Um ... can we stop now?

[jlh]

Look, I'll admit it: when I saw the rumors about Sarah Palin not being the mother of her youngest child, but his grandmother, I was vaguely amused in that let's-catch-the-hypocrites sort of way. And when I heard about her daughter being pregnant, I rolled my eyes, less because of what that may or may not say about Sarah Palin's positions on abstinence and reproductive choice, and more about what it says about her wanting power enough to thrust her daughter into the spotlight at such a sensitive time. Say what you want about the Spears family, but Jamie Lynn had her own show on Nickelodeon when she got pregnant--she was already in the public eye.

As was fairly inevitable, the news media has found Palin's daughter's baby daddy's myspace page and really, it's just a lot of silly stuff written by a 18-year-old kid who put up pictures of himself in his hockey uniform. As I said above, I'm as guilty of enjoying a little schadenfreude as the next person, but as the man I'm voting for to lead this country said, let's just leave them alone.

It's just too bad that Palin didn't make the same choice for her own family.

Comments

[hermorrine.livejournal.com]

I hadn't seen the latest (about the baby daddy's MySpace), but I'm not surprised. Sometimes I think nothing will surprise me anymore.

I don't like Palin as a choice for VP, and I don't like her politics. There was no chance of me ever voting for McCain to begin with, but if I had been remotely close to being on the fence, that would've sent me in the opposite direction. That all said, I really hate what she's done for the whole "women can have a career and a personal life" thing, because really, all this woman is proving is that she, at the least, can't do both. As you've said, she chose to put her career in front of her family at a very poor time, and call me a horrible person, but I AM judging her for that. Her daughter doesn't need this crap, and even if Palin had discussed it with her family, warned them of the scrutiny that would be coming, a teenager can in no way make that kind of fully-informed decision.

Everything about this makes me ill, and it really seems that instead of furthering the cause of women by choosing her, the Republicans have instead sent things backwards to the point where it could possibly undo all the good Hillary has done. Maybe I'm being overdramatic, but that's how it feels.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

NPR referred to Palin this morning as "a conservative folk hero." Srsly. So much for NPR having any brains left at all.

The word "hero" dives to a new low.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Apparently this isn't the latest, as Paris Hilton has pics of the girl drinking. La, for living your life on the internet.

ITA with your assessment; if I were a republican woman I'd be really annoyed. So many really impressive powerful experienced women in that party and he comes up with this?

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I bet she's exactly that. Did you see all the wacko seperatist stuff that heidi8 posted yesterday? I think there's an element of the party that would have just not voted at all that will be energized by this selection. But you know, my enemy's hero is like, even more my enemy, or something.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

But what on earth has she *done* to deserve to be called a hero??

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think just having those beliefs and principles, and you know, having the big family and the boy in the service and pushing for big oil and development and whatever the hell else--she does seem to walk the talk. And possibly all that nutty secession stuff. I think to some people just having certain beliefs is heroic, or at least on a personal level.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It's kind of interesting to me the way her doing things like having a baby with Downs Syndrome is chalked up as heroic because she chose to have it. What bothers me about it is that it implies somehow that it proves she's pro-life, as if plenty of pro-choice women don't choose to have babies with Downs Syndrome. According to her she doesn't have a choice but congratulating her makes it seem like they see her as an example of a woman who doesn't make choices like this based on what's "convenient."

Regardless, I don't even have to see the MySpace to know that it's...going to be a typical MySpace page of a boy who doesn't sound like he's ready to be a father. Which doesn't make him a bad guy. Just a kid who probably now feels even more over his head than he did before.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Well put. I hadn't quite thought of it that way. Palin did make that choice and it is awful. I really feel badly for her daughter. 17 and pregnant and she has to marry her boyfriend so her mom looks OK. I mean if that is what she truly wants I guess that is her decision. But I find it hard to believe that with zero pressure she would make that decision. But what do I know?

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

I just feel bad for the girl, but I'll be ungenerous and trash the boyfriend. He's Dubya minus forty years and the upper-crust pedigree. In a way, he's the embryonic essence of the Neanderthal right wing that took over the Republican party 25+ years ago- arrogant, spoiled jock pricks who really do believe they deserve everything they have handed to them, and that this country is better than every other because it's got winners like them.

I thought Palin was wrong to take on this job when I heard she had a four-month-old, and I feel more so now. But then I think her whole life story exemplifies what makes the feral right tick. There's nothing wrong with being the sort of person who gets up at three a.m. and goes bear hunting and then goes to a full day of school and practices sports for three hours and then goes to a church meeting and, I don't know, gives herself a manicure before bed. The nature of politics is such that it's always going to be populated mostly by rabid Type As; the Dems are no different.

But the Dems don't believe the vast majority of people who weren't born this way are losers. Be careful what you wish for re "having it all"- Palin is exactly the sort of woman who's going to say, what? Flextime, job sharing, family leave, daycare? Whiny loser talk. Wimp talk. Remember Bob Novak grousing that he didn't get this vacation thing, that he never went on vacation because he'd just want to go right back to work? Real Americans love to work, as many hours as possible. They're no wussy European socialists who need an hour for lunch and six weeks off in the summer. And if their first job doesn't have benefits, well, they'll just get another. And another. Remember what Dubya said? Look at this woman with three jobs- how uniquely American!

And that's the dirty little secret...I've seen a few naive types wondering why the old bastards seem so happy with her when they think women should stay home with the kids. An economy that pays most workers well enough that one parent CAN choose to stay home with the kids is exactly what they destroyed with Reaganomics. They don't give a shit about that, really. What they do give a shit about is holding themselves up as examples of how decent Americans make it- what's that you said, Barack?- On Their Own, without slack from your employer or help from the government. Sarah Palin will shill for that beautifully, because she believes it.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

To be honest I think that she would have been pressured to have the baby and marry the guy no matter what--they really do seem to be a family that walks their talk. So that's less about her mom looking OK on a world stage and more about what her parents would have made her do anyway. That it's being played out on a world stage, though, is really unfortunate.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

The headline was, "says he's a redneck, in a relationship and doesn't want kids." As if this is somehow telling or ironic.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Good point, and I think that gets to the heart of the actual distinction between the parties, between their policies. It's about the role of government, not really the role of women or blacks or gays or whatever. It's about whether government should be expected to help women or blacks or gays or whomever gain parity with straight white privileged men.

But the boy--I'm not sure he's necessarily a jock asshole, I mean, how spoiled can he be up there, just because he's on the hockey team? He might be, and then again he might be working a couple of jobs to get rink time.