Bookworm on Sep 02 2008 at 3:21 pm | Filed under: Media matters
A liberal friend of mine told me she’s so incensed by the attacks on Palin’s pregnant daughter that she feels like voting for McCain just to spite the media.
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The leftist are not thinking this through. The country is full of women, (and men) who did not get invitations to ivy league schools, who have children to raise and families to support. How many parents have daughters who became pregnant? How many women can remember their own youth and their experiences? How many of these people live in small cities and towns? How will these people feel about being told that people like them are trash – something that should be scraped off the bottom of ivy league, elitist shoes?
Your friend is not alone. I work in software development, at the bleeding edge of “Libs.” The women here are also incensed: “Do you still breast-feed?”
And the gay men are also watching with interest. And the Jews should be also — as should any minority.
If the Left is so ready to throw feminists under the bus in the pursuit of power, who will they sacrifice next?
well book that does sound like someone who would be a friend of yours. there are no attacks on bristol palin. people are rightly pointing to troubling situation of a candidate for vp with a special needs child and who also appears to have attempted to cover up her underage daugher’s pregnancy. also, the question of her beliefs should be called into question because palin is an ardent abstinence only supporter; all of this is fair game and you would know it if you weren’t clinging to every angle on this nomination. don’t worry though, it’ll be over soon. the gop is already looking for ways to extricate themselves from this woman.
peace
intrade has begun taking shares on whether or not gov. palin will withdraw her candidacy. keep in mind, this isn’t some wild leftist lark. intrade has a terrific track record.
http://www.intrade.com/
peace
Dagon,
Dream on …
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5700022
elle
yep, the fundies came back in droves? so what?
this is before they found out that she wasn’t fully vetted, before news of bristol’s pregnancy came out and before clarity on her “reformer” status hit the internets today. and it aint gonna be the fundies that launch her. it’ll be the cynical apparatchiks in the back rooms of the gop who cut her loose. the same people that forced mccaine to make this pick over his first choice i n the first place.
peace
Interesting.
Ellie – it’s hard to imagine that gays would be very worried given the firm and prominent place they have in the Democrat party. But then, I admit that I am simply astonished at the vitriol shown by the left, including women, against this young teen and her mother, particularly considering that Sarah Palin exemplifies all that we are supposed to be as women according to feminists on the left.
Deana
deana
aside from some trolling bloggers, please provide any evidence that bristol palin has been attacked. if you can’t, i’d like you to come here and state that. if you can, please provide links.
as for gov. palin, she is a candidate for the second highest position in the world. her conduct and judgment ARE open for discussion. you are the one who is putting her in the position of victimized woman and that is what true feminist find disgusting.
that, and the fact that the ONLY reason she was selected in the first place was because she was a woman, an evangelical woman.
gender is not the reason she is under scrutiny. it is the office that she aspires to and the increasingly bizarre circumstances around her story.
peace
Deanna,
I am not saying gay men are “worried” only that they are watching with interest. The gay men I have known are very, very, bright. So, also, are most of the Jews that I have known.
They are smart enough to know that “first they came for …… and then they came for me.”
Dagon thinks the GOP will dump Gov Palin, because he thinks like a Lib: Power before principle.
Ellie
Dagon, like the rest of the Dems, is scared to death of Palin. As Mark Levin said this evening they have to destroy her before the American people get to know her.
I know she is a tough woman. I only hope that she and her family have the courage to weather this storm.
BTW, Dagon, sonny, are you aware that Joe Biden’s daughter was arrested on 8/4 for obstructing a police officer after an assault episode? Did you know that she has a court appearance on 9/26? I thought not. Very few people do. There was a very small story in the LA Times, then it was buried. The media were not interested. Did the McCain campaign try to make a political issue of this indiscretion on her part? No.
This is why we get so upset. You need to take your phony arguments some place where someone GAS.
Would that the media show impartiality and scrutinize Obama (the candidate for the #1 position, not the #2 slot as is Palin) at an equally intense level. People talk about McCain like he is at death’s door. He is a vigorous and healthy man as evidenced by his stamina during this exhausting campaign. Should he happen to die or become incapacitated in office, Palin will have had more on the job training in her VP role. But McCain in all likelihood McCain, a qualified candidate, will stay alive and she will stay a VP. Obama is now claiming he has more executive experience than Palin based on running this campaign- (check out today’s news)- that is pathetic.
Wait til her speech. She may prove quite surprising.
i’m not a dem oldflyer
also, biden’s daughter is an adult, not a pregnant minor who still needs parenting. and dems don’t run on the “traditional family values” pablum your lot keeps spewing.
like i said, the dems aint scared. you guys really should stop circling the wagons on blogs like these and instead use your energy calling up your local mccaine campaign office and scream at them for not doing their due dilligence in selecting such a terrible running mate. there may be time to get rommney, who will at laest help to make this a race.
peace
lulu.
it’s over. the sooner you guys deal with it the better:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/212499.php
can’t you see how this is going to play out? at the very least, it will become a huge distraction to the campaign, forcing the gop to look elsewhere; unless the new meme you guys want to throw out is “secession is the new patriotism”.
palin is going to have to disavow her husband, the statements of aip and alienate a large number of her hometown base.
it’s over.
peace
here guys,
this ap article lays out the case that palin wasn’t fully vetted pretty well:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jrhFOsVwX9jtDyUhy3zKCBVms8tgD92USVF01
peace
dag, you obviously missed my point. it was about how the media reports different stories and how different constinuencies react to situations. as far as the teen age daughter is concerned, if you ever become a parent or a grand-parent you will know that kids can break your heart despite your best efforts. you would also know that in the climate created by the dem run school system and the entertainment media that the dems love (and milk for big $$$$) it is damn hard for a parent to influence kids as much as they would like. the real test of family values is how you react and how you stand by the kids when they need you. i know that is a little too hard for some folks to understand, but that pretty well sums it up. it looks as though the Palins will pass the test with flying colors.
dag if you look on the side of your keyboard you will find a shift key. using this will allow you to capitalize the first words of sentences. i know that many of us make grammatical and typing errors when commenting on blogs but it really gives you more credibility if you at least make the effort to write like a semi-educated person. if you stayed in school long enough i am sure some teacher told you that sloppy grammar transmits the impression of sloppy thinking. at the moment your thinking comes across as pretty sloppy.
peace to you too.
oldflyer, if you weren’t such an oldflyer, you would realize that i write in the style of the original bbs. no caps. CAPS for emphasis.
peace
dagon
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1837862,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
This should be clear enough of an indication that the McCain camp did know what they were doing.
rocker,
well if they did, that’s even scarier. with the todd aip thingy, the presidency is toast
peace
It’s about “a” woman; it’s about “the” woman who hold a given position with which one agrees. And that from my ridiculous, liberal, non-Christian mouth.
Then again, ain’t nobody callin’ me “average,”
Or implying I didn’t mean to say, “It’s NOT about “a” woman; it’s about “the” woman who hold a given position with which one agrees.”
dagon
There are many columnists using this girls pregnancy to besmirch her mother.
You tell me the difference.
By Ronnie Polaneczky
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Columnist
http://tinyurl.com/6kyune
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26496189
Why would Obama find it necessary to say this?
Dagon –
Here you go:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/29/17933/7330/417/579267
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/1/13540/20367/584/582167
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/2/163845/8978/122/583646
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/01/levi-johnston-bristol-pal_n_123089.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/01/palin-my-daughter-is-preg_n_122947.html
And those are just a few examples on two of the most popular sites for those on the left. Many comments made by visitors on leftist blogs are so unacceptable that they have been removed by the moderator. Posts on the Daily Kos have inexplicably “disappeared” and the moderator of talkleft.com has had to repeatedly remind its visitors that attacks on Palin and her family will be removed. (And I do commend the moderator of talkleft for doing that, by the way.)
Even with the most outrageous comments and posts being deleted, some real doozies remain. This is but one of the comments that is still listed at the Daily Kos under the title “Sarah Palin is NOT the mother” by someone named Benito:
“I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to destroy the Republican Party as it exists today as well as everything it stands for. If health insurance for all, an end to the Iraq War, an end to torture and illegal wiretapping, and a sane energy policy can be obtained AT THE PRICE OF DESTROYING ONE TEENAGE GIRL, her family, and the surrendering our self-respect I see that as a cheap trade.”
(emphasis mine)
And these examples don’t even begin to address what is being discussed on leftist blogs and gossip sites with the pouring over the photographs with discussions on whether Bristol is pregnant or “just fat,” whether she’s pregnant for the first or second time, and disgusting discussions of who the father is.
However, you are correct on one thing. Given that Palin has been chosen as the VP nominee, HER conduct and judgment are open to discussion. If she is found wanting, then she is no victim – she simply has been found lacking in a particular area.
But unleashing the full force of the American media on her daughter is simply unacceptable. Sarah Palin does not deserve it and her children sure do not.
One other thing, dagon: If the comments coming out of the left really weren’t that bad, why are some respectable liberals coming out and expressing dismay at what they are seeing and demanding that the left honor what they have always professed to believe in?
Thanks,
Deana
rock,
obama surrogates are NOT the media. he was simply doing the right thing and letting it be known to anyone advocating for him that this is not cool.
as he should.
again, show me ONE credible media outlet, not columnist (that’s opinion and their job) that has gone after bristol palin. and i don’t think there’s anything wrong with what Ronnie Polaneczky wrote. she/he didn’t go after the daughter. she went after a policy that gov. palin happens to staunchly support. that’s fair. because in this one particular instance, abstinence-only education emphatically DID NOT work. and personal as it may be, a vp candidate with those views should be expected to weigh in on the situation.
peace
dagon,
Again, anyone that uses Palins daughter as a vehicle to attack Palin is guilty . You may dismiss it but I will not.
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2008/cyb20080902.asp#1
I asked that you tell me the difference.
sorry rock. that’s not an attack. it’s a legitimate line of inquiry. no one forced sarah palin to accept the nomination for v.p.
and it is a nomination for the second most powerful position in the nation. questioning her support for abstinence-only education while fostering a daughter who apparently paid no heed to that advice, even under the most supportive of circumstances is fair game.
peace
Dagon, you don’t need Palin’s daughter to establish that conservatives are JUST PLAIN WRONG on abstinence only programs–the proof is in the stats and the reams of reports by US and international health organizations, written over many decades by people more qualified than those on this site to evaluate. That the media “reports” that Palin’s daughter is pregnant or her husband was a member of a party that once advocated seccession is fine, although the left-wing bloggers are making way too much of this, just as the conservative bloggers have with Ayers. The guilt-by-association and ad-hominem critiques are getting old, though, on both sides. There is so much in Palin’s espoused policies and beliefs that is wrong or highly questionable just based upon the facts, like the abstinence only policies or teach-the-controversy position to name just a couple, so liberals really do not need to stoop to the base, crude level of the GOP to attack her on the blogs (and I agree that they are not doing it in the media, at least not the way Hannity, Oreilly, Limbau, Krauthammer, Coulter, et. al. on Fox News and talk radio or even the WSJ editorial page have done to Obama with the Ayers and Wright and did-you-know-he’s-a-Muslim? stories). Moreover, left-wing ad hominem or personal attacks only create fodder for an unthinking group which already attributes any negative report from the mainstream media as confirmation of a biased and corrupt system that seeks only to attack their candidate, values, etc.
For those who claim that the sex-manual approach to sex education works, because abstinence-only sex education doesn’t work, do you have any proof? I thought you didn’t.
I posted on a different Book entry that I don’t think either approach, or ANY approach, will always work. It simply comes down to which approach you think is more likely to work, and is that worth all of this hyperventilating that is going on?
There are a large number of conservatives who are unhappy that Governor Palin’s moral stand on abstinence-only sex education clearly failed with her daughter. They then take the next step: They know we all fall short at times, and they move on. Why is this considered hypocrisy? Perhaps the parents should have stripped Bristol naked, thrashed her to bleeding with reeds, and put her in the stock in front of their house with the word “SHAME!” painted in red across her body? No, I’m sure they expressed their private disappointment to her, then discussed, “What are we going to do now? How should we all proceed?”, and moved on.
Apparently there are leftist feminists who think that the proper thing to do WOULD HAVE BEEN the scourging and public shaming of their daughter. By their hyperpartisan rants, that’s the conclusion I come to. They sure don’t exactly seem supportive of women, now, do they?
That the media “reports” that Palin’s daughter is pregnant or her husband was a member of a party that once advocated seccession is fine, although the left-wing bloggers are making way too much of this, just as the conservative bloggers have with Ayers- dg
I agree with you here.
And it looks as if Palin has her own Jeramiah Wright to contend with, though I’m hoping we’re not subjected to DAYS of coverage about that, too.
But you can’t be thrilled when the media focuses on Obama and Wright or Obama and Ayers and then be dismayed when they focus on the dirt about Palin.
This is what we’ve become.
And it seems to be getting worse.
And I’d wish they’d stop harping about Palin’s daughter, too.
But remember when Valerie Palme was considered “fair game” by the Vice President?
That was pretty bad, too.
No no no, Mike. Stone her. That’s the proper way…!
Apparently there are leftist feminists who think that the proper thing to do WOULD HAVE BEEN the scourging and public shaming of their daughter. By their hyperpartisan rants, that’s the conclusion I come to. They sure don’t exactly seem supportive of women, now, do they? – Mike D
They are only supportive of women who hold their narrow views.
dg,
i complete agree. but governor palin injected her daughter into this. i don’t like it any more than you do but that is the case, and people who oppose her ideology are justified in raising the issue of her daughters pregnancy in light of her stance on abstinence-only education and what she like to impose upon students across the nation.
it is fair game although i agree that some leftist bloggers have gone beyond the pale, but isn’t that what bloggers do? it is to be expected. again, gov. palin didn’t have to take the nom. where i in her situation, i probably would not have.
peace
Bloggers should not go beyond the pale, they should think and reason and marshall verifiable evidence, just as the media does but, individually, on a much smaller budget. All else does harm.
I don’t think Palin injected her daughter into this. In my own opinion, she is not a model mother because a 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy is at least partly a failure on her part as a mother. That said, she loves her daughter and would not inject her into politics. Like Hillary and Barack, she wants to shield her children from this. Everyone else should respect this, on both the left and the right. By the way, Palin is at fault for touting her son’s military service, which should also be left out of the debate…
dagon said:
A wee bit of hyperbole here. I don’t think the vice president gets to impose her education standards on students across the nation, other than having a bigger bully pulpit to make the case.
If we stick closer to the facts, we’ll avoid this.
I agree with almost all of dg’s post#33, including injecting her son into the debate. She gets to tell us what he is doing and why he isn’t with the campaign, but after that, she and McCain’s campaign need to leave it alone. I think we all can admire McCain for not using his son’s service for advantage.
I take a small exception to her being a model mother, although I don’t think she has claimed that, and I’m not sure anyone else has either. We do our best to raise our kids and instill values consistent with our beliefs– but in the end, they are independent moral agents responsible for their actions. I’ve seen families with seeming model parents and kids that are extremely rebellious and vice versa. I think it has to do with the nature of the kid.
>>people who oppose her ideology are justified in raising the issue of her daughters pregnancy in light of her stance on abstinence-only education>>
Although you continue to ignore the facts as any good provocateur would, I’ll repeat: she opposes “EXPLICIT” sexual education.
Asking her just exactly what that means is fair. Stating that she opposes all sex education other than abstinence is false.
it isn’t false until we get the answer. right now based on the answers she’s given previoiusly, it appears that the only sex-ed she endorses is abstinence-only.
peace
brian
tjat is exactly how she was being painted when she was first introduced. to the world by mccaine.
peace
Explicit sex education and abstinence-only sex education are not the only two possibilities, so to suggest opposing explicit sex education can only mean abstinence-only is either dishonest or ignorant to the other possibilities.
Additionally, I get tired of the assumption that when someone calls for one type of sex-education in the public schools that this means that is also what they do at home.
I really don’t know what Palin’s public or personal philosophy is on this..but I can assure you that although I don’t want the government teaching my children what it believe’s to be the best way to handle sexual matter’s and would vote against what most liberals want in this matter if I was given the opportunity, I would be giving them a most thorough education on the matter myself.
In other words, a person can be against explicity public sex education and for explicit private sex education.
People are assuming way to much in this case. You don’t know.
Tap…
Way too sensible…!
The d..g…people can’t follow.
>>right now based on the answers she’s given previoiusly>>
Sources, please??
suek
i’ve already provided them
peace
Great…give me a clue…on this thread? which comment?
suek,
here’s more:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/8/31/134127/530
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Palin_opposed_sexed.html?showall
–you’re allowing semantics to get in the way on this one. by “explicit sex-ed, what palin is referring to is any sex education other than abstinence-only programs. sex education in this country isn’t that mercurial to allow her to parse as to some sort of compromise. the question put to her was specific and she answered it murkily. i suspect we will be getting more clarity on this soon, but as i read it, you supports abstinence-only.
peace
sorry suek,
i meant “she supports abstinence-only”
peace