Sarah Palin in the Eye of the Beholder
ChrisB on Jan 29 2009 at 10:13 am | Filed under: Chris' Page, Domestic Politics, Media
With news that Governor Palin started her own political action committee at SarahPAC, she has entered the punditry discussion again, and yet again provokes strong responses, though as Josh Painter shows, little consensus. Many of the descriptions have to be read together to get the full effect of the dissonance.
So, is Sarah Palin the right wing extremist McCain staffers and leftists believe her to be? Is she the fundie theocrat secular leftists say she is? Is she the “neocon” portrayed by careless conservatives? Is she a populist, as some liberals claim? If the governor is a populist, is that populism as disingenuous as the looser cannons on the left insist it is? Is she a leftist, as Big Oil’s useful idiots would have us believe? Is she the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan that his own elder son sees? Or is Gov. Palin a centrist, as the Alaskan pundit says she has governed? Did Pat Buchanan hit it closest to the mark of all the pundits quoted here, calling her a traditionalist?
It’s a question unfortunately, that will need to be answered to the public. James Pethokoukis of U.S. News & World Report’s Capital Commerce blog has some homework ideas on how to do this. I would also love to see more writing and commentary like this. I think it will be important to remember that when answering this question to the public, the response needs to come in many parts, only one of which should be in the traditional media. She could take a few pointers from Fred Thompson and Jon Henke with the other parts using the new media and youtube and other social sites.
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Josh Painter is behind the times. Covered this aspect of her on my site, way back in October.
Sarah Palin: Everything, Nothing, and Then Some
She is going to keep playing this game with the press and the pundits. I think she thinks it’s funny.
http://ohcrapihaveacrushonsarahpalin.blogspot.com/2008/10/sarah-palin-everything-nothing-and-then.html
Palin says I AM A FEMINIST, I AM NOT A FEMINIST, and I DON´T WANT TO LABEL MYSELF.
She is just hedging all bets. THAT will hit the wall soon enough.
No one will go easy on her ever again, I am referring to the time period when she first appeared on the scene. That will not happen again. DEBATE she will HAVE TO this time…alot will hit the fan. It´s math, Palin doesn´t add up. It´s a matter of time.
I don’t know how anyone could say she’s not a feminist *except* that she thinks that “birth control” means contraception rather than abortion.
She obviously believes that women are equally as capable as men and should have equal authority.
I don’t know how you could call what happened this summer and fall “going easy” on her. If she had a media honeymoon, it lasted maybe two days.
It’s probably fair to say that Sarah is actually a gynarchist, not a feminist, Sy. She’s argued (admittedly offhand) that women can bring superior virtues in leadership to politics, not equal ones. For what it’s worth I generally agree with that. Not that my man’s opinion matters. With the gender gap reaching almost ten million more women than men voting in presidential elections now (in 1964 it was only 2 million more), we already live in a functional gynarchy. Who governs is decided largely by women today. It’s probably a matter of time before they realize that they would likely be better represented by actual women, rather than pandering men.