Republican Senator John McCain recently nominated Governor Sarah Palin to be his Vice Presidential running mate. Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, has five children, notably one heading to Iraq in the fall with his army unit; a seventeen year-old daughter who is currently expecting a baby, and a new baby herself who has Down Syndrome.
The interesting thing about this nomination is what is open to discussion and what is not. Typically, we consider most of a candidate’s family, and particularly children, off limits. Yet the Republicans tend to make family values, religion, sex education, and other family issues center of their politics. So does this mean Sarah Palin’s family situation is open to debate?
I wrote a post on my personal blog, wondering whether the Palins were totally prepared for the amount of care Sarah’s young son would need over the next few years, as many kids with special needs require. I think that’s a fair question, just knowing how much time I have had to spend personally, not only taking my son to various medical and therapy appointments, but educating myself about what he needs and preparing to be his best advocate.
I don’t think it’s fair to necessarily judge Sarah Palin’s fitness to be Vice President solely based on her family situation. But given her lack of overall experience, do we have a lot of other things to judge her by?
Moreover, I am extremely concerned by watching the pundits on TV who seem to assume any woman in the Country, anyone with two XX chromosomes, would blindly vote for a woman for Vice President, as if every woman is interchangeable. I find this highly insulting. What about all the other qualified Republican women with tons more experience, including Elizabeth Dole, former head of the Red Cross, Senator from North Carolina for example? Isn’t she a tad more qualified to take on this role? And I could go on, easily, citing examples of women with more experience that I could easily vote for, without one second’s hesitation.
I consider myself a feminist, but that doesn’t mean my inquiry stops after asking whether a candidate has a uterus. I still think the job of Vice President should require significantly more experience than I have being an attorney, having done a bit of lobbying in DC, and tutoring at a middle school. That doesn’t make me qualified for running this country, and Sarah Palin’s rapid rise in politics hasn’t given her significantly more experience.
I’m seriously troubled by the nomination of Sarah Palin, both from the thinness of her resume; the implication no one should care because she has surface conservative credentials; and that somehow no one should question whether her views on topics like sex education are effective, when it’s not effective close to home.
The fact that we have someone who could very well be running the Country should something happen to the 72 year-old John McCain, and we shouldn’t be allowed to question whether she preaches one thing but practices another is also troubling. I know there are other candidates for this job who would be more qualified, and it concerns me that we are somewhat being told we shouldn’t be able to discuss it. What can we discuss? What is fair? What do you think? What questions are fair, and which ones are not? Is someone’s “parenting” or parenting success/failures fair game in the political sphere and which are not? Are they “in play” if you want to campaign as being a party of traditional family values?
What do you think?
Photo graciously provided by paul goyette, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
4 responses so far ↓
Tere // Sep 3, 2008 at 7:57 am
I’m pretty much in agreement with you. Just because she’s a woman doesn’t mean jack to me, and I DO question how good a move it is to have such an inexperienced running mate. I don’t feel it was a good choice, and if McCain wanted to pander to women, why her? Like you said, there are so many other more qualified women. This choice - whatever the reasons in making it - seems unwise and will negatively affect us as a nation because I don’t feel she’s the best person for the job.
As for her family issues - I still have mixed feelings about this. I don’t normally think a person’s parenting should be up for judgement, but at the same time, doesn’t she represent the party that supposedly has a lock on family values? For me, the discussion isn’t so much about whether she’s a good mom or not, but how conservatives are embracing her and spinning her family’s situation when we know they would be howling had this been happening to the Democratic VP nominee.
Those are my first thoughts. I have more somewhere in my brain, but am curious to see how this conversation develops to help me dig them out.
Brett Nordquist // Sep 3, 2008 at 1:48 pm
This is the most clear thought-out piece I’ve come across dealing with the Palin nomination.
AmyL // Sep 4, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I think it’s fair to discuss a politician’s parenting success or failure, with the caveat that the older the children get, the more responsibility they bear for their own choices. I personally am thrilled with what I’ve learned about Palin so far; being a councilwoman, mayor, and governor seem like a lot of experience to me. It’s interesting that a vice presidential nominee’s level of experience is being compared to a presidential nominee’s. Shouldn’t we be comparing her to Biden?
mom, again // Sep 5, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I agree with you in wondering about all those better known, more experienced Republican women who got skipped over. Or men. He seems to have picked her more for her ability to get the youth vote (to compete with Obama’s youth) as much as to garner the ovarian vote.
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