I don’t talk much politics around here. I used to be very political, but now I find that it all just frustrates me. So I tend to stay out of the discussions unless someone asks me.
However, there is one politician who is getting a lot of face time during this prelude to the 2012 Presidential elections and that is Sarah Palin.
The New York Times and Washington Post are trying to use crowd-sourcing to pour through Palin’s emails from her time as Governor of Alaska, looking for anything that might be used to damage her apparently.
She was mocked about comments regarding Paul Revere, saying the famed silversmith and patriot “warned the British” during his famed 1775 ride. It turns out, local historians and academics are backing her claim.
There is a pro-Palin movie being released in July, 2011, about her time as the Governor of Alaska.
I recently had a conversation about her with two ladies, one in her mid-forties, and another in her mid-sixties. Both made the same comment: she is hated because she is an attractive, self-sufficient, has-it-all lady (including a stud husband) that is conservative. They also said that she is what the feminist movement was supposed to be all about, except that she is a conservative.
Others with whom I have had discussions about her called her an idiot. That is the basis of their critic of her, that she doesn’t know much of what she talks about and has a distorted view of the world.
It seems that people either love or hate Sarah Palin. I have no opinion quite honestly. Except that she would be the best looking President the US has ever had.
So I wonder, other than comments like “She’s an idiot” or “She’s really hot!”, why do you like or dislike Sarah Palin? Why do you think she is such a polarizing figure?
I too have puzzled over this. Why won’t women vote for a woman president? I agree with the two women you spoke with: she is attractive, smart, accomplished, has family values, is conservative, is comfortable in her own sort of unapologetic Alaskan skin. Liberal or progressive woman can’t get past that. I won’t vote for a candidate because they are female. I still vote for the conservative candidate that I think can win. But I can’t wrap my brain around the female response to her as compared to Geraldine Ferraro, when she was on the ticket. I have decided I’m looking for logic in an area where it does not apply. 🙁
David, great article here. You have exposed the truth. When she succeeds, she is attacked. When she has a blunder, she is attacked. And much of the time, when the liberal media cries “foul”, evidence proves her to be not guilty. The most recent Paul Revere story, as you said, has proven out to show that her words were correct. And remember when Tina Fey parodied her. As as result of that parody, Palin was accused of actually saying that she could see Russia from her house. This was completely untrue. Palin never said that. In closing, here’s my take on the issue. When I am out in the field selling or trying to get accounts, I “run” on my own record. I never address the competition … UNLESS … unless it is more than apparent to me that one particular competitor is a viable threat to me in a certain situation. At that point, I do the best job I can to obliterate the competition. It seems to me that the only reason to attack Palin is because she is a THREAT to liberal concerns. If Palin didn’t have a chance to succeed, politically, there would be no attack on her. And even if there was an attack on her, it would not be so vehement. The intensity of the attack only matches the validity of the perceived threat. In summary, she is attacked because liberals can actually SEE her in the Oval Office.