The estimable Maureen Dowd on Palin:
You know what I’m thinking, because you’re thinking it, too . . . It’s delicious imagining the Debate of the Century between Big Mama, as Bill’s male aides called Hillary, and “Hottie Granny,” as People magazine will doubtless dub Sarah. ESPN will want in.
Republicans may learn they can’t appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.
And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can’t be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.
This could be huge.
Uh, yeah, whatever. Pretty amusing how Steinem can even write that somehow a larval, centrist Republican host organism can emerge after a 2008 loss rather than be the strawman blamed for the car wreck. She must not get out much.
Democrats have a challenge on their hands not too dissimilar from what the Boy King presented to his rivals. How to go after someone without being seen as ‘going after someone’ — avoiding the fatal ‘ism’ charge. Most never figured it out; hence the Denver coronation.
A more interesting column, along the fake internal monologues Safire used to do, would be to imagine HRC’s musings right about now. ‘What to do? What to do? (smiling)’.
DrLeoStrauss says
Fascinating how the Dems now are adopting the (failed) VRWC attempts to mock Hillary today (witness Salon’s clumsy, crude and embarrassingly-more-revealing-about-Salon piece today comparing Palin to the old Repub postcards of Hillary in the same outfit/meme). Besides, don’t they realize that sexualizing Palin only puts JP-5 on the flames?
It’s a wonder.
DrLeoStrauss says
Moscow factored in Bush’s empty (and in some ways as noted disadvantageous to us) gesture long ago.
Comment says
Leo – YMMV, but we disagree with this and think Condi was being foolish. Pulling out of this robs us of a flow of information and it does nothing to restrain Russia – Plus, it shows Bush is now shooting blanks.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/09/bush_cancels_civilian_nuclear.php
Comment says
Just saw Buchanan on – he was right. Then Maddow censored the MTV music awards and didn’t show that slob comedian who talked like McCain agent-provocateur.
You know it sucks that Obama has to take flack for what shows up in the pro war Hiatt WaPo about Palin and it is frustrating to Democrats that the GOP is able to frame an unpopular war and a marginal Veep. But you have to deal with political atmosphere that you have – not the one you want.
Palin has a core level of power to her – But right now the glow around her is all this surplus energy that has to be burned off naturally. The liberal media just keeps the fire going by pouring more energy on.
Comment says
We have to disagree some more ater watching the video – No one has made fundamentalism seem to folksy and casual as Palin just did – That church has a lot in common with Obamas church – both are way outside the acceptable bourgeoisie consensus. But politically speaking in a paper, scissors, rock kind of way – folksy white fundamentalism beats scary black man every time.
But both churchs contain people sent to war on missions hatched in the AEI etc. Both churches contain people screwed over by the establishment.
Btw – Palin’s just really attractive – We had to laugh at Marty P. at TNR comparing her to a Macy’s cosmetic woman – The woman at Macy’s in NY are babes and Marty is a snob who married into wealth
Comment says
Aldershot – we disagree – It would be a disaster to play those church videos – Not only would it open the door for endless re-loops of Rev. Wright, it’s just not good form to make fun of peoples religious beliefs – esp in country that is so diverse. The media will play them – those that loath her will see them and pass the word.
Obama has to maintain his dignity – He has to be more like J. Robinson than Jesse Jackson. BSing on blogs is different –
– There is a chilly strain of eugenic thinking that is still regnant in so-called progressive circles. The explosion of knowledge about genes and DNA has sort of re-booted it and gave it new energy. In our opinion , this will just lead certain frailties to be replaced by other frailties. But there is nothing in the world so disgusting as seeing people be mean in any sense to people with mental disabilities.
Aldershot says
The ladies section! Oh, brother. Heh. I’ve only read it a couple times, but I did read several of the sections talking about the Palin speech. All of the sudden they’re moralists. And the Rosin article you mentioned above; oh, yes, how déclassé of the masses not to automatically abort. Yuk.
Here’s the church thing. She’s not saying the war is God’s will, but to pray that it is God’s will. The best ads Obama can run are to play these over and over, and not just because of the content, but because of the outfit and mannerisms. Very unpresidential.
Good point about her fecundity serving as a reproach to some female journalists without children.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1vPYbRB7k&feature=related
Comment says
“Dahlia’s got it: what’s depressing about Palin is that she represents the Ann Coulterization of the Republican party. That’s what was tugging at my unconscious mind as I watched her spout the most vicious and irresponsible claptrap, with such a gleeful expression on her face.
Watching Palin was like watching a cross between Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin– only Palin accessorizes with babies.”
—-
That’s an except from the Lady’s section on Microsoft’s Slate website – They don’t call it the lady’s section – they call it XX to make it sound trendy and modern and sexy, but not quite porny.
Anyway – it reveals a certain Dowdian vacuity among the mainstream feminist pundits. Palin is nothing like the viciously sarcastic Coulter and she obviously loves her fine family.
The ladies section on Slate is a depressing read – lots faux intellectualism and trendy chit chat mask a sense of lonelyness and sadness that pervades the writing.
The lively Palin probably has no ‘guilty pleasures’ like chick-lit or Cosmo like the gals over at MSM’s slate. She certainly looks like a woman who knows how to have fun.
—-
Aldershot – what was the church thing Pat mentioned?
Aldershot says
Rachel’s premiere…B-
I noticed her doing an Olbermann schtick a couple times.
Loved the Pat segment. He’s right about the Palin church video. Did you see that little smile he gave her at the end?
Comment says
Tweety is a total freak – Will Cindy get jealous? No. She lacks self consciousness – she met her husband when he was married to someone else – Instead of ducking the subject, she’ll allude to it often.
re a Palin tactical pause – Here is the (accidental)case for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieuA7nAOBXQ
Talkpointsmemo has this extremely inffective ad that is hard to follow and annoying – worse – they think it is good It is very annoying that us Obama supporters hear Palin tell tales and go unchallanged – That she makes up total fictions about rejecting bridges (why would anyone reject a bridge?) and yet people waste time picking on her family and now they can’t figure out how to call her a liar. Instead of keeping the message clear and simple – TPM makes it complicate
Aldershot says
Will someone please smack Matthews on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper? He just can’t avoid the sexism. Now he’s pushing the narrative that Palin will be a sort of first lady, that McCain and Palin are a ‘pair,’ and that the public is being asked to choose between McCain/Palin and Barack and Michelle.
I have to say, it is a sticky wicket as far as the phsyicality between McCain and Palin. It’s kind of awkward when he puts his arm around her, and the back-brain goes through a mental gymnastic of what’s appropriate, and why, and will Cindy get jealous. I guess I can’t blame Chris *that* much. If he could raise his arm up, they could hold hands and raise them victoriously, prize-fighter-wise.
“Otoh, Biden is a ticking time bomb. Reminds one of those old ‘Spy vs. Spy’ Mad Magazine cartoons.”
It’s hard to out-Tweety Tweety, but Biden manages it.
Comment says
So far the campaign is Blazing Saddles – But Biden is not the Waco Kid in the sense that Gene Wilder was. Benchpresser and Jello were always beloved by the Imperial Cokies. They still are.
DrLeoStrauss says
re David Frum and liberals
The problem with modern liberalism is that it stands for nothing and lacks a coherent philosophy. It is in the end a laundry list of agenda items from constituent groups.
This is also why General Jello and the Benchpresser got their hats handed to them day in and day out. They, too, lacked a philosophy beyond tactical pragmatism.
Frum et al. have a polestar — a whacked one, but a polestar nonetheless. They can thus tack with the wind and adjust course accordingly, because their destination is clear. How all the more bemusing to see dupes and stoodges peddle their memes — without ever knowing where the course will end up.
Anon says
lol
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/05/keith-olbermann-apologize_n_124179.html
Comment says
” … Thus, via Ezra Klein comes Kent Sepkowitz’s suggestion that we design cars so as to make it impossible for them to drive over, say, 75 miles per hour. This seems reasonably sensible to me …” (Matt Yglesias
Yeah – sometimes bright people say the dumbest things/
Comment says
Liberals are flaiing about and quoting David Frum – someone they should loath and be suspicious of – to make their points.
How can Frum go from being war crime propaganist one day to sensible observer of post feminist politics the next day. It makes no sense
Comment says
Just an observation – we don’t want to sound like Palin fans – Indeed much of her schtick is false – all the nonsense about ebay and rejecting pork. All BS.
But Palin is technically prettier than Tina Fey – People just grant Fey the privlidge and say Palin is like her. This will create a comedy dilemma for Fey.
Virginia Harris says
Read this for your daughters!
Senator Clinton and Governor Palin are proof that women can and do diverge on important issues.
Even on the question of whether women should vote!
Most people are totally in the dark about HOW the suffragettes won votes for women, and what life was REALLY like for women before they did.
Suffragettes were opposed by many women who were what was known as ‘anti.’
The most influential ‘anti’ lived in the White House. First Lady Edith Wilson was a wealthy Washington widow who married President Wilson in 1915.
Her role in Wilson’s decision to jail and torture Alice Paul and hundreds of other suffragettes will never be fully known, but she was outraged that these women picketed her husband’s White House.
I’d like to share a women’s history learning opportunity…
“The Privilege of Voting” is a new free e-mail series that follows eight great women from 1912 – 1920 to reveal ALL that happened to set the stage for women to win the vote.
It’s a real-life soap opera! And it’s ALL true!
Powerful suffragettes Alice Paul and Emmeline Pankhurst are featured, along with TWO gorgeous presidential mistresses, First Lady Edith Wilson, Edith Wharton, Isadora Duncan and Alice Roosevelt.
There are tons of heartache on the rocky road to the ballot box, but in the end, women WIN!
Thanks to the suffragettes, women have voices and choices!
Exciting, sequential episodes are great to read on coffeebreaks, or anytime.
Subscribe free at
http://www.CoffeebreakReaders.com/subscribe.html
Comment says
Col. Lang has a post with some stupid quote from Biden about Israel – Nothing really special. But we’d have to guess that this was the one area that Biden was seen to be helpful to Obama.
When Biden was picked we were disappointed – We received taunting a-ha emails from Republican friends who heard us say that Biden would not be chose because he made no sense.
But he did makes sense to Eric Holder et al – In fact, we will go out on a limb and say that Biden, if Obama loses, will be a case study in poor decision making – When aspects of a campaign’s decision making apparatus are at cross purposes.
McCain has been on a bit of a roll since Saddleback – We think he cheated – He either watched or was tipped off by the avuncular pastor – As long time McCain watchers – we noticed he was 300percent smoother that night than he usually is with social and religious themes,.
Well – can’t prove it.
Comment says
The shape of things to come:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2696031/Anti-terrorism-laws-used-to-spy-on-noisy-children.html
Dems will support such laws so as not to be soft on crime – so long as they can find a way to blame ashcroft
Comment says
Incidentally – last week Black wrote a tour de force column that made neocon foreign policy sound elegant – It was about Georgia and Black was giving all sorts of steps and suggestions. It was disagreeable to this reader – but it was bravura nonethless/
– Obama – at least he has lucked out so far and The Guardian has not yet enlisted British authors to write letters to swing voters in Ohio.
re Nixon – Nixon would now have active measures getting the most obnoxious snotty foreigners to denounce Palin and her family – It would not surprise if it’s being done.
Dr Leo Strauss says
How Conrad Black *should* have done it:
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=587107
A Random Quote says
“The Democrats and the feminist media establishment failed in their effort to represent Governor Palin as a Dan Quayle dunce in drag, a trigger-happy Stepford Wife and negligent mother (because she would choose to run for vice president despite her young family and 17-year old unmarried, pregnant daughter). The frenzy of the initial assault, and the sanctimonious conceit that American women would be offended by the candidacy of such an allegedly ditzy yokel, showed that McCain had remembered the basic military strategic lessons to apply maximum force at the decisive point and achieve complete surprise: If the liberal Democrats are taking the high ground on extramarital sex and working motherhood, you know they are frightened.
But even the Republicans were not prepared for the virtuosity of Ms. Palin’s debut on Wednesday night. Managing to be winsome and even ingenuous, while witty; hard-hitting without being a harridan; an authentic feminist about what women can aspire to, while being a traditionalist; a clean government achiever and a populist enemy of the oil companies’ excesses and the proverbial special interests; a spunky and endearing, yet effective, attack dog; she touched all the buttons. The early Democratic and media ripostes of offended American womanhood, lumpenbourgeois mediocrity and the primitive frontierswoman with a rifle in one hand and a Bible in the other, were completely inadequate.
She is a naturally popular person, and a contrast with Joe Biden, a monotonous leftist journeyman, full of pretension and loquacity, a plagiarist (from Neil Kinnock of all people) with hair plugs …”
Lord Black
Coleman Correctional Facility
Coleman, Fl.
DrLeoStrauss says
re Biden and life begins at conception —
Here we see a Biden perfect storm: trademark random thinking, verbal diarrhée and febrile processing of overstuffed campaign briefings. A spewing blender hurling musings, talking points on key Pennsylvania, Ohio and other demographics and a soto vocce reminder to STFU. Dripping all over the studio walls.
We await with interest Gloria Steinem’s inevitable Fatwah now unmasking the Obama-Biden terrorist center as ‘cosmopolitan’ (pun intended) uterian imperialists.
DrLeoStrauss says
re deranged Brit hosts
Being denounced by him — almost as good as being denounced by Madonna on tour in England.
If only Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandan would promise to leave the country if Palin got elected (Alec has that nuisance of a long term 30 Rock contract this go around).
DrLeoStrauss says
Media Matters and that crowd are subjectively in an energized state pushing forward the Obama/Biden agenda. Objectively, their intellectual frames enable and inflate Movement memes.
Perhaps they even think Arianna and HuffPo actually supports tangible progressive achievements instead of Arianna’s vanity and the vacant musings of B list celebrities.
Anon says
McCain’s gonna love this – Look to see it foxed up this week. Amazing how the Republicans are able to luck out and get this sloppy looking dude to say this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/2704186/Russell-Brand-upsets-MTV-audience-with-sex-and-politics.html
A Random Quote says
“Eventually she’s [Palin] going to have to sit in front of you [Tom Browkaw] like I’m doing and have done. Eventually she’s going to have to answer questions and not be sequestered. Eventually she’s going to have to answer questions about her record.”
Biden, MTP
(As Browkaw casually promotes a Drudge
manufactured story that helps McCain
just as McCain promoted Brokaw’s books.
Biden remains clueless.)
Anon says
Tweetgate:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/business/media/08msnbc.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
Incendiary? This is blessing for Obama – if it matters at all. He really does not need allies like this Olberman adds no value.
In terms of real bias this is an excellent analysis of 2000 and the stupid Weisman accidentally spilled his soup.
We recall those debates and we liked it at the time when Gore’s win was gradually spun as a loss. It was bizarre because it was the first time media bias was really working the opposite of tradition.
http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200809060003?show=1
If you read the link – Weisman has clearly drown himself in retrospective propaganda – imagining things.
Anon says
It seems to us what Obama has to do is define McCain as being in favor of borrowing money from China to guard Chinese energy suppplies in Iraq – us US troops. That’s the simple logic that is roughly honest (esp compared withe neocon frames) and it could flummox McCain if it catches on in the media and gains traction.
From that macro view, then comes pointing out that Maliki is pro Iranian and his interests do not coincide with ours and it makes little sense to nurse him until our eventual departure.
Then wash – rinse – and repeat.
Instinct tells most Americans that Iraq is not in the national interests
But Obama and Biden have to stop being put in a position of responding to day to day things in Iraq.
Vietnam made marked strides all during Nixon’s first term – but it was all gonna fall apart when we left as Kissinger and others admitted to the Chinese,
Why isn’t McCain responding to xyz?
Anon says
Unfortunately – for some of us – This critique is dead on – There are so many ways Biden and Obama could have answered better – Granted, in the political context (“we now know the surge worked ” it is almost impossible to answer these questions properly – The Dem party should have long ago crafted a plausible narrative of equating success with withdrawl of troops – if for no other reason than to draw out the stay-forevers who lurk in the bipartisan defense extablishment
http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2008/09/07/spooked/
The problem is that Biden secretly seems to agree with McCain and he may lack the self awareness to know that.
What to do? There is no real sure fire way to handle this issue – Yes, amazing that the most unpopular war is turning into a Dem headache. The war and oil prices are in danger of being lost as sure issues.
solution – start demagoguing on social security
Comment says
“They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views as to when life — I’m prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception.” (Biden) – on MTP
Biden is pretty incoherent – when life begins is not the real issue in the abortion debate – It has no real religious dimension – It’s a scientific question. The religious aspects deal with how people inform themselves on the meaning of life of the fetus at various stages.
Biden doesn’t really think these things thru – when he is around Ivy professors he likes to emphasisize how pro choice is – But the Tweety in him cannot totally give up his Catholic backround an marketing image. So he gives us this
In fairness to Biden, Cindy broke the GOP rule of winking about abortion – after victory. This issue is – in its political dimension – entirely phony. Nothing ever happens except these contrived votes that tinker around the edges. As Dick Morris noted – if the GOP ever really tried to restrict abortion, their corporate base would vanish.
Comment says
Dems are wasting their time complaining that Cindy McCain gets away with wearing a 300k outfit and that Heinz-Kerry or even Michelle would be crucified for doing that – These kind of things are structural and built into narrative templates that the media follow – It never hurt RWR that Nancy was a clothes splurging wastral and it never hurt GHWB that Barbara was a had and a nightmare. By the same token it has not really helps W that much that his wife is sweet and well liked – It helped a little, but it has not been decisive
Comment says
Leading up to the VP debate (we recall GHW Bush cleaning Ferraro’s clock) expect to see FNC extoling Biden’s debate skills by comparing his blunderbus performance in hearings to debates. Palin will win the expectations game and then she will probabaly win the debate.
Comment says
She doesn’t just say she’s pro life – she phrases it in the best possible wording depending on how the question is asked – so people listening will fill in the blanks in a manner that they want. Her adversaries in the debate looked like zombies reading from an old Kerry/Edwards ’04 briefing book – She also mastered the art of sound environmentalist while technically upholding the James Watt agenda.
re Russia Today TV english- one of the funniest aspects of the Russian TV is how similar it is in narrative style to Fox news – That’s obviously who they copy. The over-emphasis on Nader’s campaihn was a propaganda mistake though
DrLeoStrauss says
She has charisma and is a fast on her feet thinker. She well may be quite a challenge for even a heavily sedated Biden.
Comment says
Watching Palin Alaska debate on c-span – for gov. She’s amazingly slick
Comment says
On c-span they are showing Russia Today’s english news service – Sad to see that Russia’s admittedly biased coverage at least covered the arrests and demonstations in St Paul. We pretty much has a Sovietish news blackout on demonstrations during both conventions
Comment says
Just read Dowds whole column – It fails as comedy. She puts words in Clinton’s mouth that are really more Dowd’s thoughts than Hillary’s would ever be – Safire is more subtle at it – Sure when he channels a dead Nixon to plot a neocon strategy in the Mid East, it is a stretch. But he uses dead people and he winks more than Dowd. Dowd just uses Hillary to channel bad thoughts Dowd has about Palin and Obama and then excape any pundit accountablity.
Had Palin mentioned Dowd by name – Dowd would have crumbled like the former regime in E Germany
Comment says
Does HRC take things personally? Maybe sometimes – but HRC seems much more of a pro than MoDo says. What examples can MoDo give? That toe-guy who goes on Hannity? Maybe a few others.
Comment says
Think about MoDo – she is in DC – actually living in JFK’s old Georgetown house – She knows all about the Alsops and Lippman and Shakespeare (iffy) and Hickory Hill. She’s been to Kennebunk and back – Now comes this 5-college-in-6-year gal with fisherman husband. To think all these years being unsure about her CUA diploma in a IVy heavy town. It has come to this. Or else there’s Obama and his wife who also did not know who she is. What can she say.
Comment says
It’s not polite to bring this up, but Dowd is childless and that must add to her anxities as a self-styled Catholic who wants to modern and literary and feminist lite.
Deep inside Dowd knows Palin is rebuke to her that in every way – Palin is effortlessly sexy – smart but with no intellectual insecurity (Dowd wrote about trying to impress Timesmen with her reading listss etc -lol – ) Palin is religious but doesn’t have to give any thought – She doesn’t have to pretend to a member of Andrew Jackson family the way Dowd sometimes seems to pretends to be a Kennedy.
Comment says
Dowd is co-dependent on the Clintons – as is Tweety and many boomer pundits. They have no inner lives themselves and they really only know themselves in context of a fading Clinton-Bush era.
Comment says
Palin has probably never heard of Dowd before Dowd wrote a naasty column about her – so rather than do the typical DC thing and pretend to know things, she could have explained she didn’t know who this Dowd person was , but then found oout she was Obama’s wet nurse at the NY Times – Dowd would have freak – The audience would have loved it and it would have forced the Dems to finally get tough on that menace.
Mo MoDo says
The Dowd column at least reveals that she would support Hillary Clinton over Sarah Palin, which is a big leap for her.
Comment says
Biden should STFU with his McCain-is-my-pal praise – It’s not really reciprocated by McCain or if it is – only to imply Biden is not loyal to Obama. Biden spent precious minutes discussing McCain and his wife dining out in Greece etc.
Recall Joe Lieberman throwing the debate with Cheney? If the Dems don’t punish him following an Obama victory, then they are fools.
Comment says
One prob McCain has was the unsmooth way he tried to call himself a uniter, not a divider, in the beginning of his speech – He did not leave the audience enough time to seperate him from Rudy and Palin divisive orations. Pat alluded to this on McLaughlin today. It was jarring live.
“SERVICE ….USA…USA…USA….COUNTRY FIRST ….USA..USA …!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Comment says
Palin made a mistake not naming Dowd by name and her “vaccuos” attack on her as the example of Washington elitism – Then she could have tied her to Obama. Obama & Co would all cry foul and point out that Dowd has bascially drawn up a good portion of McCain’s talking points. But it would not have mattered – Dowd is classified as liberal even if she has been Dem wrecker for almost 20 years.
Dowd would freak out being called an elitist – the audience would have loved it if Palin talked about Dowd claiming to teack Obama to box like the Nun in that old movie.
Dr Leo Strauss says
Hope is usually not a strategy, but in this case, a tactical pause might not be a bad idea. Palin is going to galvanize her base regardless, and at least she won’t have a martyr’s glow about it.
Otoh, Biden is a ticking time bomb. Reminds one of those old ‘Spy vs. Spy’ Mad Magazine cartoons.
Comment says
Steinem’s column is a joke on many levels – she does not want what’s in the best interest of the gop so she comes off as insincere.
Before we read that above we had heard that Steinem “nailed” Palin or “owned” her yada yada yada.
It’s really funny (sad too) reading all this stuff on Comment’s side – Hanna Rosin playing Margaret Mead and trying to explain Christians like Palin to her blinkered readers etc – God help us all –
It’s best to ignore Palin or use her speech to criticise McCain and then hope for a shoe to drop.