets media savaging after faltering interview
Palin gets media savaging after faltering interview
AFP - September 26th, 2008
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Republican running mate Sarah Palin, after again laying claim to foreign policy expertise because Alaska is near Russia, suffered a media roasting Friday with one conservative calling on her to quit.
Pro-Republican columnist Kathleen Parker, writing in the National Review, said the Alaska governor was now such an embarrassment to the party that she should step down as John McCain's vice presidential nominee.
"Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson (ABC News), Sean Hannity (Fox News) and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League," Parker said.
In her third session with a television interviewer, this time with CBS News anchor Couric, Palin struggled to offer examples of McCain's claim to regulatory zeal at a time when Wall Street is reeling from financial crisis.
In the interview, which aired in two parts on Wednesday and Thursday nights, Palin also said that US forces had already secured "victory" in Iraq, a bolder assertion than McCain himself has offered.
Pressed on why Alaska's geographic location enhanced her world knowledge, Palin said: "Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of."
She said that when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin "rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska."
"It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right next to, they are right next to our state," Palin added.
Read the rest of the story:
Palin gets media savaging after faltering interview
AFP - September 26th, 2008
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Republican running mate Sarah Palin, after again laying claim to foreign policy expertise because Alaska is near Russia, suffered a media roasting Friday with one conservative calling on her to quit.
Pro-Republican columnist Kathleen Parker, writing in the National Review, said the Alaska governor was now such an embarrassment to the party that she should step down as John McCain's vice presidential nominee.
"Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson (ABC News), Sean Hannity (Fox News) and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League," Parker said.
In her third session with a television interviewer, this time with CBS News anchor Couric, Palin struggled to offer examples of McCain's claim to regulatory zeal at a time when Wall Street is reeling from financial crisis.
In the interview, which aired in two parts on Wednesday and Thursday nights, Palin also said that US forces had already secured "victory" in Iraq, a bolder assertion than McCain himself has offered.
Pressed on why Alaska's geographic location enhanced her world knowledge, Palin said: "Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of."
She said that when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin "rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska."
"It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right next to, they are right next to our state," Palin added.
Read the rest of the story:
Palin gets media savaging after faltering interview
McCain Wins Debate!
McCain Wins Debate
washingtonpost.com's Politics Blog
Although the fate of tonight's presidential debate in Mississippi remains very much up in the air, John McCain has apparently already won it -- if you believe an Internet ad an astute reader spotted next to this piece in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal this morning.
"McCain Wins Debate!" declares the ad which features a headshot of a smiling McCain with an American flag background. Another ad spotted by our eagle-eyed observer featured a quote from McCain campaign manager Rick Davis declaring: "McCain won the debate-- hands down."
Read the rest of the story:
McCain Wins Debate
Screen shot here
washingtonpost.com's Politics Blog
Although the fate of tonight's presidential debate in Mississippi remains very much up in the air, John McCain has apparently already won it -- if you believe an Internet ad an astute reader spotted next to this piece in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal this morning.
"McCain Wins Debate!" declares the ad which features a headshot of a smiling McCain with an American flag background. Another ad spotted by our eagle-eyed observer featured a quote from McCain campaign manager Rick Davis declaring: "McCain won the debate-- hands down."
Read the rest of the story:
McCain Wins Debate
Screen shot here
A Question Reprised, but the Words Come None Too Easily for Palin
A Question Reprised, but the Words Come None Too Easily for Palin
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY - The TV Watch
September 25, 2008
On the “CBS Evening News” on Thursday, Katie Couric asked Ms. Palin, Senator John McCain’s running mate, what she meant when she cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as foreign affairs experience. Ms. Palin could have anticipated the question — the topic of their interview, pegged to her visit to the United Nations, was foreign affairs. Yet Ms. Palin’s answer was surprisingly wobbly: her words tumbled out fast and choppily, like an outboard motor loosened from the stern.
“That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land — boundary that we have with — Canada,” she replied. She mentioned the jokes made at her expense and seemed for a moment at a loss for the word “caricature.” “It — it’s funny that a comment like that was — kind of made to — cari — I don’t know, you know? Reporters —”
Ms. Couric stepped in. “Mocked?” Ms. Palin looked relieved and even grateful for the help. “Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.”
Ms. Couric pressed her again to explain the geographic point. “Well, it certainly does,” Ms. Palin said, “because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of.”
Read the rest of the story:
A Question Reprised, but the Words Come None Too Easily for Palin
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY - The TV Watch
September 25, 2008
On the “CBS Evening News” on Thursday, Katie Couric asked Ms. Palin, Senator John McCain’s running mate, what she meant when she cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as foreign affairs experience. Ms. Palin could have anticipated the question — the topic of their interview, pegged to her visit to the United Nations, was foreign affairs. Yet Ms. Palin’s answer was surprisingly wobbly: her words tumbled out fast and choppily, like an outboard motor loosened from the stern.
“That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land — boundary that we have with — Canada,” she replied. She mentioned the jokes made at her expense and seemed for a moment at a loss for the word “caricature.” “It — it’s funny that a comment like that was — kind of made to — cari — I don’t know, you know? Reporters —”
Ms. Couric stepped in. “Mocked?” Ms. Palin looked relieved and even grateful for the help. “Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.”
Ms. Couric pressed her again to explain the geographic point. “Well, it certainly does,” Ms. Palin said, “because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of.”
Read the rest of the story:
A Question Reprised, but the Words Come None Too Easily for Palin
Momsrising Letter to Members
Dear MomsRising.org Member,
Yesterday, MomsRising.org members tried to deliver our letter--signed by over 21,000 people--to Governor Sarah Palin's office in Washington, D.C. The letter simply asked, "Where do you stand?" on key issues of importance to moms and families.
But, we were turned away at the door.
When pressed, Palin's staff told the group to drop the letter in the mail, refusing to acknowledge the crowd of moms (and adorable baby) who were in the office to hand deliver it.
Snail mail can take a while, and we want to make sure that this election covers more than moose burgers and body surfing. All candidates--male, female, Democrat, Republican, and other--should speak to these issues. Some are, and others aren't (1). So, we're bringing our questions to the next level: getting our questions front and center in the Vice Presidential Debate on October 2nd.
Email PBS Senior Correspondent Gwen Ifill, who will be moderating the debate, to tell her you want these important questions asked: http://www.momsrising.org/
The MomsRising.org team has written five questions we'd like to see posed to both Palin and Biden in that debate (see the questions below (2)). Let's get these questions to the debate moderator so the American public gets a chance to hear both candidates, side-by-side, answering the same questions.
When you click the link above, you'll send a message to Gwen Ifill and cc both of the presidential campaigns to let them know that over 21,000 voters want to hear them talk about these issues (which impact millions of Americans) at the debate.
Tell your friends to email Gwen Ifill, too! She needs to know how deeply important these issues are for millions of Americans--and that we demand they be addressed now!
Thank you!
--Kristin, Joan, Mary, Katie, Laura, Roz, Ashley, and the entire MomsRising.org Team
1. MomsRising members are tracking all of the candidates' speeches, tallying any mention of issues that impact moms. See their tallies at www.momsrising.org/
2. Our questions:
* Right now, the birth of a child is the number one cause of a "poverty spell" in America, and 1/4 of families with young children are living in poverty. Do you support a policy to provide paid family and medical leave to parents following birth or adoption of a new child?
* Nearly 1/2 of all full-time, private sector workers in the U.S. have no paid sick days. Do you support a policy to provide paid sick days for workers to use when they or their children get sick?
* In most American families, both parents work outside the home. Please tell us what your administration would do to help parents secure excellent, affordable childcare?
* Studies show that moms are paid 73 cents and single moms are paid about 60 cents to the dollar for doing the exact same job as men. Do you support the Fair Pay Restoration Act and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act?
* A child is born every 41 seconds without healthcare. What kind of Health Care Policy could Americans expect in your administration?
Palin to return donations from tainted politicians
Palin to return donations from tainted politicians
By STEVE QUINN and JUSTIN PRITCHARD
The Associated Press - 9/26/2008
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin says she will give to charity more than $1,000 in campaign contributions from two Alaska politicians who were implicated in a sprawling public corruption scandal.
Palin's campaign announced late Thursday it will give back the $1,030 donated to her successful 2006 campaign for Alaska governor. It also will return another $1,000 from the wife of a once-powerful state senator, according to a spokesman for the presidential campaign of John McCain.
Palin has cast herself as a reformer who holds herself to the highest ethical standards. Campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said he did not know which charity the money would go to, but expected the return to take place as early as Friday.
Read the rest of the story:
Palin to return donations from tainted politicians
By STEVE QUINN and JUSTIN PRITCHARD
The Associated Press - 9/26/2008
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin says she will give to charity more than $1,000 in campaign contributions from two Alaska politicians who were implicated in a sprawling public corruption scandal.
Palin's campaign announced late Thursday it will give back the $1,030 donated to her successful 2006 campaign for Alaska governor. It also will return another $1,000 from the wife of a once-powerful state senator, according to a spokesman for the presidential campaign of John McCain.
Palin has cast herself as a reformer who holds herself to the highest ethical standards. Campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said he did not know which charity the money would go to, but expected the return to take place as early as Friday.
Read the rest of the story:
Palin to return donations from tainted politicians
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