palin quitting as governor, why?

[RobinFinderson]

I think people do hate Palin, particularly Olbermann and those of his ilk.

Olbermann, more than just about anyone else, loves Palin. Olbermann is a jackass. I like his occasional rants, but most of his show is terrible. It is no wonder that so many people (including me and faith) have switched to Rachel Maddow for our occasional political gossip fix (we might watch her a couple of times a month).

Here is what this Palin story comes down to... no she is not bowing out. She is too ambitious. She has the feint taste of blood in her mouth and she wants the whole steak. She is just that kind of person, like the popular cheerleader who runs for class president, not because she has any great ideas, but simply because she it represents a certain kind of notch in her belt, and that is how she seeks personal validation. That is probably true for plenty of politicians. I had that impression with Biden, and most of the rest of the dems, too. Not so much with OB, which is one of the reasons I really liked him.

DDD nails it. She can't mount a winning campaign from Alaska, so she is leaving Alaska. It isn't a crazy idea. I think she sat down with some political advisers and asked the question, "Can I really mount a winning campaign from Alaska?" Nope. So in a way, this is a reasonable move. She had to do it early so that people could talk about it and get it out of their system. However I tend to agree with DDD that quitting the governorship brings just as much trouble as waging a campaign from Alaska. She is in a tough situation.

I wanted to say something about Babs' comment, and also about Cowboy's reply. Babs, I mostly agree with you, but the part of me that feels porn is fine disagrees with you. On the one hand, I would rather have a woman run and win based on the quality of her ideas rather than her sexy librarian glasses and porno-lips. On the other hand, don't think of a second that sexual persona isn't playing a major part in the race for president, for both men and women. It isn't just poor little Dennis Kucinich's liberal ideas that keep losing him elections. The man is not sexually appealing to the average woman, and a good number of women are swayed, ever so subtly (and some not so subtly) by a candidates looks. Consider all of the presidents who have won in the last twenty years. The better looking candidate almost always wins. But women using their sex appeal in politics is not something we are used to seeing on the national stage. For one thing, the very traits that make a man masculine tend to be a better fit for the day-to-day duties of the president. Think back to your evolutionary psychology argument. It is true, and you might even say that science proves it (I won't say that since I think it may just as well have to do with culturally imposed sexual stereotypes). So how does a woman use her sexuality the way a man does? Palin's sexuality isn't so much the problem. She just isn't that politically smart (though she is definitely smart in general).

Cowboy, your comment is interesting to me as a Montanan and Canadian. There is a certain style and manner of women in Canada and Montana, and Palin has just about perfected it. She looks and sounds and dresses like my female aunts and cousins from Canada, and most of these women adore Palin. Do other Westerners see what I am talking about?

Anyhow, this is my post from the Wingate in Orlando. Tomorrow morning we leave for the cruise. I bought a new camera for the occasion, and laughed when I got to the point in the DFW essay where he mocks all of the people for having their cameras. Whatever DFW! Some people hide behind their cameras instead of a pile of anti-social description (I'm loving the essay!).

Cheers!

rf

[il Padrino Ute]

Olbermann loves Palin?

He may love that she's around for him to froth at the mouth about, but he certainly doesn't love her.

[BoylenOver]

Aside from not wanting to slaughter the unborn, what is it about Palin that women hate?

She hasn't depended on her husband to support her. She got a degree and has had a career. She's been a working mother and shown that she can have both a career and a family.

Perhaps a woman here can explain the hatred to this male?

I'm not a liberal woman, but I am a liberal male.

Palin's appeal to the Religious Right is the reason why I don't like her. This whole legislation of morality endorsed by Focus on the Family and the deep South is a crock of shit. The GOP wants to preserve the sanctity of marriage, then they turn around and have affairs in Argentina with women and Minnesota airports with men. They want abstinence-only sex education in schools, only to see their own teenage daughters having kids out of wedlock.

Also, Palin is the embodiment of how much the GOP loves the "everyman" (even though they spent $150,000 on her wardrobe), and it smacks of anti-intellectualism. I don't care if a Presidential candidate wants to have a beer with me and watch a baseball game, I want them to be able to thoughtfully consider the issues of the day and pick the best option available. I also suspect Palin, and George W., are a lot smarter than they're marketed.

And I don't feel bad for Palin's family at all. Watching and hearing the right-wing pundits and personalities drag the Clintons through the mud over the last 17 years gives me zero empathy for the Palins.

[BoylenOver]

Olbermann loves Palin?

He may love that she's around for him to froth at the mouth about, but he certainly doesn't love her.

Rush Limbaugh's ratings are higher with a Democrat in the White House, and Olbermann's ratings are higher with a Republican in the White House. Both sides and bases thrive as the "underdog".

[TripletDaddy]

I'm not a liberal woman, but I am a liberal male.

Palin's appeal to the Religious Right is the reason why I don't like her. This whole legislation of morality endorsed by Focus on the Family and the deep South is a crock of shit. The GOP wants to preserve the sanctity of marriage, then they turn around and have affairs in Argentina with women and Minnesota airports with men. They want abstinence-only sex education in schools, only to see their own teenage daughters having kids out of wedlock.

Also, Palin is the embodiment of how much the GOP loves the "everyman" (even though they spent $150,000 on her wardrobe), and it smacks of anti-intellectualism. I don't care if a Presidential candidate wants to have a beer with me and watch a baseball game, I want them to be able to thoughtfully consider the issues of the day and pick the best option available. I also suspect Palin, and George W., are a lot smarter than they're marketed.

And I don't feel bad for Palin's family at all. Watching and hearing the right-wing pundits and personalities drag the Clintons through the mud over the last 17 years gives me zero empathy for the Palins.

Preach it, brother. I can tell you are literally boylen' over right now!

PS I posted on CG before.....what the heck is the appeal of Joe Six Pack in the White House? Why the hell do I want some local yokel from Main Street USA running the planet? If I want to go bowling, I will call Joe Six Pack. If I want someone to come up with creative solutions to the world's problems, I will pass on Joe Six Pack.

[Babs]

Let me take off my Palin-is-a-disgrace-to-women-and-an-embarrassment-to-the-party hat for a second.

Here's what it boils down to: Yes, TD, it *is* full-blooded outright hatred toward Palin in many cases; and no, LA Ute, it's not unprecedented or in a class by itself. I'm sure you remember the antipathy for Hillary back in 92-96. All through last cycle I saw CGers refer to Hillary in the coarsest of language. I believe "frigid bitch" was a common refrain. So it's pretty hard to argue that what we see with Palin is unique. But Palin's case is new and fresh, and it's on the other side of the fence. The interesting thing is that the two women are very very different in how they approach their professional and personal lives. Yet they illicit the same kind of passionate angst from the public, often couched in the same language.

This is my take:

In our society and especially among women, we have very strong notions of what constitutes femininity and womanhood. These notions run the spectrum from women's primary purpose is as sexual vehicle, to good women stay at home and mind their husbands, to real women have both a career and family, to real womyn would never subject themselves to the institutionalized prostitution known as marriage. Many people -- no matter where on the spectrum they lie -- feel very strongly (whether they would admit it or not) that their interpretation of womanhood is the only right and proper one. That anything else is detrimental to the place of women in society, and by extension an insidious danger to society as a whole.

So when a woman makes headlines by trying to make the big leagues in a man's game, her plays are heavily scrutinized. And no matter what her playbook looks like, she's going to offend an awful lot of people and certainly an awful lot of women.

Palin is an affront to women because her gameplan revolves around her perky charismatic sex appeal; because she's incoherent, underexperienced, and underinformed; because she can't possibly be spending enough time with all those kids; because she pimps out her handicapped son. Hillary is an affront to women because she's not cute enough; because she's elitist and haughty; because she put her career ahead of family; because she stuck with a serial adulterer.

Conservatives need to get over the persecution complex that Palin is being attacked because of her political affiliation. The truth is that Palin is being attacked just like Hillary was, and just like any female political all-star will -- simply because of her gender. Because by making headlines these women implicitly set themselves up as an example to our young women, and no matter what personal and professional decisions these women make, an awful lot of Americans will be terrified by that thought.

[wuapinmon]

Preach it, brother. I can tell you are literally boylen' over right now!

PS I posted on CG before.....what the heck is the appeal of Joe Six Pack in the White House? Why the hell do I want some local yokel from Main Street USA running the planet? If I want to go bowling, I will call Joe Six Pack. If I want someone to come up with creative solutions to the world's problems, I will pass on Joe Six Pack.

Joe Six Pack wants Joe Six Pack in the White House, and there's a helluva alotta Joe Six Packs who can vote.

[Goatnapper'96]

Let me take off my Palin-is-a-disgrace-to-women-and-an-embarrassment-to-the-party hat for a second.

Here's what it boils down to: Yes, TD, it *is* full-blooded outright hatred toward Palin in many cases; and no, LA Ute, it's not unprecedented or in a class by itself. I'm sure you remember the antipathy for Hillary back in 92-96. All through last cycle I saw CGers refer to Hillary in the coarsest of language. I believe "frigid bitch" was a common refrain. So it's pretty hard to argue that what we see with Palin is unique. But Palin's case is new and fresh, and it's on the other side of the fence. The interesting thing is that the two women are very very different in how they approach their professional and personal lives. Yet they illicit the same kind of passionate angst from the public, often couched in the same language.

This is my take:

In our society and especially among women, we have very strong notions of what constitutes femininity and womanhood. These notions run the spectrum from women's primary purpose is as sexual vehicle, to good women stay at home and mind their husbands, to real women have both a career and family, to real womyn would never subject themselves to the institutionalized prostitution known as marriage. Many people -- no matter where on the spectrum they lie -- feel very strongly (whether they would admit it or not) that their interpretation of womanhood is the only right and proper one. That anything else is detrimental to the place of women in society, and by extension an insidious danger to society as a whole.

So when a woman makes headlines by trying to make the big leagues in a man's game, her plays are heavily scrutinized. And no matter what her playbook looks like, she's going to offend an awful lot of people and certainly an awful lot of women.

Palin is an affront to women because her gameplan revolves around her perky charismatic sex appeal; because she's incoherent, underexperienced, and underinformed; because she can't possibly be spending enough time with all those kids; because she pimps out her handicapped son. Hillary is an affront to women because she's not cute enough; because she's elitist and haughty; because she put her career ahead of family; because she stuck with a serial adulterer.

Conservatives need to get over the persecution complex that Palin is being attacked because of her political affiliation. The truth is that Palin is being attacked just like Hillary was, and just like any female political all-star will -- simply because of her gender. Because by making headlines these women implicitly set themselves up as an example to our young women, and no matter what personal and professional decisions these women make, an awful lot of Americans will be terrified by that thought.

That and they got small knockers....and that's all I got to say about that!

[YOhio]

That and they got small knockers....and that's all I got to say about that!

[Jarid in Cedar]

Let me take off my Palin-is-a-disgrace-to-women-and-an-embarrassment-to-the-party hat for a second.

Here's what it boils down to: Yes, TD, it *is* full-blooded outright hatred toward Palin in many cases; and no, LA Ute, it's not unprecedented or in a class by itself. I'm sure you remember the antipathy for Hillary back in 92-96. All through last cycle I saw CGers refer to Hillary in the coarsest of language. I believe "frigid bitch" was a common refrain. So it's pretty hard to argue that what we see with Palin is unique. But Palin's case is new and fresh, and it's on the other side of the fence. The interesting thing is that the two women are very very different in how they approach their professional and personal lives. Yet they illicit the same kind of passionate angst from the public, often couched in the same language.

This is my take:

In our society and especially among women, we have very strong notions of what constitutes femininity and womanhood. These notions run the spectrum from women's primary purpose is as sexual vehicle, to good women stay at home and mind their husbands, to real women have both a career and family, to real womyn would never subject themselves to the institutionalized prostitution known as marriage. Many people -- no matter where on the spectrum they lie -- feel very strongly (whether they would admit it or not) that their interpretation of womanhood is the only right and proper one. That anything else is detrimental to the place of women in society, and by extension an insidious danger to society as a whole.

So when a woman makes headlines by trying to make the big leagues in a man's game, her plays are heavily scrutinized. And no matter what her playbook looks like, she's going to offend an awful lot of people and certainly an awful lot of women.

Palin is an affront to women because her gameplan revolves around her perky charismatic sex appeal; because she's incoherent, underexperienced, and underinformed; because she can't possibly be spending enough time with all those kids; because she pimps out her handicapped son. Hillary is an affront to women because she's not cute enough; because she's elitist and haughty; because she put her career ahead of family; because she stuck with a serial adulterer.

Conservatives need to get over the persecution complex that Palin is being attacked because of her political affiliation. The truth is that Palin is being attacked just like Hillary was, and just like any female political all-star will -- simply because of her gender. Because by making headlines these women implicitly set themselves up as an example to our young women, and no matter what personal and professional decisions these women make, an awful lot of Americans will be terrified by that thought.

My wife made similar comments during the election. When it comes to politics, women tend to eat their own. Regardless of party affiliation, I think women will vote for someone who fits their role of "womanhood". My mother is a prime example. She is about as conservative as they come. She sees the "D" on ballot and thinks that it stands for "Don't bother", yet she said she would vote for Hillary on a ballot(her only drawback is not liking that she stayed with the womanizer). I think this is because she has worked a majority of her life while raising 3 hellions. She can relate with that side of Hillary. Politically, they are quite different, but she relates to her in many ways.

Palin has a tough time relating to working women because of her not-so-covert use of sexuality during the campaign. It may bring up bad memories of "the skirt" that got a promotion they felt they deserved. She also will struggle with stay at home mom's, because of how she has paraded her family(and thusly, not protected them).

[LA Ute]

Joe Six Pack wants Joe Six Pack in the White House, and there's a helluva alotta Joe Six Packs who can vote.

Spoken like a college prof. To borrow one of John Kerry's favorite words, I think there's a little more nuance to this. For example, I supported Bob Dole over Bush the Elder in 1998, and one reason was that Dole's father, as Dole once noted, wore overalls to work. I thought Dole understood common people in a way Bush never could. Similarly, the Joe Sixpacks of the world don't want Joe Sixpack in the White House, but they do want someone there who they think really "gets" their worldview.

[SeattleUte]

I'm going to sit this one out if that's okay with you all.

[I.J. Reilly]

Joe Six Pack wants Joe Six Pack in the White House, and there's a helluva alotta Joe Six Packs who can vote.

This is why I sometimes think that the Founding Fathers had something going with limiting voting only to those that held land. I wonder what the country would look like today if that part had stuck.

[Jarid in Cedar]

I'm going to sit this one out if that's okay with you all.

Please don't. I haven't seen your viewpoint on Palin. I would find that interesting.

[YOhio]

I'm going to sit this one out if that's okay with you all.

Not okay with me, pal.