Sally Quinn’s column in the Washington Post today, "Palin's Preganancy Problem," is hypocrisy of the left gone mad. Ms. Quinn is in full scale righteous “anger.” She is “shocked.” She is “insulted.” McCain has chosen a failed mother who needs to be attending to her children. She reminds us that we on the right are supposed to by misogynists. And, she tells us, Gov. Palin is too inexperienced for vice president, studiously ignoring the Obamaphant in the middle of her office.
I said in the post below, Palendimonium, that the left just won’t be able to stop themselves from sliming Gov. Palin and attempting to claim she is too inexperienced for the job of Vice President. Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn’s steps into the left wing breach today with an effort to do just that. And it is an outrageous effort indeed.
You can find Ms. Quinn’s column here. Quinn’s most outrageous arguments surround Gov. Palin as a mother. First, pointing to Gov. Palin’s teenage daughter’s out of wedlock pregnancy, Quinn asserts that this “must certainly raise the question among the evangelical base about whether Sarah Palin has been enough of a hands-on mother.”
It would be hard to imagine a more insulting or fatuous argument. What teenager does not rebel and try to distinguish themselves as a person? And in doing so, what teenager does not make mistakes? How many children are born in this country to parents whose wedding dates are less than nine months from the birth date, let alone how many are born out of wedlock? Quinn just painted the parents of all of these people as intinsically failed people in order to slime Gov. Palin. That ought to play well amongst the fly over crowd.
Two, this shows a fundamental misunderstanding of those on the right who espouse morals and try to live by them. We see human failings all the time – in ourselves and all around us. That does not mean that a person who fails is a failed person, as Quinn would paint Gov. Palin. The evangelical Rev. Dobson's response to Bristol Palin’s pregnancy could have been written in response directly to Sally Quinn:. . . ”Being a Christian does not mean you’re perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord. I’ve been the beneficiary of that forgiveness and restoration in my own life countless times, as I’m sure the Palins have.
“The media are already trying to spin this as evidence Gov. Palin is a ‘hypocrite,’ but all it really means is that she and her family are human. They are in my prayers and those of millions of Americans.”
Second, Quinn takes a century of feminist efforts to end misogyny and have women treated as the equals of men and she tosses it out the window. She explicitly argues that Palin, as the mother of five, has no business being the V.P. She should be at home taking care of these children as her primary responsibility.
Not only do we have a woman with five children, including an infant with special needs, but a woman whose 17-year-old child will need her even more in the coming months. Not to mention the grandchild. This would inevitably be an enormous distraction for a new vice president (or president) in a time of global turmoil. . . . [W]omen also will have to decide if they will vote against their conscience by voting to put the mother of young children in a job outside the home that will demand so much of her time and energy. . . . [H]er family situation [is a] valid and vital considerations here.
If there is any intellectually honest feminist out there, they should be spewing their coffee across the keyboard while they read that one. And one wonders about how Ms. Quinn feels about women in other high powered jobs. How does she feel about Michelle Obama holding down a job with two young children? What about fathers of young children? How about Bill Clinton in the White House while his daughter was a teenager? So according to Ms. Quinn, we should vote against Republicans to save motherhood and to demand that mothers stay in the home. Could this get any more hypocritical?
Quinn spends much of the rest of her piece trying to de-legitimize Gov. Palin by labeling her, in essence, an affirmative action pick. This is aimed at the general electorate and, more narrowly, at the Hillary voters. Quinn makes her argument while ignoring Gov. Palin’s accomplishments, her success in office, her background, and the affinity McCain has for a “kindered spirit.” I addressed this argument at length in a post below, Palendemonium. Suffice it to say, Gov. Palin’s plumbing may be a plus, but McCain’s justifications for choosing her neither start nor end at Gov. Palin’s gonads. One finds no hint of that in Quinn’s piece.
And lastly, there is the inexperience argument. The fact that, as mayor and governor, she has more executive experience than the combined Democratic ticket is studiously ignored – as is the fact that Gov. Palin’s foreign policy experience is the equal of the Obamaphant in the room. Instead, we get:
How can McCain call Barack Obama unqualified, inexperienced, not ready from Day One, not able to be commander in chief, and then put someone like Palin in a position that is a heartbeat away from the pesidency?
All one needs to do is turn that argument on its head to see how dangerous it is for Democrats. How can Obama be President if he has less qualifications and relevant experience than even the Repulican’s VP pick? That is the real question.
Quinn’s piece is a disgraceful attempt to smear Gov. Palin. Quinn is making an ill disguised reach across the aisle to evangelicals to telling them that they should just follow their misogynist instincts. And it is an explicit warning to Hillary backers not to vote for McCain-Palin. While Gov. Palin may share their plumbing, she is obviously not of their cut. The snobbery and identity politics emanating from Ms. Quinn’s keyboard is palpable.
As I wrote in Palindemonium, the left will just be unable to stop themselves from smearing Gov. Palin because of what she represents – a woman who does not accept victim status and who has made it on her own. That is so antithetical to the left’s belief system and their identity politics that Gov. Palin’s mere presence on the ticket has opened up the gates that held back the sewer water. Ms. Quinn's piece just happens to be one of the first bits of excreta that has floated out. But if America starts to like this most amazing woman, Gov. Palin, and finds her competent, their revulsion at the tactics employed by people such as Ms. Quinn will be reflected in November - and hopefully in the bottom line of Ms. Quinn's MSM employers.
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