Did You Hear The One About...

One of the stories that I had hoped to rant at length on was the absolutely shoddy treatment that Senator McCains’s VP pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, had gotten in the media and by Obama surrogates. However, I am very glad that I didn’t get a chance to do so and you shall soon see why.

I won’t go into all of the rumors that were spread about Governor Palin, nor will I rebut all of them since there is a website already devoted to doing so. In addition, FactCheck.org debunked the vast majority of them and is working on the rest. Rather, I would like to make a couple of observations in general and then relay an anecdotal story of a very unscientific survey that I took while here in Chicago.

One of the stories that really appeared to get legs was he slime that Trig is not really Sarah’s baby…that is her 17 year old daughter’s baby. When the campaign announced that Bristol was already 5 months pregnant so she could in no way be 5 month old Trig’s mom the scandal mongers (like the folks at US Magazine) were still not satisfied. The campaign is lying about how far along Bristol is, the conspiracy goes…she is really only 3 months along….I have to think that the people spreading this rumor are childless because if they did have children they would know how hard it is (although not totally impossible) to get pregnant while you are nursing an infant.

Then there is “Troopergate”. What is frustrating about this particular quasi scandal is that the “respectable media” isn’t telling a third of the story – much less half of it. As has been reported in Alaska (but not here in the lower 48), Governor Palin’s former brother in law had been caught drinking on duty, had a DUI that was much more current than the one her husband Todd had 20 years ago and that the trooper in question had used his taser on his 11 year old step son! Governor Palin's former brother in law's excuse for tasering the kid was that "he asked for it". Now as the adult in that situation would you taser a 10 or 11 year old because he "asked for it"? Most reasonable adults would not. Do you want someone carrying a gun or a taser that thinks it is ok to use a taser on an 11 year old child? They also don’t tell you that the Public Safety Commissioner is an “at will” employee which means that he can be fired for any reason or no reason at all. Just ask all of the assistant Attorneys General in Lori Swanson’s office!

But the thing that frustrates me the most is the fact that here we are in 2008 fighting the “Mommy Wars” yet again. I thought that we fought the “Women’s Rights Movement” so that we did not have debates like this going forward. Although I have to be grateful to Gloria Steinem for finally admitting that her organization is only for a right to choose if it is the right to choose abortion. She came flat out and said last week that the only thing she had in common with Governor Palin was one chromosome and that was not enough. I mean here I thought that NOW was all about rights for ALL people who shared a common chromosome with her and Governor Palin. Now all of a sudden that chromosome is not so important…..

While I was here in Chicago, I had the opportunity to talk to many women about the Sarah Palin nomination. Some were Republicans, some were Democrats and some were very apolitical and ALL of them were appalled at the treatment that Governor Palin had received at the hands of the press and at the hands of the Obama surrogates. Almost all of them (my very Demoractic mother being the sole exception) were talking about voting for the McCain Palin ticket in large part because of the way that the Democrats had treated both Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Palin.

Good work guys! Keep it up.