What Progressives Need to Know about Sarah Palin
A lot of people are writing some excellent stuff about Sarah Palin, John McCain’s vice presidential selection, so I wanted to gather what I could and post it as a roundup below. First, I want to say a couple of things about the coverage of Palin.
- The Palin’s parenting choices and that of their children are off limits because they really have nothing to do with her qualifications or her positions on the issues. I don’t care if her daughter is pregnant or about her childcare decisions.
- The fact that Palin is a woman has nothing to do with her qualifications and everything to do with John McCain’s agenda to cast himself as an agent of change–nice try but Palin represents no perceptible political change–neither does McCain.
- Here is EVERYTHING you’d ever want to know about Palin and her positions on important political issues–brought to you by Progressive Accountability.
- Natasha Chart discusses just how typically conservative Palin is at MyDD.
- Joe Trippi warns Democrats to take the Palin selection very seriously because her selection signals a direct attack by the McCain campaign at Obama’s strength–change in Washington.
- Josh Marshall outlines the intricacies of Palin’s “Troopergate” and shows why it matters that McCain’s vetting process was not as thorough as it should have been.
- Heather McDonald discusses the Palin selection in the context of identity politics.
- PunditMom reminds me that she picked Palin as McCain’s selection when almost no else did and why
- Jen Nedeau compares McCain’s Palin to Bush’s Harriet Miers.
- Some Republicans are not happy with the vetting and selection process the McCain campaign followed in selecting Palin. This DailyMail article tracks Republican reactions to the Palin selection.
- What is and what is not feminist? Ruth Rosen tackles this question while discussing Palin and her association with Feminists for Life.
- Jill Miller Zimon also tackles the idea of feminism and how the Palin selection effects that idea.
- And if you still haven’t gotten your fill of Palin coverage, you can read everything on Huffington Post about Palin.
For local coverage of the Palin selection, here are some progressive Alaska bloggers who know Palin better than most:
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/
http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/
http://divasblueoasis.blogspot.com/
http://kodiakkonfidential.blogspot.com/
http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/
http://mysternyc.blogspot.com/
Comment from Moi
Time: September 1, 2008, 11:14 pm
Those are some good links, thanks for posting them.
I do care about her childcare decisions, as far as the baby goes, but only because I know from experience what the child is going to be up against for the first 6-8 years of its life. I know that he will need an advocate, teacher, and caregiver available 24/7, and in many cases that can only be a parent. Raising a special needs child is a full time job in and of itself. If you can imagine someone at their most stressed, and then someone attacks the country……well, that’s just a lovely picture of someone in charge, isn’t it? @@
I know from an educator’s standpoint what the schools/teachers/therapists/agencies will be up against when they don’t have a parent available to THEM, or one who has time to coordinate and work with them in the off-hours. They will go around them, ignore them, and do what costs them the least instead of what benefits the child. So unless her husband is going to quit working, leaving that decision up to someone they hire would be…sad. For the child. (Not sayin’ much for family values, either!)