[Sarah Palin as Tweety Bird]
“I did! I did tleep wiff a bwack man!”
[SP as TB]
So again I’ll ask: can anyone post a link to Palin calling for abstinence-based education as a preferred policy? So far as I’m aware, the only time she said she favored it was in a “pick one” survey where the other choice was put-condoms-on-the-banana sex ed.
Because vilifying mentally retarded / mentally challenged / insert the P.C. word of the week here people is what gets some Dopers vilified on this message board.
And…because she’s not mentally challenged. She’s astonishingly dangerous, but she’s not mentally challenged.
Here’s an analogy. Gee Bush Senior sometimes came off as a bit sketchy, but you know what? He was one of the most dangerous US Presidents in 100 years. His son? Mentally challenged D- student at Yale.
My left-wing two cents. 
There are plenty of good reasons to reject Palin as a presidential candidate. Her sex life is not one . That is her private business.
I haven’t made the search, but there is no question that in general she calls for “family values” and all that catch phrase implies. Most voters who vote for the ‘family values’ candidate will be appalled if it turns out to be proven that Palin had a one-nighter with Rice in her youth.
But putting that aside, Palin also allegedly cheated on her husband with a business partner. I know for sure that she goes on record as being a big supporter of the “values” of marriage. That is why she is against gay marriage. It’s sacred to her. Having failed at the most basic part of male/female marriage that seems to make her somewhat of a hypocrite in itself before Rice even comes into the discussion.
The Rice story is getting a lot of press but it isn’t a necessary element to considering Palin a raging hypocrite IMHO. Having a teenage daughter who is a mother, having been unfaithful to her husband despite defending the sanctity of marriage if she were ever empowered to make the decision for other people. She feels entitled to make judgements about who should or shouldn’t be able to participate in marriage, get an abortion, use birth control, but at the same time she has cheated on her husband, has an unwed teenage daughter with child - her life reflects that she is as human as all us poor sinners and sometimes things just are the way they are and people need real choices about how to deal with realities, yet if she had the ability she would cut most of those choices off. All these things scream “hypocrite”. If the story about Rice is true it would only add to that sense.
Oh, bullshit. Palin cannot reasonably be held responsible for the actions of her late-teens daughter. At most, the daughter’s pregnancy shows that Sarah was a far less effective proponent of her moral code that (Sarah) would have hoped (and also that she’s uninformed, perhaps willfully, about the consequences of failure.) But stupid does not equal hypocrite.
Oh bullshit, parents are 100% responsible for the education and supervision their minor children have, especially among the folks in Sarah’s camp.
More to the point it shows even her own daughter could need some of the options she would choose to withhold from others and their daughters.
Fair enough – I guess I wasn’t thinking “mentally challenged” when I wrote mentally limited – I was being more literal. Palin is not mentally challenged, but she’s no giant brain. She’s simply not smart enough to do a credible job as President or VP, or as a senator or governor. There’s nothing wrong with that – there are plenty of people in the country not smart enough to do those jobs, or other jobs that require analytical ability or specialized knowledge. Not everyone can learn enough A&P to be an EMT, for example. It was that kind of limitation I was trying to convey.
I absolutely agree that if she had an affair with her husband’s business partner, she’s a hypocrite.
Did she?
Thanks for that clarification. I’m in agreement here.
This is completely retarded.
I think Sarah Palin is a self-serving, attention-whoring simpleton who shouldn’t be in charge of anything larger than a backward Alaskan redneck village of idiots.
But the fact is that you can be the most committed, devoted, and conscientious of parents (of whatever political persuasion) and it won’t necessarily prevent your teenage kids from making bad decisions or doing stupid things. Short of keeping them in their room under lock and key, or having someone follow them 24 hours a day, most kids are going to do things that their parents disapprove of at one stage or another. The fact that this happens is not necessarily an indication of poor parenting. or hypocrisy, or anything like that.
As for Sarah Palin’s position on sex education and abstinence, it seems to me that this is one area where she wasn’t particularly out of line with progressive thinking.
From the Los Angeles Times, September 6, 2008:
Bolding mine.
I can’t say that for sure any more so than I know if the story about Rice is true, but it is also alleged in the same book. (or, it is allegedly alleged in the book…) We’re talking about one allegation (Rice) not making her a hypocrite if it were true, unless she had spoken out in favor of abstinence-only programs, so I’m just adding that if another allegation (cheating on her husband) is also true, that would definitely be hypocritical in light of her statements about marriage which are on-record and easily cited.
I also maintain she is a hypocrite in that she would revoke a woman’s right to choose abortion while having a teenage daughter get unexpectedly knocked up. Those who agree or disagree with that view already know why they do and I don’t want to start up that debate here, but to me at least, it made her a hypocrite since way before the Rice story came out.
That’s not at all why I say it makes Sarah a hypocrite.
She is unable to see that, despite whatever her best efforts, teachings, values, etc. it can happen to anyone - even the daughter of the great Sarah Palin. And, were she not a hypocrite, she would then be able to make the connection to how easily it might happen to any other 15 year old girl, too, and she would realize all the varied circumstances those 15 year olds might be in.
What does the word ‘hypocrite’ mean?
If she procured an abortion for her teenage daughter, I’d agree with you. But if she argues that abortion should be illegal, and then her teenage daughter gets pregnant, how in the world does that translate to hypocrisy?
I think you’re confusing the word ‘hypocrite’ with the phrase ‘lack of empathy.’
You’re saying Palin did not do a “credible job” as governor of Alaska?
That sounds like an enormous overstatement to me. You can criticize anyone, and politicians more than most, and there’s certainly room for debate about her performance, as with any other politician. But she left office with a very high approval rating - and she was a lot higher before she entered the maelstrom of national politics - and reports on her performance by knowledgable people were - at a minimum - not bad enough to disqualify her to McCain.
I don’t see how you could say by any reasonable definition that she wasn’t doing a “credible job”. And if she in fact was doing a credible job, then it’s clearly erroneous to state that she’s not smart enough to do a credible job.
This is why I said, those who agree or disagree with that view already know why they do and I don’t really want to debate it because we have to debate the entire abortion issue to get to the part about why I believe it to be hypocritical.
You may be right, I am calling her lack of empathy hypocritical, in that other teenage girls who wind up with unexpected pregnancies don’t have any of the options her daughter had when deciding to carry her pregnancy to term, in terms of finance, education, healthcare, family and support system, etc. It was a ‘no brainer’ for them based on their situation in life and their value system. But she would revoke the right of any 15 year old girl to choose differently even if her circumstances were vastly different, despite now knowing first hand how easily it could happen to any girl, in any family, and many (most) are not as privileged as her daughter.
But i see no evidence that she doesn’t “make the connection” or “realize all the varied circumstances.” What are you talking about when you say this?
She would repeal Roe v. Wade.
There was an article* in the Atlantic Monthly over the summer about her governorship, and the author argues that, for much of her term, she was actually a very good governor, and actually lived up to a lot of her rhetoric about reaching across the aisle and standing up to powerful interest groups. She worked with Democrats, fought against corruption and cronyism, and pushed back against the interests of the big oil companies.
The problem, and what the author calls “the tragedy of Sarah Palin,” is that her relentless and vindictive personality undermined many of these efforts because she was as committed to settling personal scores and grievances as she was to running the state. Also, he argues, she completely shifted her tone once she was selected as McCain’s running mate, and her focus became one of resentment against Barack Obama. She left behind the real political commitment to countering special interests that had marked the early period of her governorship, and focused on the politics of grievance and culture warfare.
- I’m not sure if you need to be a subscriber to read the whole thing.