From Pine View Farm

Return of Beyond the Palin, Have Cake, Eat It Too Dept. 1

In today’s Inky, Susan Estrich portrayed Sarah Palin as a victim of sexist libruls pointing and giggling at the picture of Palin on the cover of Newsweek (the link is to Yahoo, because I could not find the column on the Inky website).

The irony is that the cover, far from skewering Palin, as was its clear intent, helps her. The picture overwhelms the caption — “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Sarah? She’s Bad News for the GOP and Everyone Else, Too” — and reduces it to a hit piece. It makes Palin a heroine to the people who hate the liberal media, reinforcing the view that the media are biased against conservatives. It makes women like me horrendously uncomfortable, because sexism is not OK under any circumstances. And it makes non-political, moderate women (you know, the kind who decide every election) more sympathetic to a woman who, on most issues (not just abortion, but health care, for instance, and stem cell research), is on the opposite side of them.

The libruls I know found the cover in quite poor taste, as I remarked here.

But there’s another way to look at it. She loves to play the MILF card when it’s to her advantage, then play the “you’re sexist” card when it benefits her. Jessica Valenti writes at the Guardian:

You simply can’t have it both ways – it’s ridiculous to be upset about being treated differently by the public because you’re a woman and a mother, while demanding the same biased treatment when it might give you the edge in an interview. Hers is a gender politics of convenience, one that insults all women in politics.

It’s as it may be. But all the charges of sexism in the world don’t answer this question:

Is Palin aware that every other word that comes out of her mouth a lie, or is she merely delusional?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Share

1 comment

  1. Karen

    November 25, 2009 at 1:40 pm

    It just occurred: Could she be saying whatever she feels is necessary to accomplish her goals? That she doesn’t see it as a lie, just something that needs to be done, like taking out the trash or cleaning the cat box. Neither is particularly “fun” to do, but they both have to be done.

    Just sayin’

    Or, could say this: She is more than welcome to sit down & STFU anytime now.