Nothing. This is all about Palin. I see several possibilities:
1. Maybe she’s resigning ahead of a scandal.
2. Maybe she’s leveraging her current high profile to rake in some speaking fees and / or do a Huckabee-style Fox show rather than dealing with the nasty business of governing.
3. Maybe she wants to get the hell out of Alaska before the snow flies.
4. Maybe she wants to concentrate on her family.
5. Maybe she wants to start a Palin Defense League and go after her critics.
6. Maybe she’s following her well-established pattern and bailing to go after a bigger job.
7. Maybe she’s surrounded by sycophants who didn’t tell her how this would look.
Her resignation might mean any or all of this. But what it doesn’t mean is that poor old Palin was driven out of politics by mean old sexism. It doesn’t mean we’ve reverted back to Mayberry circa 1960.
This is Sarah the Barracuda we’re talking about. The sitting governor who yucked it up with a pair of shock jocks as they called an opponent (and cancer survivor) a “bitch” and a “cancer” and implied the opponent didn’t like her own children. The candidate who eagerly joined ancient sexist and crude jokester McCain’s campaign.
And we're supposed to believe Palin got the vapors over a comedian making a tasteless joke and photoshop job on a blog? Yeah, right. Pardon me if I fail to lock arms with the wounded sisterhood over Palin’s exit from the Alaska governor’s office, which some would have us believe is “a dark moment for our country:”
What am I going to tell my daughter?Forgive a mother’s brag, but my almost-11-year-old daughter seems to be a little more politically astute. She doesn’t totally get the pro-choice and pro-life thing, but she knows it’s an important issue that sharply divides conservatives and liberals. (I had to explain that to her 5 years ago when one of her friends -- whose parents’ views closely mirror those of the Palins -- told her she shouldn’t vote for John Kerry in the elementary school’s mock election because Kerry thinks it’s okay to “kill babies.” Thanks for making me explain abortion to a 1st grader, wingnut assholes!)
That was the first thing that popped into my mind this afternoon after watching Governor Palin step down.
My 11 year-old daughter adores Sarah Palin. She is too young to understand pro-choice and pro-life. The difference between drilling and being environmentally cautions. My daughter looks at Sarah Palin and she sees herself.
As a junior activist in the local “Save the Manatee” organization, my kiddo understands environmental issues pretty well. She thought Palin’s “drill, baby, drill!” shtick was both dumb and short-sighted.
Who knows -- the kid might rebel and disgrace us someday by growing up to be a Republican activist or country music singer. But the point is, even at that age, kids are capable of understanding the basic stuff and comprehending why people might disagree vociferously -- and even call each other names, which we adults learned on the playground, after all.
Palin -- and Hillary Clinton even more so, in my opinion -- were subjected to sexist attacks during their campaigns. Big fat duh there. Obama was subjected to racist attacks. Again, duh. That’s wrong, and it should be called out when it happens.
But to act as if the latest melodrama from a wingnut flake blots out the noon-day sun and dashes hope for women and girls nationwide is, well, stupid and hysterical.* I didn’t agree with Palin about much during the campaign, but there is some truth to what she said here.
Palin knows how to rev up her fan base, so she’ll no doubt run with the martyrdom meme if it gains traction. But this Vagina-American ain’t buying it. I hope to see a woman president someday, but one who supports women’s issues (like the Ledbetter Act, for example), not George W. Bush in drag. Even my 10-year-old kid gets that.
*I am aware that “melodramatic,” “flake,” “stupid” and “hysterical” can be used as slurs against women. They can also be earned labels for either sex. And in this case, they are.
[H/T: Wonkette. Cross-posted at Rumproast]
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