Am I "Off Message" on Sarah Palin?

Warning! This pundit isn't feeling the same way as most of my colleagues about Sarah Palin. She is being attacked for her lack of experience for the job and for whether she should be putting her family first instead of her career. This just isn't that unusual in my book. And the more it goes on, the more uncomfortable I feel with that message.

I am a woman who someone took a chance on several years ago and gave me a job that had only previously been done by old white guys. Experience? How do you get any if no one takes a chance on you? And the decision to take a chance can be instinctive, as John McCain said. Sure it was a gimmick. But would we feel better if it was Tim Pawlenty? What someone does on a small scale can be a good indicator of what they do on a large scale. So suggesting that she would do any worse than the host of guys who have auditioned for the job isn't that compelling an argument to me. And what about the argument that she is a negligent mother who will be distracted from her important role. I am a mother who constantly feels the pressure from others about whether I am fit to be a parent, whether I put my kids first often enough and whether my son with learning disabilities gets enough of my attention. Who has the right to to judge my family?

My grandmother always said "You can't tell time on someone else's clock". Judgments about people's personal lives are better left unsaid and unrealized.

So why then do I think that Sarah Palin would be a terrible vice president? Because I also think that John McCain would be a terrible president.

I don't care about how Sarah Palin or John McCain take care of their families. I care about how their policy choices affect my family and millions of other Americans.

-McCain and Palin get their health insurance paid for by the government (hers in Alaska and his in Washington). Yet they oppose giving the 42 million other Americans the same access to affordable healthcare.

-John McCain's kids don't have to worry about paying for college. Yet, he has opposed every single education support program to help others.

-McCain and Palin say they will stand up to oil companies. Yet the only energy policy they support gives millions of dollars in tax breaks to oil companies to do more drilling and he has opposed every piece of federal legislation to explore alternative fuel sources.

-McCain and Palin say they will revamp how Washington does business. Yet his campaign is filled with lobbyists and she has been in bed with Senator Ted Stevens funneling federal money for useless projects in Alaska for years.

-McCain and Palin have refused to answer very real questions about her potential abuse of power in Alaska when it came to her firing a State Trooper because she was on a revenge kick for her sister costing an officer his job. And McCain and Palin have no solutions for Americans worrying about their jobs in a fragile economy.

-McCain and Palin want us to leave their families alone. Yet they want make rules for our families by eliminating our right to make our own choices over abortion; eliminate our access to family planning education or domestic partner benefits; and our freedom from discrimination. They want to control what our kids learn in school about sex and about science. In short, through the policies they promote and the judges they support, they want the government to be more in control over our private lives than at any time in history.

-McCain and Palin now say their campaign is about change, too. Yet, the only real change they have proposed is a change from a suit to a skirt in the VP's office and one man fighting a misplaced war for another in the Oval Office. That seems to me to be the right reason to oppose them in November. It's not the process or the people, it's what they represent. This unconventional choice of VP by John McCain won't stand up to the hype and result in a win in November because they are the wrong choice for the country.

Follow Hilary Rosen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hilaryr

Comments

[enoughalready]

This McCain's first important judgement call by appointing Palin his VP he has shown little judgement in favor of Americans that have to decide in November about the oldest Presidential candidate who has a history of cancer. If he had chosen someone like Kay Bailey Hutchison there would be no critics out there except on her voting record in the Senate - no questions about her qualifications. The truth McCain doesn't like Hutchison. So he picks an unknown - even to him and vets her in less than 24 hours prior to her announcement as VP. This is irresponsible in my opinion.

I agree the kids are off limits. Obama agrees too.

We must decide on Palin's values and her actions as a public servant. I'm not impressed and to think she is just a heartbeat away from a possible President that is aged 72 with a history of cancer is frightening to me. I also don't think the VP job is an OJT job. Some experience is required and her vetting process does not inspire me at all.

[kwame24]

Her qualifications to be V.P. and then possibly Pres. are onion-paper thin at best and that is fair game politically!!!!!!
As to whether she puts her job above her family is none of our business. There are thousands of women who juggle careers and family life, some successfully, some unsuccessfully, we don't pass judgment on them and say she can't run a Fortune 500 company. As a real man, as a loving husband, as an active father, I am personally offended by the sexist comments that are appearing in the main stream media and the blogger world. What do I tell my 12 year old daughter? She asks why don't they like her. Mommy goes to work everyday and still takes care of us. Can't she do that if she's Vice President? They wouldn't treat a man like that. Did I say I had an amazingly astute daughter?
Our candidate for Pres., Sen. Barack Obama said it best....FA­MILIES ARE OFF LIMITS. (period, full stop)

[banats]

Palin is being used because she is a woman. This demeans women.

[robco]

I must disagree. There are many other very qualified Republican women he could have chosen. It's the same issue with the Hillary Clinton campaign - using the accusation of sexism to deflect real criticism of the candidate. The fact is that she was chosen over more qualified people - men and women - shows that McCain will be like Bush in one very horrifying aspect - choosing people for jobs based on ideology rather than competence. I'm sure her husband will pick up a lot of slack with regard to caring for her newborn with special needs and helping her daughter and soon to be son-in-law and grandchild. Still, that's a lot of family issues in the middle of a campaign. For me it's also a matter of judgment. Being a progressive gay man in the heart of liberal land, if I were in her shoes dealing with these types of issues at home, I would thank McCain for his confidence, but decline. She's a young woman, she has time. As for her qualifications, those are fair game. She runs a small state (population), and her competence as governor and mayor of Wasila are also fair game. I agree that attacking her family or her gender are off-limits and Obama and Biden have said as much. But she's running with the big dogs now, she's gotta learn how to handle herself.

[dadw5boys]

NO YOUR NOT OFF MESSAGE !!!!

THE MESSAGE NOW IS MISDIRECTION !!!!

MC CAIN IS PLAYING THE "SMYPATHY CARD " ON OLDER WHITE CHRISTIAN WOMEN !!!!

FEEL SORRY FOR THEM LET HIM LIVE IN THE WHITE HOUSE !

[qwr]

With all due respect, Ms. Rosen, the job you acquired because someone took a "risk" did not entail that you were a "heartbeat" away from the button. Perhaps the problem is that there is too much identification going on here, on both sides. I do agree with the direction that your article from then on.

[Prism]

If we accept the notion that African Americans can justifiably vote their aspirations and emotionally applaud the "historic" nature of Obama's candidacy, then we must also acknowledge and allow the aspirations astutely referenced by Hillary Rosen. Obama spent all of 160 days in the Senate before declaring that he was "ready" to be president. The gullible Democratic base, in voting its heart over its head has inadvertently created the perfect rationale for the equally "experienced" Palin, the kind of candidate Republicans LOVE: uncomplicated, undereducated and best of all, under-experienced. Republicans believe that captains of industry NEED to be well ahead of the gov't. in knowledge and experience to counter perceived over-regulation and over-taxation. They utterly despise the oversight of effete brainiacs from the ivy league who believe in a strong central authority. Enter Sarah Palin. Dems meet your demon spawn, made possible by your romantic immaturity in forwarding an untested neophyte. I'm afraid we've tripped into the Briar Patch, folks. Somewhere HRC must be laughing herself silly.

[GoCards1978]

Thank you, Hillary. I take issue with her policies as opposed to how much time she spends raising her family. She may be vigorously challenged on those since they're legitimate issues for debate.

[Soundofthunder]

I know McCain's judgment is flawed therefore his choice of VP is flawed. Her flaws are reflected in the man who chose her. Case closed.

SOT

[proudprogressive]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. The right has once again distracted us from what's important in a grandstanding attempt to avoid the serious issues that plague this country and how woefully inept they've been at dealing with them. What else were they going to talk about during their week-long love fest? The economy? Education? The housing market? Iraq? Russia? The price of oil? The price of bread? They have absolutely nothing to go on but the "small things." Considering the slippery slope we've been careening down the past eight years, I really, really don't want some average down-home folks in the White House. I want the smartest, most educated, best informed people we can find. Have we really set the bar so low???

[GoodTexan]

Being mayor of Wasilla is comparable to being the president of a small community college. Being governor of Alaska is comparable to being the mayor of a mid-sized city with a lot of land and a gigantic budget surplus. Palin may be "pro-life" but she's not "pro-family" or she wouldn't have put ther family and their private issues in the media spotlight. Palin's family problems do matter when you have a figure like Palin who wants to foist her religious/moral values on several million Americans.

[SandWedge]

That's fine, Hillary, but I hope you at least note her abuses of power, her love of earmarks and her endorsement of the bridge to nowhere. Palin's personal family life isn't an important issue to me one way or the other.

[wetzelwest]

Ms. Rosen's arguements are some of the same arguments that were used when Bush chose Harriet Myers to be a supreme court judge. No one doubted that Ms. Myers needed to drop out. I feel like we are experiencing the entire Harriet Myers fiasco all over again. If McCain is Bush II, then Palin is Harriet Myers II...

Like it or not, Palin's daughter's pregnancy points to one huge mistake in Palin's judgement. Ms. Palin supports abstinence training in lieu of sex ed. Statistics routinely point to the fact that abstinence programs do not work. Unfortunately, Palin's own daughter has become an example of this fact. For that reason, Palin's daughter's pregnancy is relevant to the discussion of Palin's suitability for office.

The situation is painful and unfortunate, but Palin must have known what she was in for when she decided to run for VP. If not, then shame on the McCain camp for not prepping her.

[TaoJones]

Hillary rosen I love you. I love your savvy analysis and I think you;re an honet broker and an asset to obama's team.

But as an American, I don't want a mother with a special needs child running the war with iran when there are other women or men to do the job.

If the head of a local biz wants to hire her - ok..but not this country, not now

Sarah get your house in order...Yo­ur Down syndrome child is going to need all your time and attention.
Once he is up, walking etc...then come back and apply for the job.

As a father of four I think it is selfish of her to deny that child all the time and love he is going to need from Sarah. We have plenty to choose from Olympia Snowe for example

am i too harsh?

[Elderlady]

I don't know that anybody is holding Governor Palin to a "higher" or "different" standard. Any male politician who had an unmarried pregnant teenaged daughter, would come under serious scrutiny by the voters. Especially if he was a male politician who campaigned on "abstinence only."

She has come under scrutiny by the press, because nobody knows anything about her at all. And, the more we find out, the more concerned some of us become. For instance was it a "responsible" decision to fly ten hours from Texas to Alaska, as a "high-risk" pregnancy, with the knowledge that your child most likely would be born with Down syndrome? That is a legitimate judgment question.

Did she leave a small town, of which she was Mayor, deeply in debt, when she had inherited a budget surplus? That's a legitimate question regarding her ability to make good governmental decisions.

Was her husband a member of a successionist group in Alaska that hates the United States, and damns the Stars and Stripes? Did she address this group, as Governor, on several occasions? Another judgment call.

Ms. Rosen, I hope we can stick to the issues, in the coming campaign. Believe me, I do.

However, John McCain, made this woman an issue by adding her to his ticket.

That makes "judgment" an issue for both.

Years of "experience" using bad judgment, does not qualify him for the highest office in the land, or her to be a heartbeat away from it.