Convention Perspective: Palin provides real-life drama

I think the media or press had to much to say about Gov. Palin, who are they in any way to downgrade her qualifications, did they do the same thing on Geraldine Ferraro when she was pick as a Vice presidential candidate, no, a big NO. I think the press over emphasizing qualifications nowadays. I am a democrat, but do not belittle the qualifications of Gov. Palin, Why don't you ask the same question to Obama? Press or media inquiries should be sticking to know facts and events, not on what can candidate do in the future, look at President Kennedy, he was on the same boat when he ran for president, was he he critrizes, no, a big NO. Please, press and media do a little thinking of your critic and morallity on candidates.

Who are the media!!!!

They are the fourth pillar of democracy.

Does not the way a family function depend mostly on the leadership provided by the parents?

Oh, I totally understand, Gov. Palin has been too dedicated serving her City and State and now the United States so we can not blame her or judge her for her offsprings actions. Why have we not seen the proud 40+ year old new mom proudly tote her new baby down the campaign trail?

Children are not important it is all about SERVING. What is one pregnant teen compared to having your name in the US and World history books forever!

The media is so one sided in this election is starting to scare me!!!

Sarah Palin only proves that women need to stay out of high level politics and the board rooms until they are past child-bearing age. All you Republican women who think you can have it all....well, you can't. Answer me this:

What if she becomes president and gets pregnant again? Will the country have to take a "time out" while she's on maternity leave?

How is she going to balance her mommy duties (taking kids to hockey games, etc.) while jet-setting around the world?

How can you expect her husband to quit his job to stay home while she plays politics?

Why do you think Hillary lost? She foolishly ran against the old boy establishment. She had no idea what she was getting into.

See?! A woman's place IS in the house (and I don't mean House of Representatives or The White House).

Obama-Biden08 and 2012!!! Men Rule!!!

The press functions on spectacular sensation.
Politicians know that.

I cannot understand why these politicians put their family (even the youngest one) in the fire line. Do not think the press is doing something wrong, is just their job. Like it or not!!!!

Terrible how a 5 month baby is exploited for political benefits. Is this really country first???? DISGUSTING!!!!!!

Let me see, people are complaining about the media jumping all over Sarah Palin and her daughter. Well, first Sarah Palin put her OWN ambitions above her family, especially her daughter, since she knew her daughter's pregnancy would become fodder for the press. So blame Sarah Palin, not Bristol, for whom I have much sympathy, more sympathy than her own mother must have since Sarah is willing to have her daughter's situation discussed by all and sundry just so she can become vice president!
Now, about the media. If you want the news media to keep quiet about the situation, too bad. The fourth estate (for those who know their history) is critical to a functioning democracy. Look to how the reporters are treated in Russia if they dare to criticize Putin and his crew -- they end up dead.
The GOP would love for everyone to just sit back and say what a wonderful mother Sarah Palin is. Well, I don't think so. She believes in abstinence only -- no birth control -- so lo and behold! her daughter's pregnant! For all who praise Sarah Palin and her daughter for not having an abortion; well, fine and dandy. Just remember Sarah Palin's position is so extreme on abortion she rejects abortion in the case of rape/incest/the health of the mother. Sounds like she really cares about people -- if they are unborn. To he** with the living!
I wouldn't elect Sarah Palin for any position at all. Aside from her lack of experience, she's an extremist and puts herself and her ambitions before her family.

I don't know what all the fuss is about regarding McCain's and Palin's credentials. They are first rate.
McCain being the son of an Admiral and the Grandson of an Admiral went to the Naval Academy. Due to the fact that his father and grandfather were both active Admirals I'm sure he was under extreme pressure to do well and that's the reason he finished 894th out of a class of 899.
He only wrecked 4 airplanes while in Navy Flight School. Isn't that about average?
And Palin. C'mon people, she's definitely ready to be president. I don't know how she managed it but she was able to get into the University of Idaho Journalism School. It's a known fact you can't get into the Univ of Idaho unless your dad is a Congressman or donates enough money to build a new dormitory.
I can tell you one thing for sure it's a heck of a lot harder for a White Girl with Connections to get into the University of Idaho than it would be for some Poor Black Kid to get into Columbia and Harvard Law School. That's a no brainer....
And then she was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. How could that not prepare you to be Vice President and one heart beat away from President? Why Wasilla is bigger than most high schools in this country! So what if she ran a budget deficit every year she was mayor. Its the American way.......heck, between 1980 and 2008 there have only been 5 years that this country has had a budget surplus....1996 thru 2001. So, no big deal there.
But if you want experience lets talk about her heading the Alaska Oil Conservation Commission. There she headed up the entire department of 22 people. WOW!!!!! I wasn't sure how she managed such a powerful and stressful position so I went to their website and found the 22 people listed and 10 of them had the title of administrative assistant. See, she knows how to spread around authority. That's very presidential.
And can you believe those crazy democrats? Trotting out Obama's Law Degrees from Columbia and Harvard. And bragging how he was the President of the Harvard Law Review, his 10 years teaching constitutional law at the Univ of Chicago Law School, his 8 years in the Illinois State Senate and his 4 years and a United States Senator. Bah! Just because this nation was built on a constitution of laws doesn't mean squat.
And Biden. C'mon! His resume is a joke. A degree in Political Science from the University of Delaware, a Doctorate of Law from Syracuse University, 36 years as a United States Senator of which 12 years were as Chairman of the United States House Judiciary Committee. He then took over as Chairman of the United States Foreign Affairs Committee for the past 11 years.
Isn't it obvious that OBAMA AND BIDEN no credentials to be president or vice-president. You'd have to be an idiot to think otherwise........
I mean the only thing worse would be if they had a pregnant un-wed underage teenage little girl or a spouse that belonged to a party that wants Alaska to succeed from the United States. If that were the case you would have to be a complete idiot to vote for them.

A VP candidate that is running, in part, on family values should have her own family values assessed. These values have an impact on, among other things, child rearing. She knew or should have known that her candidacy for VP would put her life and the lives of her family under a microscope. If she cannot cope with the media attention or if she wants to shield her family from the attention, then she should withdraw her candidacy.

A VP Candidate that is running, in part, on being a reformer should have her record assessed. If her record cannot hold up to the scrutiny, then that needs to be known.

A VP candidate that is running, in large part, because of her appeal to the evangilical wing of the Republican party should have her religious views scrutinized.

She can't run on Family values, reform, and her appeal to Christians and then say those subjects are off limits.

And finally, if she is going to be the #2 person in the Government, don't voters have a right to know her views about the country - was she or was she not a supporter (not to mention a member) of a seperatist group?

Larry linn,

That the most impressive extended use of sarcasm I have ever encountered. Great work! (And I'm not being sarcastic) Really I'm not. It's only works because the looney left of yesteryear has been replaced by the ridiculous right of today. These people make the old looney left seem like sane sober c.pa. types At least the looney left had an excuse. They were really stoned. We're living in the most sarcastically fertile times since around 1977.

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you! This is turning into the northern sequel of The Beverly Hillbilies. Granny Palin will be one heartbeat away! Ta da! Jed, Jethroe and Ellie May - Our next First Family! Robert

No matter your feelings on Gov Palin's family issues and whether or not the fact that her growing brood could be seen as a testament to the failings of "abstinence only" education instead of legitimate sex education, there is no debate about the fact that McCain has placed the possible future of the country in the hands of a woman who's only qualifications are 20 months running one of the most backward and rural states in the country, a few years as mayor of a town so small it's probably not even on a map and a B.A. in JOURNALISM.

That, my friends, is insane. I have no idea how a B.A. in Journalism prepares one for the intricacies of the executive branch of our country. Forget that she's a supremely underqualified in terms of experience. This has nothing to do with the fact that she's a woman -- this pick is an INSULT to the American people. Honestly, it's amazing that so many conservatives are just swallowing this thing hook, line and sinker just because it's the party line. Laughable.

Media is driven by advertising dollars that pays all the bills. And advertising pays media based on readership, click throughs, viewers watching. And if we do not like this, we can watch public funded media, PBS. Paid for by Uncle Sam. But they are a bit boring so we go to other sources for novelty.
Hence the low grade of news coverage, but those guys get the advertising dollars because they get the viewers.
As the old story went, observing a couple sunday night watching Masterpiece theatre, but you knew they were taping Dallas. And if you are too young to catch the reference, you might as well skip to the next post unless you are one of those really clever ones who looked it up on wikipedia.
Which brings me to my point about the media. John Sydney McCain III did his great impressario act announcing his vp pick. A closely held selection, drum roll please, Tah Dah, it is Sarah Palin. Announced live on web.
Well like most people, I did not know who she was so I looked her up on wiki there and then and got my answers. Beauty queen, tv announcer, not quite 2 years governor and assemble of god. The assembly of god article was a lot more interesting than the one on Sarah.

So who is to blame for unfavorable media coverage of a surprise announcement of an unknown for vp? John McCain, the buck stops there and an out of touch buck too. Where did he think the media would go for information? Call him up and ask? That passed away with dial phones. We all got our information on the web, right away like everyone else. Or almost everyone else.

Now this is not to say that the media was left off the hook. They weren't. They still have to write their columns, put up their blogs and make the video clip. Now here is the really interesting part. If you do not give to the media information on your news story they will make it up. Howard Carter of King Tut fame learned that the hard way. He picked one and only one reporter to give updates too, and the rest had to stand around with editors breathing down their neck. So they cooked up the King Tut curse to make copy. And boy has that been popular ever since.

So I think that John McCain made a colosal blunder, ego driven, that the media would have to come to him for the story. Well they don' and they didn't and the genie is out of the bottle now.

And as for Bristol being knocked up and hiding behind a baby dribble blanket, how long did they think that would be unnoticed?

I'll tell you this much, McCain may make blunders, but he is not a total fool. If he knew the kid was pregnant he would have had her positioned on the platform with a press release for the pro-life hacks. But he didn't because it was a surprise to him too.

How do I know all this, well if deductive logic does not satisfy you, Putin talks in his sleep and I have friends in low places.

Before "abstinence only" is judged a failure, find out if teens who have abortions are greater in number than those who take their child to term. I suspect the answer is "yes." They are two difference responses to failure to use good judgment.

Hillary's stoicism attests to her character? You bet it does, that she doesn't have any character; that she is a me-first power hungary individual who will do anything to advance her political career. Why are all the big political adulterer's lately from the Democrats (Clinton, Spitzer, Edwards). Say anything about how seriously they take the concept of an "oath", or honesty and devotion? The "D" in Democrat stands for "deception". If they can't be honest with the ones apparently closest to them, how can they promise to be honest to the country?

How can anyone even DARE infer that this woman is not the single-best prepared and qualified Republican on the planet to be Sen. McCain’s VP choice? Her resume clearly indicates she’s more than ready to stand a heartbeat away from the oval office and fill in the top spot when it will all-too-likely be required of her. Besides, she’s just like us, right? Who among us doesn’t enjoy shooting the occasional moose from a speeding snowmobile, plunging into an icy river and catching a hurtling Chinook salmon bare-handed, grizzly bear style? Besides, those Obamas don’t share our values and are alarmingly different, even “elitist,” huh?(Code words “secret Muslim”, “angry black woman”, Angela Davis clone and “uppity” may be substituted as needed here.) Anyway, those little Obama girls are way too cute and wholesome looking to be real, don’t you think? What hockey team have they ever played on? And I’m willing to bet you a pound of my best caribou milk mozzarella that THEIR mom has never wrestled a polar bear or even skinned an arctic wolf for that matter. Sarah is the spitting image of every June, Jane or Jean Doe in America!
Let’s hear it for those good old fashioned “family values” and climb on board for one heck of a sleigh ride across the “bridge to nowhere”. In fact I’m so giddy about all this I think I’ll just do the can can all the way to Ketchikan!

Let's turn the Bristol Palin situation on its head. Let say it was known that the Democrat pro-choice, pro-birth-control-sex-education candidate had a pregnant daughter who chose to keep her baby. "We are pro-choice," but in this case our daughter and the baby's father has decided to marry and raise the child."

What would be the reaction of liberals then?

Would the media turn it into a sideshow?

No, and I think even most conservatives would laud the young woman's "choice."

"They" are worried about Sarah Palin's ability to cope with a special needs baby. "They" are idiotic talking heads. As the mother of a 26 year old son with
Down Syndrome, the oldest of three, I can tell you that he is the easiest child I have raised. The other two are very smart, but they are no more fun to be with, no more helpful, and no more loving than their older brother. The biggest challenge is making sure that he will be taken care of when we die. Everything thing else is chatter.

"Lacking traditional credentials for the presidency, Palin must claim that her nontraditional ones -- raising five children, coping with a special-needs baby, learning to accept her daughter's pregnancy -- have given her a different sort of maturity and understanding."

What a double standard. If a male governor had been picked as a VP nominee, the press would have kept on the story of Gustav or some such human interest story. The only reason that the liberal press views THIS governor as unqualified is because she sits when she pees. As I see it, the more the liberal press is up in arms about this wonderfully charming and qualified woman, the more right John McCain was to have her on the ticket.

Now this is what real groundbreaking looks like.

I admit to being moved when Obama gave his very good, historic convention speech to tens of thousands of people....but that is not what real change looks like. Compared to Palin's coming out party, Obama's nomination has been a love fest.

When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, people threw things at him. They disparaged him and his family. They said horrible, hateful things. There were death threats. That's what real groundbreaking looks like.

The reaction to Sarah Palin is exposing an astonishingly ugly side to America---particularly among the "tolerant" people who just yesterday were lamenting how many young women these days choose to stay home rather than work, given how hard-won that privilege was. Oh, but not this woman.

I'm the oldest of five children of a working mother--so hard working, in fact, that they named the overtime award after her. Two weeks ago, if you'd asked me if there was any kind of bigotry against mothers in the workplace, or women in general, or mothers of large families, I would have said no way. I am astonished to see the things that are being said and done in my country.

"Lacking traditional credentials for the presidency, Palin must claim that her nontraditional ones -- raising five children, coping with a special-needs baby, learning to accept her daughter's pregnancy -- have given her a different sort of maturity and understanding."

What a double standard. If a male governor had been picked as a VP nominee, the press would have kept on the story of Gustav or some such human interest story. The only reason that the liberal press views THIS governor as unqualified is because she sits when she pees. As I see it, the more the liberal press is up in arms about this wonderfully charming and qualified woman, the more right John McCain was to have her on the ticket.

The media is biased and so aren't the comments here. Fox News is biased to the right, CNN and MSNBC, et al, are biased to the left. I would wager money that 95% of the people here supporting Palin are republican or right leaning, and the descents are democrats or left leaning. The difference is, the media is supposed to be non-biased, but that notion no longer exists. Instead they pervert truth and bend it to their liking to forward their own cause. The media is going to be the savior or destruction of this country, depending upon your vantage point.

The reason the talk revolves around the pregnant daughter is partly because her mother does not support sex education in schools and does not support the use of any type of birth control, including condoms. Does that mean she supports the idea that if teens want to mate without marriage it's ok? Aren't unmarried teen pregancies a problem is this country, which is the highest in the western industrialized world? Or does she believe unmarried teen pregnancies are alright as long as they end in marraige? What about STD's?

Undecided independent voters don't write on political blogs. Of course both sides of this fight are completely biased.

Palin is a horrible choice. She has no qualifications. She doesn't even have a passport. it will be interesting to see her foreign policy when she has never left the USA.

David you probably have never watched Fox news just like the rest of the people who say the slant to the right. They have dem and rep on every issus. Maybe all of you making these judgements should try looking at facts and stop listening to the media in the first place.

I am very upset at the sexist remarks being made all over the place. I was a single mother, who worked three jobs and no child support, but my liberal peers think thats what I was supposed to do since these women burned their bras in the 60's. They are the ones you should blame. They changed the family. Where are all the feminists now, why aren't you coming to her aid. You people are going to have to live with the fact that you pushed women back to the dark ages. And that is something most of us professional working women will not forget!

The Democrats are grinding their teeth so loud at their frustration that they will lose AGAIN!!! The Dems simply have to accept the fact that most of the country does not think like them. It's so hard for the Democrats to accept that.

I just heard "the speech." It was well delivered, and the intent was clear. Palin poured acid all over every Democrat or anyone who believes in those unalienable rights we are endowed with by our creator and those other pesky ideals in The Constitution, a document she didn't once mention. It was the same old divisive, polarizing, self-righteous, pious rhetoric. Not lofty like "their opponent," just unjustifiably self-righteous and superior. She adopted the Bush Doctrine of polarizing, disingenuous "if I say it on TV it must be true" hogwash, that does nothing but encourage alienation and mutual disdain. She widened the historic divide in this country by leaps and bounds. She took the ball and ran it into a fiery pit. It was by far the nastiest, most belligerent speech I've ever heard. Rove's fingerprints were ALL over it.

Good job. Now IT'S ON! Was that the point? If so, heck of a job Brownie.

I'll tell you something else. I'm making a prediction . . . I know the Democrat who's going to hit back . . . wait for it . . . Hillary Clinton! Palin thinks she's the "barracuda" hit woman? Hillary Clinton is a going to squash her like the annoying, little sock-puppet insect that she is! Palin just made sure there's not one single Hillary-hold-out left with a shadow of doubt about voting for Obama, including Hillary herself in the deepest reaches of her soul! She wants to be a history-making feminist? She's never MET a feminist!!!!!!

That was some extreme right wing, Rush Limpbrain, vicious bunch half-truths, untruths, and outright lying, hypocritical "snide," propaganda! Her "family values" comes with a mouth on it! I'd like to snatch that "Palin Poof" right out of her head!

She better not "whine" about sexism again after she said Hilllary was a "whiner" during the primary. She better not "whine" about her kids, after they staged that meet and greet at the airport for her daughter and the baby daddy, and they better not "whine" that anyone is being mean to her and making it personal, after she leveled that kind of assault on the character and sincerity of all Democrats!

IT IS OOOOOOONNNN! That was her goal, and she achieved it! She should be getting an at-a-girl phone call from from "W" any minute.

Sarah Palin is not the women's choice and definately not our voice. No choice, no education, no contraception! Is she out of her mind! Well, I hope she can deal with all the massive teen pregnancy and STD's that would errupt if we had her beliefs. Female voters are not stupid this women will be putting us back in the dark ages.

Breathed fresh air into the GOP tent? You think so? I smell musty old evangelical jerkwater hatred, the kind of stuff that has been kept under the damp silage since William Jennings Bryan stated that man is not a mammal.

For those who keep "blaming the media": We are just about hanging in there trying to give you an idea of what the candidates are all about. Remember, that among Hitler's first victims were Germany's journalists, who reported the reality of what was happening, and that priests and pastors blessed the guns that killed millions of people, including Americans. Whenever the GOP screws something up, they blame the press for it. Speaking of effete whiners!!