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British media, including the supposedly conservative ones, are supporting Obama and (especially) hounding Sarah Palin, with a ferocity unknown even to their American counterparts, and looking more like the Daily Kos than anything, so to speak, human. This is appalling in itself, and may well end up being disastrous if by any chance McCain and Palin win. These creatures are planting poisonous ideas in the average British reader, which will take decades to weed away. And incidentally, it does nothing to disprove my view that at the roots of all serious modern political conflict in the West there is abortion; for the British media and establishment, including the so-called conservatives, are completely sold on the practice, and anti-abortion forces are marginalized to an extent unknown and hard to believe in Italy or America. This goes back a long time - Margaret Thatcher always voted in favour of abortion. Now, Sarah Palin, simply by being who she is, is a living rebuke to all the abortion-is-necessary crowd; and this explains the ferocious hatred and the avalanche of pathological lies with which this attractive, polite, competent female politician has been welcomed. Find me another explanation that makes sense! It also accounts for the complete silence that has been enforced on anything that might make Obama, the most pro-abortion candidate in history, look bad or even moderately dubious. It is not about race; if Judge Clarence Thomas were running for President, he would be treated like Palin has been. It is not even about party; if Condoleeza Rice had run and got the Republican nomination, you can bet your life that she would have had a much smoother ride than Palin. She, after all, has no children. You cannot underrate the power of repressed and concealed guilt feelings, crawling under the skin of all the career women who got rid of unwanted babies in order to please bosses and boyfriends, and indeed among all the men who were complicit in their crimes or even demanded them; when faced with a brilliantly successful career woman who not only had five children, but opted against aborting even the disabled one. (I don't suppose it helps that she is beautiful and looks ten years younger than her age. The sheer unfairness of the distribution of beauty is salt on any open wound, and the wound in question is painful enough in the first place.) Sarah Palin is a mirror who tells them the truth about themselves; and it is a truth that they cannot bear to see.

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attractive, polite, competent female politician
lolno on all counts

also do you really think the only reason women have abortions is because men coerce them into it?

I haven't really been paying any attention to the US election, mostly because I've been stressing about other stuff, so I can't really comment on her policies.

You cannot underrate the power of repressed and concealed guilt feelings, crawling under the skin of all the career women who got rid of unwanted babies in order to please bosses and boyfriends, and indeed among all the men who were complicit in their crimes or even demanded them; when faced with a brilliantly successful career woman who not only had five children, but opted against aborting even the disabled one.

I do admire the fact she chose to have children and have a career. This is good. But I do think it's a bit unfair to paint every single career woman without children with the same brush. I'm completely for choice. She chose to do this, and it's damn good that she got so far! From the little I know of her policies, I wouldn't vote for her (even if I were in the US), but this doesn't stop me from respecting that she both has children and a career. I figure that is women want children and a career, they should have all the opportunities in the world to succeed at both.

You know my opinion on abortion and how I believe it's mostly the woman's choice. There may be some coercion but there's some coercion in all of our daily decisions. This includes if somebody chooses to keep the baby. If men had babies, then there would be some coercion from women in whether they choose to keep or abort it.

As for selfishness. I'm not saying that it is true for every woman who chooses to have an abortion, but if, for argument's sake we say it is true. Would you want somebody that selfish keeping a child? Children need to come first in somebody's life, therefore, if somebody doesn't think they can do that, then I think it's the right decision that they don't have the child.

I would respectfully submit to the interlocutor above that Sarah Palin currently has an approval rating in her native state that exceeds by more than 1000% the current approval ratings of both President Bush and the U.S. Congress. What can this suggest but that, in her gubernatorial capacity, Palin has accomplished enough to earn the approbation of her fellow citizens?

(I can already hear the rejoinder, though - something to the tune of "There's Nothing in Alaska" sprinkled with a generous portion of "Alaskans Are All Knuckle-Dragging Rubes" and "[Insert Phony-Baloney Palin Scandal Here]." If you want to pinpoint the source of the populist strain in GOP politics, this is it. Denigrating large swaths of the American population is the surest way to inspire ordinary people to be belligerently proud of their ordinariness.)

I would challenge said commenter to name one mainstream pro-life organization that does not also work to assist women in crisis situations. Because I know we Catholics definitely put our money where our mouths are.

Far from upsetting the cart, choosing Sarah Palin is what is sinking the cart for Mccain. My facts sir, are indisputible. My girlfriend has in fact met more heads of state. Sarah Palin is in fact governor of a state with less people in it than austin, texas. You are being a mysogynist by defending a woman who herself insults women, and the intelligence of women. My girlfriend (who is Lithuanian, speaks 5 languages, and has gotten scholarships as well as having won scholastic contests in europe for her education, she is now doing PHD work) and I have watched Sarah Palin speeches, debates, etc. She calls for regulation (which republicans don't believe in, and McCain monikered himself "The great Deregulator" and on the other hand says government needs to "stay out of the way" not 5 minutes later. Which shows how smart the people who are cheering must be if they can't understand the ideology of the very party they are cheering on!
You think that you are oh so superior by having persuaded yourself that you are a british intellectual and therefore must be right. Arguing that elitism is wrong and what must be avoided is sheer hypocrisy coming from such as you.

This is the kind of thing that irritates me to no end about partisan politics. I seriously do respect you, and we tend to agree on a substantial number of issues, but I think it's clear that you're getting into an area of supporting the candidate who claims to forward the goal of ending abortion, no matter the lack of fitness or integrity of the candidate.

Sarah Palin might be beautiful, and strong, and relatively competent, but she's also unreflective and deeply lacking in integrity. Who knows, maybe she would ultimately shine on the national stage, but at this point it seems doubtful, when she answers the question from Katie Couric about "What newspapers and magazines do you read?" with "All of them," and a litany of talking points strung together with nonsense.

And no scandal that demonstrates a politician's willingness to put herself and her interests above those of the polity can be considered "baloney" or inconsequential. Unless you dispute the facts of the case, but might I humbly suggest that you're not in much of a position to know more on the question of, say, whether or not she pushed for the firing of a State Trooper out of family loyalty, than anyone else in Europe or, in fact, most of the rest of the United States. If she lacks integrity in those small things, then she may very well lack it on a larger scale.

The notion of supporting the anti-abortion candidate at all costs boggles my mind. 99 anti-abortion candidates out of 100 don't give a damn about abortion, and that's been demonstrated by the dramatic lack of direct action on the national level since Roe v. Wade. They'll say anything to court the vote of the right wing, and make up any excuse when it comes time for reelection on why they haven't been effective. Palin's choice was a cynical thrust right into the heart of that voting bloc, because McCain was deeply suspect among them, and the GOP feared them staying away in droves.

Well, he's got the vote he was after now, but the middle is slipping away from him in a hurry. All the invective in the world is not going to make Palin more attractive to the middle, nor make the middle respect McCain any more for such a cynical choice.

An excellent post!

I respond to it in depth here:

http://tjic.com/?p=9995

Well said.

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excellent post

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