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Nice

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This is more the response I was expecting, even from women who disagree.

Journalists, including Canadians, who could barely contain their glee at the sight of the family-values queen turning out to have a pregnant unmarried daughter – as though the two are mutually exclusive – are infinitely more delicate about respecting the privacy of closeted gay politicians, for instance.

Being pro-life is not a seal on a perfect life–and that doesn’t make anyone a hypocrit. We all make plans for our lives. Or try to. And then other stuff happens. Planned Parenthood? That’s a myth.

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Rebecca adds: Is the rule now that only politicians whose children are virgins until marriage are fit to hold office?  If anybody believes Bristol Palin is unusual in being sexually active at 17, they’re kidding themselves.  And contrary to the nitwits bleating about the futility of abstinence-based sex ed – we have no idea if she used birth control.  There is no perfect method of birth control.

 

I’m also very, very tired of people pointing to Mrs. Palin’s statement that she was “proud of Bristol for choosing to keep her baby” as proof that Palin wants abortion to be a choice at least for her own daughter.  It’s clear to me that she was referring to the decision between adoption and parenting.  (Although choosing to carry a baby to term and then adopt is no less praiseworthy.)

 

Finally, the great crisis of illegitimacy is about just that – illegitimacy.  Young women aged 17, 18 and 19 have been having babies for centuries.  The difference is that they were married when they gave birth, which the Palins have indicated is the plan for Bristol and the father of her baby.  I personally would not choose for my children to be married and parents quite that young (growing up and getting an education is hard enough work without such steep responsibilities) but the reality is it happens, and it’s not the end of the world, especially if the couple are committed to making it work and have the support of their families and community.

The next Margaret Thatcher?

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Interesting piece by Barbara Amiel on whether Sarah Palin is like Margaret Thatcher. She highlights also all the delicious ironies the result of her nomination.

Had she been a man with similar political views, the left’s opposition would have been strong but less personally vicious: It would have focused neither on a daughter’s pregnancy, nor on the candidate’s inability to be a good parent if the job was landed. In its panic, the left was indicating that to be a female running for office these days is no hindrance but an advantage, and admitting that there is indeed a difference between mothers and fathers that cannot necessarily be resolved by having daddy doing the diaper run.

Just to be sporting, I’ll highlight the irony for some on the right but not for me personally. It is that people who normally would say mothers should, well, mother, are cheering her on in a job that will call her well away from her kids and home. Thankfully my line on women working and raising kids has always been that they should do what they feel comfortable doing, what they choose, working this out as a family, without government interference. (ie. no state funding for inequitable child care arrangements that not every woman can or will choose, like institutional day care.) 

Yesterday I had an email from another “downscale” educated woman who is thrilled with Sarah Palin–she pointed out she and her husband are working together on this one. How novel, we remarked, they are like a team.

Us downscale white people

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David Frum writes:

But even based on what we know already, opinion about Palin’s life story will divide sharply. I wrote a column for The Week’s online edition suggesting how that opinion will divide. Briefly, the Palin choice will intensify GOP support among downscale white voters – while adding to the GOP’s difficulties among more educated white voters. 

I have a university degree what has got three letters in it, yet I find myself enthusiastically cheering for Gov. Palin. I am also white. I would be surprised to hear I am the only person in this situation. Is there such a thing as more educated downscale white voters? As Mark Steyn says, ease up on the snobbery, dude. “You’d be surprised how crowded it is down at the ‘downscale’ end.”

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Andrea adds: Downscale, upscale, whatever. I don’t think she’s courting the Lawrence Park vote.

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Rebecca adds: That’s tone deaf, even for Frum. He’s written some great books, my favourite of which is How We Got Here, which takes some of the focus on the culture wars off the 1960s and takes a closer look at the importance of the 1970s. His latest, Comeback, was just … off, in many ways. From his position on life (he wants pro-lifers to stop worrying about abortion and pay more attention to embryo-destructive research, as if it were a zero-sum contest between them, and as if a culture that won’t protect a third trimester baby could be bothered to protect a zygote) to his inattention to the role of culture in creating and perpetuating poverty, the book struck me as somehow misguided, as if he had carefully taken aim at his subject and then sneezed as he loosed his arrow.

At the time, I thought that this was a function of his preoccupation with foreign policy in recent years. He’s done some important work in that field, so fair enough if he’s not as au courant with social policy as he used to be. Now, though, it looks as if perhaps he just doesn’t get small-c conservative America.

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Andrea adds: “pay more attention to embryo-destructive research”–is that what he wants? Because that redeems his other off positions at least a little for me. I firmly believe that it won’t be too long before women won’t choose abortion for themselves. I’m less hopeful about those scientists who have control over many more lives, doing research on embryonic children. A mother knows what her unborn child is, intuitively. Does a scientist?

Obama and Palin are good for democracy

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My guess is that voter turnout will be high for this election in the United States. Prior to Palin being chosen for VP, we had a very motivated group of Democrats who love Obama and will turn out in droves to vote for him. Now we have a group of very motivated Republicans who love Palin (sorry, this ain’t about McCain) and will turn out in droves to support that ticket. The choices are very different, very clear. The fact that both sides love their candidates will push more people to the polls.

This is good for democracy.

(What’s not good for democracy is a political spectrum that blends into one… I’ll let you guess what country I’m referring to.)

Cross-posted to The Shotgun.

She’s appallingly competent

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…my sentiments on Sarah Palin exactly, courtesy of Barbara Kay:

The convention center exploded with joy, no doubt composed of 90% relief that – the Olympian comparison is apt – this talented but untested American gymnast had nailed a perfect 10 on the bars, the vault and the beam. She was calm and she radiated assurance. Her pointed barbs at Obama’s weaknesses were legitimate, and slyly, amiably expressed. Aggression without stridency.

This is one confident woman

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And just the right amount of sarcasm, too. Says Sarah Palin giving her speech at the Republican Convention:

Before I became governor, I was mayor of Wasilla. And since our opponents seem to look down on that experience, let me explain what the job involves. I guess being mayor is sort of like being a community organizer except you have actual responsibilities.”

Column of the day

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A panel (of one) voted this morning and after some deliberation came up with this as the column of the day. A very close second is this one.

I don’t want to see more women in politics if they are all going to be a variation on Judy Rebick. But for those constantly harping on about how we need more women in politics–well, Sarah Palin should be a dream come true. Shouldn’t she?

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The panel of one reevaluates: and actually, David Warren’s column wins out. For lines like this one:

To them, the stark facts of Ms. Palin’s reaction to a Down’s syndrome pregnancy, and to her daughter’s unseasonable one, shines as day to night against Mr. Obama’s, “If my daughter makes a mistake, I don’t want her punished with a baby.”

and this:

For the American liberal media grant themselves a free pass on all traditional principles of decency, and every feminist talking point besides, when they are confronted with a woman not in the feminist stereotype.  

Sex can lead to pregnancy

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Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, age 17, is pregnant. And so what, I say. She plans on marrying the father and keeping the child. While I agree with the official press release from the McCain camp that it will cause her to grow up more quickly than she ever expected, I also see this as good news. She is getting married and starting a family. It’s only in very recent history that we think of getting pregnant young as wasted potential. Her child (or by that point, children) will be competent near-adults by the time she hits 32. Which is not exactly over the hill, if I do say so myself.

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Brigitte would like to highlight the following paragraph from the story Andrea links to:

Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter’s pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.

Disqualify? To be the parent of a teenager who is sexually active? Yikes; not many people would be allowed to run for office if that were the case. Imagine if we had learned that her daughter had had an abortion instead of keeping her baby. Do you think the campaign would have felt it necessary to make the same comment? Do you think we’d even know about it?

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Andrea adds: Good point, Brigitte. One more thing–this situation highlights how inane our abortion-friendly culture is. I looked back at my own post–I wrote she is “keeping the child.” Was I supposed to write “keeping the fetus”? No–we only downgrade to non-human status when abortion is the course of action. A point made at ProWomanProLife before–which I’ll highlight here, is that those who are pro-life are not genetically different from the rest of the population. Namely, a 17-year-old who is having sex with her boyfriend can also be pro-life. It’s the outcome that can redeem the situation. Marriage and a baby does make a happier situation out of an “unexpected pregnancy” than abortion.

Aha! I found a problem with Sarah Palin…

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…it’s that she’s not running for president. This action letter from Cecile Richards,  president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund is just way too much fun:

What might have been encouraging news for women was just the opposite — somehow McCain had managed to find a woman running mate even more conservative than he is on women’s rights. … If you can only do one thing, it should be to tell every woman you meet that McCain and Palin are the most anti-choice, anti-women pair imaginable. Don’t stop at just telling your friends. You can bet that I’ll be telling strangers in the checkout line at the grocery store, the women I see at the gym, parents at my kids’ schools.

Oh Cecile. You’re breaking my heart. But not my confidence, baby.

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Brigitte also found something: She has an annoying mother-in-law. I like her even more… And it looks like I’m not the only one.

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