"Shame on you for writing that article! Shame on you!!!" "I'm calling you because what you wrote is so politically slanderous. I'm shocked that a woman would do that. You are a disgrace to your gender and your country." "Yeah, great story. You and your freak publisher. Just quit writing those kinds of stories. It's stupid, it's demeaning. People aren't as stupid as you think they are. Get a different job."
These bon mots are just a sampling of the messages recently left on my home answering machine. Seven others simply hung up. I didn't receive this many phone calls on my birthday. But everyone has a birthday; I was the only one to have a byline on the much-scrutinized Us Weekly story about Sarah Palin. That was me who explained the Alaska governor's grandma predicament, outlined her poor judgment traveling while having contractions with her fifth child and detailed her political controversies. And the whole experience left me reaching for my bottle of extra-strength Tylenol and wishing I had a flask in my office. Call it the latest side effects of being a John McCain supporter.
It's true. I am the Elisabeth Hasselbeck of Us Weekly. During our spirited office debates, it's up to me (along with the office's outnumbered Republicans -- hey, it's New York City) to defend the old man from Arizona, while the Democrats cheer for Barack Obama like he's a Jonas Brother. For months, I've touted McCain's vast experience and his economic policies without a trace of postmodern irony. (The credit -- or, uh, blame -- mostly lies with my parents, the only conservative Jews in Detroit). My take on his VP pick? "I think she's fascinating!" I chirped to my editor in chief early on September 1. "She's a mother of five and she hunts!"
A few hours later, Palin announced that her 17-year-old daughter was knocked up. All I could do was shake my head and sigh at the realization that the original "mom under attack" angle was going to change into a far-more tantalizing story -- and rightfully so. Rule No. 1 when running for the second-most important position in the free world: Never allow yourself to draw comparisons to the Spears family. The day only grew more frustrating as the revelations trickled into my inbox: The vetting process was rushed... Palin got her passport last year... wait, she called her former opponent what?! Oy.
The facts were out there, and there was no way to sugar-coat them. All I could do was address the relevant issues -- and, most importantly, remember the readers' needs. We're a magazine that thrives on babies, intriguing women and scandals. For this particular week, our potential vice president just happened to fit the bill. (Sorry, Angelina).
As I typed away in my cramped Manhattan office, I never expected the article to become a Fox News rallying cry (the jeers were all the more perplexing given that so few people had even read the piece beforehand). Nonetheless, despite the baby-mama dramas -- and the stinging phone calls -- I still feel that McCain would make the best president. And, no, I'm not ashamed of myself. Beep.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-371392/Abortion-trauma-years.html
The GOP have been a 2 issue party since before she was born. It's all she knows.
The top thinkers and producers in this country who have not been co-opted by big corporations are leaving. Our top innovators. Main street. Not all are leaving, but it seems to me that the ones who are the leaders.
When asked why the common response I get is that they have kids and they want those kids growing up in a better place. What happened to England in the 70's is starting to happen here. The smart money is getting out of town.
The rest seem to be supporting McCain/Bush for 08.
Bristol was told her mother was the VP pick, just hours before it was announced to the national public. Bristol literally had hours to absorb this, and realize she would now become the Gossip topic world wide.
Bristol was then paraded on the National stage just a few hours later, by her mother, "hiding" her pregnacy with a big blanket, while she carried her mother's 5 month old baby as Sara took the public spotlight.
Nice Sara. Ambition makes for strange judgement calls.
Sarah Palin is America's Margaret Thatcher....
Mark Finelli
Sole WTC 9.11 Survivor to Enlist in the Marines and Fight in Iraq
Again, with respect, Phillie, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Every step of the way, with no support for us and no shame about denying us even pay increases that matched inflation, let alone enough to ensure that the 85% of soldiers with families who have to use food stamps can care for their families on their own.
And now he has turned into a mouthpiece for a Bush administration he claimed to hate but supported almost 100% of the time, even going more extremely in the wrong on the issues that have marked their biggest treachery to the nation and its laws and citizens.
It's hard to believe in the patriotism of those who put the president before the Constitution, their political future before the military, and their moral imperatives before what is best for--or at least representative of--the people.