jesus, where do i begin? my feelings on the whole sarah palin debacle can best be summed up as follows: WTF?!
how freaking stupid does the GOP think america is? actually, the sad truth is that there are way too many americans who are exactly as stupid as the GOP thinks they are. and that's the part that makes my head explode. because sarah palin makes no sense at all! seriously, by all logic and reason, the ultra-conservatives and the evangelicals should gasp in horror at sarah palin. yet, they're taking to her like a hockey mom to lipstick. and it truly truly terrifies me.
who the hell is this woman? before she was the governor of an oil-rich state of 683,000 people, she was mayor of a town of 6,000. and she has the balls to suggest that community organizing is some kind of hack job? i'd love to see sarah palin last an hour in a low-income, primarily black chicago neighborhood.
as for her pregnant teenage daughter? if that had been chelsea clinton back when bill was running for president, the GOP would have lept all over it. and it would have been ugly. but the real kicker about the whole bristol palin thing is that all of the coverage uses language like
this:
Here's a statement the McCain camp released from Todd and Sarah Palin, which is identical to the quote in the Reuters story: "We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support."
um, correct me if i'm wrong, but bristol's "decision to have her baby" sure implies that she had an, um, choice to make? like, perhaps she could have chosen something other than having the baby? oh, the blasphemy! makes emily's head go KABOOM!!!
the thing is, strategically, the GOP made a really strong move in selecting palin. of course tons of americans are going to "relate" to this woman. tons of americans have the same small-town, PTA, book-banning, nascar-loving, guns-and-religion sense of identity. and this is what got us eight years of george w. bush. it's identity politics at its most dangerous, and it scares the hell out of me.
finally, sarah palin is not an emblem of feminism. sarah palin is not proof that the GOP cares about women's issues. sarah palin is the worst kind of woman -- she's an opportunistic beauty queen. and i hope joe biden eats her alive in the vice presidential debate next month.
