Dowd
Dowd has weighed in on the Palin Pick, and she lines up nicely with my theory that it is women who will tear down another woman because of their image. Gender takes a back seat when politics is involved, even for the most die hard feminist. Here's Dowd:"This chick flick, naturally, features a wild stroke of fate, when the two-year governor of an oversized igloo becomes commander in chief after the president-elect chokes on a pretzel on day one.
The movie ends with the former beauty queen shaking out her pinned-up hair, taking off her glasses, slipping on ruby red peep-toe platform heels that reveal a pink French-style pedicure, and facing down Vladimir Putin in an island in the Bering Strait. Putting away her breast pump, she points her rifle and informs him frostily that she has some expertise in Russia because it’s close to Alaska. “Back off, Commie dude,” she says. “I’m a much better shot than Cheney.”
Reading this stuff gets me a little more in touch with my feminine side. So far, lefty bloggers and writers are hammering Palin not on the issues, but the fact that she's a woman. The Huffington Post (run by noted feminist Arianna Huffinton) and Daily Kos, two of the more demented websites, are examining pictures of Palin's 17-year-old daughter and claiming that Palin's newborn actually belongs to her. Mainstream papers have also picked up the story. The little boy's been alive for only a few months, and already he's accused of being a bastard.
As it turns out, Palin's daughter is 5 months pregnant right now, so it's impossible that she gave birth in May. Today, the Palin camp released news of the 17-year-old's pregnancy, because they were shocked at the brother/mother rumours and thought they should be put down before the 17-year-old's life was smeared beyond repair.
And you know what's coming now, don't you? The first rumour will disappear in the blink of an eye, to be replaced by a slaughtering of Palin's judgement. I can see it already: "She can't even keep her kid from getting knocked up. How will she be a good VP?"
This is nasty territory, and shows the new age of politics we're living in. Before now, a politician's kids were virtually off-limits unless it came to legal matters. Even then, news stories on a candidate's kids were scant. But that was before a woman was on the Republican ticket in the era of 24-hour news.
Ask yourself if a man would face such scrutiny of his infant son, or his choice of suit and tie? Here's a look at how Andrew Sullivan, over at The Atlantic, thinks you should treat a rumour of this sort. It comes under the headline She Looks Pregnant Here:
"Here's a photo that looks like it confirms Palin's pregnancy, uploaded today, on what was the last day of the Alaska Legislature's Session, on April 13, 2008, five days before Trig Palin was born. More here. This seems to put the kibbosh on this, although it would still be good to have official confirmation from the McCain campaign, which should be easy enough to do. Just a simple confirmation from the doctor who was present at the birth."
It will get worse.
Photo: New York Times
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