An Open Letter to Women Supporting Sarah Palin

[complain jane]

I found this letter online: http://community.feministing.com/2008/09/an-open-letter-to-women-suppor.html

This was my response (I revised it a teeny bit here and there), but I like it, so I thought I'd add it here, because I'm often looking for something to email around to certain people, so if anyone likes this and wants to send this on, feel free.
----------------------------------------

I can't believe that there are women who are actually buying into the McCain campaign's desperate move to suddenly try to grab the mantle of change that was working so well for Obama... and throwing a woman out there as his running mate just for the sake of having a woman. It's a ridiculous ploy that makes a mockery of women and will work only if the Republicans are right in their assumption that women are stupid. Or that voters in general are stupid.

I have to admit something. When she first took the stage and I saw the shots of her family I liked her. I quickly went online and started researching her positions on issues and as I was doing so, I heard what came out of her mouth- how on earth can anyone think this is Change?

I could not believe that they had the audacity to present a female candidate and label her as "change" and then give her a speech to read that was nothing more than the same condescending, snide, sarcastic, hollow, lying propaganda we've been hearing for the last 8 years.

She said nothing about the issues. She said nothing about our future and a great deal of what she did say consisted of goofy one-liners based on half-truths at best.

And then she hid. For two weeks. She wouldn't take questions or interviews.

Are you serious? Biden didn't need to do that. Hillary didn't need to do that. Geraldine Ferraro didn't need to do it either.

I guess being a Republican Vice Presidential Candidate is sooooooort of like being a Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate... except you actually are ready on Day One.

How can anyone believe she will deal aptly with world affairs and rogue nations if she's afraid to take a few questions about them here at home without 2 weeks of rehearsing the script?

We now know she's a liar, and has lied already about the Bridge to Nowhere, lied about her involvement in her "Troopergate", lies about being some kind of "reformer" who turned down earmarks (her state is one of the biggest recipients in the nation) and took taxpayer money as reimbursement for travel when she really stayed at home over 300 times... and that's just what we know.

She's being touted as progress but she inquired about having books banned from a library more than once.

She's being advertised as 'family values' while she opposes programs that would have helped to ensure that new life only comes to those that are ready and able to care for it properly- unlike her own pregnant child.

And she's being marketed as having more experience than Barack Obama but here is the comparison, so you can make up your own mind:


Obama:

- B.A in political science from Columbia University, with a specialization in international relations
- J.D. in Law from Hardvard, graduated magna cu m laude; President of the Harvard Law Review
- 12 years (92-04) teaching constitutional law
- 7 years State Senator: sponsored more than 800 bills (500,000 people)
- 4 years Senator for Illinos, a state with 12.8 million people (13,000,000 people)


Palin:

- Bachelor's in journalism from Universityof Idaho
- 4 years Wasilla City Council (8000 people)
- 6 years Wasilla mayor (8000 people)
- 1 year 'Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission'
- 20 months governor of a state with 660,000 people

And women are falling for this?

Look, it's one thing if you agree with McCain/Palin on issues. Then fine. I respect your choice. I disagree, but I'll respect it. But if you don't even know the issues, and take only what McCain/Palin have to say at face value (which isn't much when it comes to the issues), and/or plan on voting Republican simply because Palin's a woman, then as a woman, you drag us all down and you are making a fool of yourself as well as the rest of us.

Vote with your head.

[predfan]

1. I'd like to congratulate Ms.Palen for her part in setting a new record

for our national deficit. I'd like to especially pass along my grand children's gratitude.........they're not quite old enough to understand just how badly the taxpayers of this country have been screwed by the republican party, but they will get a better grasp of the situation as they pay back their share of all those earmarks her state, under her guidance, has received the past couple of years...... and my great-grandchildren's thanks as well, even though they haven't arrived on the scene yet. Their time's acomin'.

Forget the lipstick, hockey mom crap, troopergate..............our country cannot stand 4 more years of this criminal party. Period.

[PATRICK]

2. If Bush operatives were not

in such tight control- or even in spite of that- there might well come a point when Palin will begin plotting a narrative to make it look she was not to blame for the ticket's failure and that she in fact was the ONLY one keeping it afloat. She IS that type and no wallflower of modesty about avoiding it. Something indeed to look forward to. More even than Smoking Joe Lieberman she had a taste of the top and will never let go.

She thus will claim they kept her from her work, blundered in training her. She will "loyally" claim that McCain had been mishandled by his advisers(stoning two birds with one throw). She will say she made "mistakes" due to the lack of campaign planning and preparation and made her look worse for that than what she is. She will do a miserably orcish impression of Hillary in building her base for the next run.
If the campaign gets hopeless, I bet she won't wait until its conclusion to start making the narrative moves, because no way will this lady take the rap that will end her ambitions. You think they are protecting her. I wonder if it occurs to them if they are protecting themselves from a very self-minded cannon. She may not know much about anything except taking power and taking heads. Their plan to use her if McCain is gone is a predictable disaster for one and all.

Which seems to fit the spiteful Bush crony model very nicely.