If Wente wants to talk lead balloons, let’s talk a McCain candidacy without Sarah Palin. The reality is that McCain is a weak candidate. The only inspiring thing he’s done is choose Sarah Palin as a running mate. Certainly, this is not the view of the media elite, of that I’m well aware.
It may take years to see who has the last laugh, because I don’t believe the McCain ticket will win. But they won’t lose because of Sarah, that’s for sure. As for all the femme fatale nonsense? Seems to me Wente’s fallen into the trap of thinking good looks and brains are mutually exclusive. And that only men like her. Oh dear.
Palin is a strong and attractive candidate. But how she looks is neither here nor there, save for columnists who use that as an excuse–when really, not so secretly, it’s her ideas they abhor.
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Rebecca adds: “Seems to me Wente’s fallen into the trap of thinking good looks and brains are mutually exclusive.”
If I thought in stereotypes as shallow as those Wente indulges in that column, I’d be tempted to expand upon Andrea’s observation.
Palin has lots of male fans, but the news has been for a month and a half how she has energized the Republican base and women. Wente isn’t dumb, so she must be pretty blinded by her obvious resentment to have missed this point.
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Elizabeth says
Thank you for taking a pro-Palin position here. I was quite annoyed with Wente’s column; it was genuinely sexist. This is a VP candidate who has more experience than Obama, but the press refuses to acknowledge this. Instead, it is all about her clothes, she is a ditz, etc. She not only has experience, but a number of accomplishments in a very short time period. After 50 days on the national scene she has performed reasonably well, while Biden (after decades in Washington) makes insane mistakes in terms of knowledge of foreign affairs that scare the h*** out of me. If McCain loses, I really hope Palin beats Obama in 2012.
Here we have an amazingly accomplished woman, who did it all herself with no politician husband or wealthy connections and so -called feminists cannot even acknowledge any of this. Her husband is exactly what these women would call a “feminist” – does diapers, is not threatened by his wife,s success, seems like a wonderful father – but most refuse to acknowledge this as he is also pro-life. I loved her story about when she first told him she was expected Trig and she asked him “why did God choose us to have a down syndrome baby” and Todd answered “well, why not us?”. With all the men out there abandoning kids, pressuring women into abortion or convincing them they will be deadbeat – Todd’s attitude should be celebrated.
Why are no feminists willing to admit that the images of a VP candidate with a husband cradling an infant is a landmark for women? Never before in history. I am astonished as to why this pic is not on the cover of Ms. with some kind of heading like “21st century feminist husband” or something.
Anyways – it all comes down to the “right” to kill fetuses I guess. Does not matter how accomplished, groundbreaking or impressive one is – without that belief it counts for nothing.