A woman as v.p. candidate? Be careful what you wish for
Talk about rolling the dice. The idea was to connect to the Hillary Clinton supporters. These women, dismayed by the idea that the experienced female was passed over for a fresh male face, were supposed to be won over by a patently inexperienced female fresh face. Never mind that this feisty working mom leans — no, falls — right on social issues. You go, Clara Thomas. Oops, I mean you go, girl.
The Straight Talk Express twisted itself into a pretzel trying to defend her qualifications to be commander in chief. More to the point, the mother of five had a personal story meant to capture the imagination of the American people, whose minds were beginning to wander ominously to such nonentertaining narratives as the Iraq war and the economy.
Not that I don't find the Palin story engaging. Mom to mayor to governor to veep nominee? There's one woman who didn't have trouble raising her hand in class. There's one woman who didn't think she had to be twice as good as a man to run. Be careful what you wish for.
What did James Dobson of Focus on the Family say? This teen pregnancy showed that "she and her family are human." Tony Perkins at the Family Research Council praised Bristol for "choosing life in the midst of a difficult situation." A spokeswoman for the Campaign for Family Values called the Palins "an American family out there living out their values."
Meanwhile Barack Obama himself, the son of an 18-year-old mother, said strongly that "People's families are off limits, and people's children are especially off limits." Well, OK. But let's not forget that it's the right wing that made social issues into a political issue. The right wing decided that pregnancy was not a matter of private decision-making but a harsh and unrelenting political battle.
Palin had her youngest child after a prenatal test showed he had Down syndrome. But she doesn't believe that other women should be allowed to make their own choice. The Palins' daughter got the "news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned." But her mother opposes sex education programs that go beyond abstinence only.
Recent comments
I would have been tempted to vote for maverick, independent thinking…
Anonymous | Sept. 7, 2008 at 3:36 p.m.
Ellen Goodman's article goes to show that it is the liberal orthodoxy…
Dan Bradford | Sept. 7, 2008 at 12:09 a.m.
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