Female Conservative Columnist To Palin: Please Leave The Race
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Palin, Republicans
I shared a quote from Ross Douthat yesterday about not wanting to link to any of the Couric interview videos, but now we have Kathleen Parker actively not wanting Palin to be linked to the Republican ticket at all.
If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman. [...]
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.
True, the Palin pick was a Hail Mary pass, but it was tossed from McCain’s 5 yard line and it didn’t even reach mid-field before Palin fumbled. Now Obama/Biden have recovered and are about to drive down the field.
In other words, you can feel a massive momentum shift and Republicans are jumping ship from the Palin pick now that she has been revealed to be out of her depth.
This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Palin, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:46 am
How I came to the conclusion that Obama is the better choice:
Obama goes with a VP pick of an older, more moderate, more hawkish Democrat who has a crapload of foreign policy experience. This shows that Obama is pragmatic and desires to be an effective commander-in-chief.
McCain goes with a VP pick of a young, one-term governor of a state that has 10% the population of his own. Before that she served as mayor of a city slightly larger than New York City (well, the New York City of 1720 that is). This shows that McCain is more about playing political games to get elected than about being an effective leader.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Why do we always go from one extreme to another. They were stupidly talking about how she was the next Reagan and now they want her off the ticket. Insane, if she goes off the ticket it’s over. Also if Palin does well in the VP debate (right now a big if) I suspect to hear from these same blowhards about how great she is again.
I still think it might have been nerves and her not being able to be herself. I could be wrong, but I do agree that she needs more time in the press instead of less. Every interview is so intensely scrutinized that it makes it look much worse than it is (although I am not sure you can get worse than the Couric interview).
September 26th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
It is clear that John McCain picked Palin without knowing her personally, without considering whether she is qualified for the position of Vice-President and as a last resort to pander to American female voters.
We are not idiots Mr. McCain. After viewing the Palin/Couric interviews I am cringing with embarrassment for all the women far better qualified that were ignored and for Sarah Palin being put into this position when she is clearly out-of-her-depth.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I’m still willing to wait for her to debate Biden to see how she does. I’m going to vet her based on what I see with my own eyes.
But I’ll agree that I’ve seen a few some signs that she’s either Not Ready For Prime Time, or as this woman puts it, out of her league.
So far, in the places where she has seemed weak, it seems to be because she’s struggling to stick to the limited script that the campaign probably has insisted she stay with. For example, I don’t think it was her idea to point out that Alaska is next to Russia as a way of suggesting she has foreign policy experience. It’s a crappy argument unless there’s something behind it, and if she herself, when asked, can’t cite any specific instances of actually dealing with foreign folks, then there’s nothing to it, and it’s a crappy argument with nothing but surface appeal..
September 26th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Surface appeal? Whose surface does this appeal to? Cripes, it’s not even that.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Disagree Gerry. Surface appeal means that it sounds plausible without examination.
It’s quite plausible that the Chief Executive of the only US state that closely borders Russia might have actually had some sort of substantial dealings with their government. State governors of bordering state have occasion to deal with each quite often, for example.
Since it appears to have turned out that she really hasn’t had any such dealings, at least not that she seems able to recite, THEN its a crappy argument. Even as a partisan, I think you can afford to concede that.
September 26th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I think Repulican party should only allow her interviews to be conducted in a controlled enviornment and release them for broadcast after editing. The current approach of taking a chance and putting her in “real time interviews” is not working. If they carry on on this path they are TOAST.
September 26th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
With public support caving in around her, I wonder if Palin will voluntarily (or not so voluntarily) step down before the election, giving the McCain campaign a chance to put someone like Romney or Huckabee in the VP slot — with their love of surprise moves, this would be a whopper. And might be a calculation to swing the election, at the last moment.
She is becoming an embarrassment and prhaps a liability.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Palin can’t drop out. Too much pure comedy lost to the banality of presidential elections. She must keep on keeping on so McCain will be screwed and we can all have a good hearty laugh about moose burgers: http://www.236.com/news/2008/09/26/sarah_do_not_listen_to_those_b_9168.php
It’s for the good of the country.
September 27th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Hey John Maverick McCain… I can see Tijuana and the Pacific Ocean from my house… can I be the next ambassador to Mexico or perhaps the Secretary of the Navy? I think Sarah and I might be soul mates.
September 27th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Kathleen Parker’s artilces do not belong on the pages of
National Review. With her anti-Palin article, I
believe she should be on staff at Dailykos.
When Parker runs a city and a state … and,
successfully fight’s corruption … and gets a
9 billion dollar energy project for her state, and generates an 85% approval rating from her state,
maybe then her credibility, and opinion would be worth something.
Instead, she is merely a critic, who from the sidelines, has betrayed Republicans, and the readership of Nationalreview
September 27th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Oh, Gina… c’mon…
Kathleen Parker’s been an–ahem–”faithful” voice for conservatives (and I’m thinking “real Conservatives” here, as opposed to neoconservatives) for how many years? You trust her up to the point that she tells you something you don’t want to hear?
BTW… keep in mind that there were probably issues raised by all sorts of people over at NRO. This editorial/commentary was written by Palin, and then submitted to the scrutiny of how many editors? Ultimately leaving a senior editor, an editor-in-chief, and perhaps even the publisher with opportunities to yank the ol’ “Emergency Brake” cord at any time, and stop the whole train from making it to the printers (or the web/online publishers).
But they didn’t, did they?
Kathleen Parker most likely didn’t just toss this onto the website at 2am, from the comfort of her bedroom, wearing a robe and slippers.
So, you wanna talk about “betrayal,” you’re talking about a lot of people at NRO.
Hey, I know! Write one of those nasty letters, where you say you’re canceling your subscription. Then, you can continue buying the magazine with cash at the Borders, or just reading it there.
Meanwhile…
cate, you might be onto something. Or, maybe Palin’s just been “playing dumb” the past 3 weeks, and we’ll see the real, super-intelligent Sarah Palin later this week.
Maybe.
September 28th, 2008 at 5:06 am
Real Reason why McCain chose Palin : Sexist and condescending
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apdFC-vh6Ng
Also his poor record of voting against equal pay for women and opposing Equal Roles for Women in the Military should be the business of American women voters.
Real Reason why McCain running for President in his own words
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-GfRmfb274#