……..and other various things circulating around about the McCain-Palin campaign.

If you are like me, you joined in with MomsRising in submitting questions to Gwen Ifil to be asked during last week’s VP debates. The viral email campaign was focused on issues important to women and it would be nice to know how Sarah Palin and Joe Biden would have responded to them. If you watched the debate, you know the only social issue that was asked of the candidates was about gay marriage – which is certainly an important topic – but I was still very disappointed that issues of teen pregnancy, sex education, federally mandated maternity leave, child care, and health care for children didn’t come up. I remained disappointed on Tuesday when none of these issues came up with Brokaw and the “Town Hall” debate.

That being said, one of many things about Sarah Palin that infuriates me beyond my ability to even express coherently is her extremely conservative position on teen sex education, particularly with a pregnant teenage daughter. Again, I absolutely believe that teens ought to be taught that abstinence is the best decision but I also live in reality and believe teens should be offered sex education and taught about the importance of contraceptives. There is a great oped in today’s Post about this very issue along with Palin’s position:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/08/AR2008100802928.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

But wouldn’t it be nice to hear directly from Palin on these issues?

If the McCain camp is hailing her performance during last week’s debate as such a great success, then why haven’t they taken her out of hiding? Why are they still shielding her from the media? When is she going to sit down with the major newspapers in this country and conduct an interview and tell us what she thinks? When is she going to parade through the Sunday morning talk shows like every other candidate for president and vice president?

When is she going to be treated just like every other candidate?

And did you find yourself wondering exactly what people woud have done if Hillary had ever winked at the camera during a debate?

The woman couldn’t even wear a shirt that showed the slightest bit of cleavage without being villified. When are we going to realize that finding Palin “cute” and “folksy” is every bit as sexist as villifying Hillary Clinton for wearing a slightly cleavage bearing shirt…..or as the McCain camp is for protecting the scared candidate from the horrible elitist media?  What’s remarkable is how much Palin exploits this to her advantage and cries foul when trying to distract from the fact that she is weak on substance.

Finally, if you are doubtful that Palin’s youngest child is actually her own child and not that of her eldest daughter, then go ahead and read what Andrew Sullivan posted yesterday….

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/births-at-mat-s.html#more

Here is a link to the most scathing piece on McCain I’ve read yet. Frankly, criticizing him as a POW makes even me VERY uncomfortable:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain/page/1

Now let’s end this entry with some perspective on where McCain stands in terms of foreign policy and funding women’s reproductive health overseas. In case you missed it in yesterday’s NYT, Kristoff has a very depressing and important column on how the Bush administration is “quietly” cutting off funding of birth control to clinics in Africa…oh…and McCain stands lock-step with Bush on this policy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/opinion/09kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

Obama, however, supports UN funded programs to support family planning.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m an Obama Mamma.

I’m sure you’ve noticed how I’ve been conspicuously quiet on Palin. Frankly, I felt like she was doing enough talking for the both of us. What more can I say, as she blabs her way, embarassingly, through endless interviews with Katie Couric? Isn’t she telling her own story now, I thought, isn’t it painfully obvious to anyone paying attention that this woman is NOT equipped to be Vice President…and worse…President of the United States?

But you know it’s getting bad when the rock solid conservatives are turning on her – and that’s when I really start laughing – LOUD – as we are one month away from election day.

In a KT first….I am going to provide to you a link to the right-wing National Review…can it get more conservative than this….calling on Palin to step aside:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDZiMDhjYTU1NmI5Y2MwZjg2MWNiMWMyYTUxZDkwNTE

I’ll try to refrain from mocking the journalist for her naivete in just hopping on the Palin bandwagon because she is a woman, rather than realizing this Governor of a state with the population the size of BALTIMORE is not equipped for the job. Among other obvious signs.

But she’s not alone. George Will and David Brooks, renown conservative columnists, are also publicly questioning Palin’s role in this campaign and McCain’s decision-making process.

Are the republicans turning into democrats? They are finally breaking from within and speaking out against each other…something they never do and the D’s are so freaking quick to do? It sure seems that way and my oh my….is it ever fun to watch.

Bottom line – Palin is an embarassment of a VP choice. She is way out of her league and it’s a shame that the first female Republican VP nominee isn’t someone who is qualified….like Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

Anyhoo, no one expects Palin to even make a coherent independent sentence all on her own tonight, so on the off chance that she is able to clear up all the talking points swirling around in her head and get one out, she’ll be praised as victor of the debate. With expectations so very low on her, Biden doesn’t stand a chance….but that’s an issue I’ll take up with the media on another day.

In the meantime, I want to leave you with a few links. One is to a piece on Salon.com – to which I cannot agree with more – the freaking pity party being heaped on Palin right now b/c she’s incompetent and out of her league, give me a break!
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/30/palin_pity/index.html

Another is to the differences of opinion and breadth of knowledge between Palin and Biden based on interviews with Katie Couric, this is an important read, if you missed it:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/01/eveningnews/main4493062.shtml

And finally, the follow-up piece from National Review’s Kathleen Parker in yesterday’s Washington Post about the column where she called for Palin to step aside:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2008/09/the_palin_problem.html

Have fun tuning in tonight, kittens!