In Contrast To Congress

Sarah Palin turns down a pay raise.

Heh

Now Oprah is complaining that Sarah Palin is snubbing her.

Go figure.

Oh, The Humanity, Er, Animality

I'm not particularly interested in getting the details on how the meat on my plate got there. But I do know that at some point animals are killed to provide my food. (Vegetables are murdered too, but that's another story.)

So I was pretty surprised at the "outrage" that ensued after Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was interviewed against the backdrop of a turkey being killed. Where do people imagine their Thanksgiving turkey comes from? I, for one, would not want to eat one that had died a natural death!

Thinking back over the last several months, though, I should have expected extended coverage of Palin after she went back to Alaska.

I mean, what else did I expect from a news media that went crazy over the expenditure from the (donated) Republican party coffers for chic duds for Gov. Palin, when no mention was ever, ever made about the clothes worn by the three men in the race. The media were pretty uncurious about where they came from, who paid for them and how much they cost. And I agree. Who cares?

When it comes to Palin's clothes, I reiterate, Who cares?

But, give 'em a break! What else do news people have to do now? Bush is all but gone and they can't criticize the incoming Golden Boy. They better hope Palin keeps doing outrageous things or they will be back to reporting on each other.

Editing Is Everything

While watching Charlie Gibson's interview with Gov. Sarah Palin last week, I was struck by the choppiness of the editing, which at times made the remarks confusing or difficult to put into context. Well, I'm just SHOCKED to find out that ABC edited out key elements of the interview in such a way as to make Palin seem less knowledgable and much more hawkish than the full transcript indicates.

Now why would they want to do that?

Classy

South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler sharply attacked Sarah Palin today, saying John McCain had chosen a running mate "whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”

Camille Paglia On Sarah Palin

The whole thing is worth reading, but I think this nicely puts NOW and Gloria Steinem in their place:

It is certainly premature to predict how the Palin saga will go. I may not agree a jot with her about basic principles, but I have immensely enjoyed Palin's boffo performances at her debut and at the Republican convention, where she astonishingly dealt with multiple technical malfunctions without missing a beat. A feminism that cannot admire the bravura under high pressure of the first woman governor of a frontier state isn't worth a warm bucket of spit.

Doesn't she have a way with words?

(Palin is) a world away from the whining, sniping, wearily ironic mode of the establishment feminism represented by Gloria Steinem, a Hillary Clinton supporter whose shameless Democratic partisanship over the past four decades has severely limited American feminism and not allowed it to become the big tent it can and should be. Sarah Palin, if her reputation survives the punishing next two months, may be breaking down those barriers. Feminism, which should be about equal rights and equal opportunity, should not be a closed club requiring an ideological litmus test for membership.

I hope she has a thick skin. She was skewered in the comments.

Sarah Palin Rumors

Explorations posts a clearinghouse for rumors about Sarah Palin (54 and counting) with links to the facts. One excerpt, to respond to a question from a reader earlier this week:

Yes, she did push for and approve the Wasilla Sports Center. Yes, it did cost a lot of money. (People keep saying $20 million, that article says $14.5 million, but then they also added a $1.2 million dollar food service/kitchen piece. This year, since Palin was out of office as Mayor.) Yes, the city went into debt to do it (how did you buy your house, bunkie?) and raised the city sales tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent to pay for it. Yes, the city is paying it off early.

My personal favorite:

Yes, she has a college degree in Journalism, but I won’t hold that against her, as she seems to have found honest work as well.

Oprah On The Hot Seat

Drudge is reporting that Oprah's staff is sharply divided on whether to book Sarah Palin for the show:

"Half of her staff really wants Sarah Palin on," an insider explains. "Oprah's website is getting tons of requests to put her on, but Oprah and a couple of her top people are adamantly against it because of Obama."

Another woman with a difficult choice to make.

My personal opinion is this: Oprah is not a news show; she is not required to provide balance. But I admit I will enjoy watching her try to come out unscathed.

Girl Fight!

Barack Obama's campaign plans to employ high-profile female supporters in an effort to blunt GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's potential to persuade women to vote Republican.

Boy, Hillary will be in a quandry now. She has to show the colors, but the best outcome for her is for Obama to lose. She has to do her best because Palin will shine and the face-off will be remembered in 4 years.

What's a woman to do?

You Know They're Rattled When...

The Democrat's reaction to Sarah Palin's speech last night:

She didn't write it herself.

This may come as quite a shock, but all politicians employ speech writers. This is the best you got?

Wish I'd Thought Of This Headline

She Shoots! She Scores!

Liberated But Not Liberal

The relentless criticism of Sarah Palin this past week has me pondering a question: If a liberated woman is a conservative, is she really a woman? Apparently not:

• A spokeswoman for the National Organization for Women, noting Palin’s opposition to abortion rights and support of other parts of the social conservative agenda, told Politico, “She's more a conservative man than she is a woman on women's issues. Very disappointing."

But NOW has not had any credibility since they sided with Bill Clinton against the various women who accused him of sexual assault. If you're not liberal, you don't count.

Oh, Well, It's All Over Now

Camille Paglia on Sarah Palin:

"We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling,” said Camille Paglia, the cultural critic. “That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.”

Interesting. I watched the announcement because I thought McCain's choice could make or break his chances. I thought she was a very sympathetic individual, the warmest and most knowable of the four (Obama, Biden, and McCain being the other three.) She could easily be someone I know or lived in a neighborhood with or had been friends with (she is, after all, a hockey mom.) I think the PTA is an excellent place to start a political career and anybody willing to sneer at that hasn't had to deal with parents whose whole identity is bound up in their kid.

In a nutshell, she's everything Obama says he is, but she has the creds to back it up. See here for a head to head comparison.

Real Class Part 2

Wow. Lefties are questioning whether Sarah Palin's youngest child is in fact hers, and insinuating that it is her teen-aged daughter's.

I don't usually pay much attention to the nuttier elements at the extremes of either party, but if Alan Colmes is throwing in with this crowd, it's an indication to me that McCain's choice of Palin was a grand slam home run. (The Colmes posting, like so much this election season, has disappeared down the internet memory hole, but bloggers are preserving such for posterity with screen shots.)