Vacillating about Sarah Palin, GOP VP
September 2, 2008 by Tracee Sioux
Filed under Parenting
* She’s a working mother.
* She’s the Governor of Alaska.
* She has 5 kids.
* One of them has Down’s Syndrome and is only 5 months old.
* Currently under investigation of wrong-doing in her state.
* She gave birth in office.
* One of her daughters is currently a teen pregnancy statistic, who will keep the kid and marry the father. I wonder what her position is on abstinence-only education?
* One of her sons is going to war in Iraq, which makes her proud.
* She has direct ties to the oil industry.
* She was a beauty queen.
* She is a member of the NRA.
* She’s also a union member.
* She’s so extremely pro-life that she wants to make breathing, voting, tax-paying women’s physical autonomy secondary to any fetus whether it’s viable or not and under any conditions including rape and incest or if the mother’s health is at risk. (How does she feel about birth control? I want to know.)
Some of the Republican women I’ve spoken to are thrilled. They secretly wanted Hillary to win and suffered terrible disappointment when she lost. Yet, they refused to vote for her.
Some of the Democratic women I’ve spoken to are thrilled. They don’t really care how a woman gets into The White House as long as she gets there.
Some of Democratic women I’ve spoken to are pissed off that McCain is dividing women’s interests using a cheap trick.
Some of Republican women are pissed off that he picked a woman who should be at home taking care of her kids.
Most of what I hear from men is whether they would have sex with her. They would.
Or, if they are one of the good guys, how not ALL men are crass enough to think this is socially acceptable criteria on which to comment or vote.
Honestly, I have no idea what I think about all this.
I think lots of things about Sarah Palin as a candidate – some of my feelings conflict with my other feelings.
My friend suggested, “You’re not a party voter – you’re a pussy voter.”
But, am I?
One part of me thinks – the best odds of getting a woman as President of the United States is electing a 72-year-old white man and waiting for the stress of office to cause a mortal stroke or heart attack.
Those odds of this guy dropping dead aren’t half bad. The guy has already had cancer before. Wouldn’t it be wild if America never directly elected the first female President of the United States?
But, then I consider my direct economic need to be able to buy health insurance at a fair price. To buy it from a universal system that views the patient’s needs as equal or more important than the insurance company’s need for the type of profit that breeds the little monsters on My Sweet Sixteen. My economic need not to have my health insurance connected to my husband’s job – so that we may have the right to open a small business or switch jobs and so that we are not left uninsured if he loses his job in this economy or that I not lose my insurance if I lose my husband through death or divorce.
I’ve always said, I’m an economic healthcare voter.
McCain’s $5,000 tax credit for our family won’t accomplish any of that. It will have no affect on my family’s health insurance situation at all.
I just don’t know what to think.
I said before I don’t have an insane loyalty to Hillary Clinton, I have a rational loyalty to me and my family’s best interest.
I’m leaning in my own best interests, but I’m vacillating like crazy! Is it too soon to determine my bests interest? I need more information – I can’t wait for the debates!
My interests – a woman and health care – are now competing and only one can win. Hillary had the whole package, but now I have to choose.
I think this, at the very least, gives women enormous leverage in this election. Leverage like we’ve never had before. We need to be vocal about who can carry our vote.
Here’s what I want to see both candidates offer me – a woman voter:
* Affordable Health Care untied to my job, my husband’s job, and that I can purchase without discrimination on the open market
* Equal Pay
* Family Medical Leave Insurance for all workers
* Flexible work hours, provided tax incentives
* Abortion reduction that doesn’t diminish my Physical Autonomy
* Appropriate regulation on marketing and advertising that directly targets children, especially the kind that sexualizes them
* Long-term, Economic plan that puts emphasis on long-term economic policy in best interest of middle class. That values people over corporations.
It’s unlikely Republicans – whether McCain or Palin – are going to offer me any of that.
It’s too soon to have all the implications of Sarah Palin figured out. But, it surely makes things more interesting. Everyone’s reaction is fascinating.
If Barack Obama loses, at least I’ve got a woman in The White House – it’s not the worst door prize ever. Or is it?
Image source: www.johnmccain.com
I’m not sure what I think either. I like her, I think, and in some ways I’m happy the republican party has a woman(gasp) in the ticket..but another part of me is pissed that they are using her as a tactic to split up Obama’s vote. I’m just confused.
This is a little off the subject, but we watched the “Valley of Elah” last night and OMG, so horrifying and scary..I went to bed praying and praying for some light in the situation over there. I know that the war will be a huge issue with me..specifically, who’ll get us the hell out of there faster. I have two boys..those two boys are growing up in a society where we have to be weary of monsters from the outside, and monsters that we’re creating via this war..I’m scared for society, I’m scared of the reprecussions of this war internationally and on our own soil..I’m scared of what it’s doing to all those ‘boys’ out there that belong to someone else..I’m scared this war will drag on, and on until my boys are of age and then what?
The war will be one of my main issues..I’m doubting McCain and or Palin will be saying what I want to hear about the war.
Most recently I’m worried about MORE wars. Bush said he’s putting missiles in Poland because of Russia’s war on Georgia. Did we miss the Cold War? It’s pretty much an act of aggression that will likely lead to more war.
I also don’t think Barack Obama will be a no-war president. He may move us out of Iraq, but he’s talked about going to Afghanistan and I’ve heard both he and Biden and McCain make “war foreshadowing” threatening remarks about Russia and Iran.
I’m not convinced any of our presidential candidates are going to bring us peace. I’m not sure it’s realistic.
I do think Barack Obama is more likely to talk before he shoots and try to be diplomatic before he bullies and that will cut down on wars. So, in that way I’m feeling more secure with Barack Obama.
But, I don’t expect we won’t be at war somewhere over something. Obama definately will stir us into supporting a war with his great marketing a lot better than Bush has.
To answer one of your questions, I heard on NPR this morning that Sarah Palin is a big supporter of abstinence-only sex education.
Personally, I am not a big fan of hers. But then, I am not a conservative by any stretch of the imagination, and am basing my vote solely on policy and politics.
I think you’re teasing us. There’s no way you will vote for McCain and subject us to 4 more years of this.
The only times I’ve heard Obama discuss war and Afganistan was in his criticism of Bush abandoning a valid “war”, one in which we had an enemy..that was present,..in the country in Afganistan. I believe we were valid in Afganistan and I believe we could have been effective there in catching ‘bad guys’ and saving people from a terrible regime..but Iraq has screwed us..literally. It’s screwing our young men, and in effect their families, it’s screwed our relationships with other countries and the UN. It’s screwed our budget, our economy, and our faith in government..it’s screwed our ability to actually ‘defend’ ourselves in the event that we might need to. In my opinion, IT.NEEDS.TO.STOP as soon as possible. I don’t trust Jon McCain to choose the sane option of getting our boys home over his ego and his dreams of coming out of this honorably. I also don’t trust his party as a whole after the Bush fiasco.
I also believe Obama will help our soldiers get the help they need once here. Although Jon McCain is an honorable vet, he’s a vet from another era and I don’t know if he’s capable of letting go of that old school ideal of a soldier long enough to assess what the Iraq war vets really NEED.
He definately thinks we should stop the war in Iraq – but that’s not the same as not going to war anywhere.
I suspect Iran, Afghanistan and Russia are potential threats and I’ve heard indications in all the speeches that both candidates think so. I think Obama would handle it better than McCain. I detect a bloodlust in McCain that makes me think he LIKES war. (I don’t know about Sarah Palin).
I think it’s funny that no one ever said “Obama has two little kids; he should be home with them.”
Sarah P. is a huge lover of the abstinence only campaign. Ironic I say.
“I think lots of things about Sarah Palin as a candidate – some of my feelings conflict with my other feelings.”
That’s how I feel about ALL the candidates. Now that I think about it, that’s how I’ve felt about all the candidates that have been running in my 30 years or so of voting. That’s one reason I never act very gung ho about any of them.
Sarah Palin is so far right; how on earth could a true Hillary Clinton supporter switch over to support McCain based solely on his picking Palin as a running mate?
There can only be two types of Clinton supporters in my view that will vote for McCain/Palin. 1) They were probably going to end up voting for McCain instead of Obama anyway, even though they might not have been totally sure until McCain announced his VP. 2) The only reason they were Clinton supporters is because she is a woman. Which really goes along with #1. Because any true Clinton supporter ought to support Obama considering their platforms are so similar. Clinton and McCain: totally opposite.
You’ve indicated a belief that a woman in office is automatically going to be the best choice for women…. but I disagree. If a woman has foundational politically conservative beliefs that conflict with what you view as being in women’s best interest, she’s not going to ignore those beliefs because she becomes vice president or president.
I’m thrilled to see a woman on any ticket. When I saw her nominated, I wavered for a minute. But once I read about her policies, I knew she was not a candidate I wanted to vote for. She seems like a nice person, but that isn’t enough for me. She’s no Hillary.
Rebecca,
Lots of Hillary supporters were Republican women who were willing to cross party lines to support a woman. I wasn’t one of them, but I’ve met them. I definately thought that was in their best interests.
I think a Republican woman in office would be better than yet another Republican man on the ticket.
I think lacking women’s perspectives – which the United States laws and their makers very often currently lack – makes for bad law, bad politics, and bad policy.
I think it’s important that Republicans and Democrats both include women in the process.
But, does that mean I’m willing to cross my party lines to vote for a Republican? Would that be in my best interests? Probably not, if I want health insurance or I want to maintain my physical autonomy.
Tracee, I’m economically driven in my voting as well. It seems to me that those on the right only recognize the blue collar workers and middle to lower middle classes when it’s election time and they’re spewing empty promises.
As the wife of a vet who endured Iraq the first time around and who suffers from night terrors to this day – I have only to hope and pray that someone gets in office that will undo this overpriced health insurance system that Tricky Dick introduced decades ago and that’s been broken ever since.
Please tell me you’re kidding.
She is against comprehensive sex education which would reduce the number of STIs and unwanted pregnancies. That the U.S. has the highest STI and abortion rate of all developed nations means nothing. She and her ilk prefer that we all stick our heads in the sands and continue teaching abstinence alone which leads to a curiously high rate of unprotected oral and anal sex, and as she can see across her dinner table, unwanted pregnancies. I think abstinence is a vital PART of comprehensive sex education and that parents should share their moral stances with their children, but failing to provide them with medically accurate information won’t keep them from getting it elsewhere. Sarah & her hubby failed to give Bristol information about sex. Perhaps she got her information from her horny boyfriend Levi instead. Levi probably got his info from his brothers or buddies who were all failed by Dubya and Palin’s abstinence-only education which doesn’t reduce the abortion or STI rate. They claim a miniscule victory thanks to the increased availability of Plan B (which they both oppose!) and the abortion pill; stats aren’t collected for these abortions.
She said she’d oppose abortion even if her own daughter (then 14) was raped. Alaska’s rape rate is 2.5 times higher than that of other states.
Her country first stand is hilarious considering she supports a party that wants Alaska to secede from the U.S.
While I’m not a Republican, I would love to see a female in office someday. However, in my opinion, having a teenage daughter get pregnant reflects bad parenting to me. How can she run the country if she can’t control her teenage daughter??
And…having a teenage daughter get pregnant is a cry for attention…I think Palin should be spending more time with her kids than worrying about politics.
I vote my conscious and vote with common sense. Gender is irrelevant. I believe it’s a disservice to all women if we vote for Palin based on gender.
First of all, she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. She’ll end up a corporate puppet like George W.
Every interview she does is embarrassing including her debate.
I am appalled that she piped-up with statements that sound rehearsed rather than actual answers to the questions posed to her.
Who of us would be permitted to do that in a job interview? Interviewer asks “Ronni. Why are you leaving your current job?” Ronni answers “I am a team player and excellent on the phone.” Scuzi??? Sarah Palin is doing that in her job interview with America.
Obama & Biden back-up statements and ideas with details. McCain & Palin give ambiguous information. They’re basically cheerleaders rather than information providers.
Look at how far down on financial stability and respectability we’ve fallen in the last 8 years. Downright thievery within large corporations and banks has run amuck.
We’re weak militarily, we’re so in-debt we don’t own our own country, our bills are higher and our paychecks lower.
Personally, I don’t more of the same closed-mindedness.