I'm Voting for McCain... And Yes, I Wrote the Us Weekly Cover Story
"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.
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Now that it seems to be just fine to openly state one's political views - as long as a person is for the O - I question the whole "let's be open to politics" thing. It seems just another group think, bully office politics, let's party till we forget about who we are.
I truly respect anyone willing to stand up for Mac and Sarah now days. It dislike being in the majority so much that I'm for Mac and Sarah!
Being a member of the minority was a religion to me. My religion is a minority. I felt secure only as a minority. I even think it is cool.
The Obama mania freaks me out. The group think is creepy. So long Democrats.
That is the Lamest excuse for shooting yourself in the foot that I have ever Heard.
Wait.
The group thing freaks you out, so you're voting for the group who is in power?
Sounds like you advocate a plutocratic government, since rich people are a minority.
Ahh, the opposite of the lemming effect?
If the most educated of us thinks Obama/Biden is the way to go - you're going the other way!
Awesome logic.
And be sure to ignore those pesky "issues" and "facts".
They just get in the way.
You said "she is great" because she IS a mother of five. Do I need MORE children to show to the world I am substantive? And does Mr. McCain have to show people he has scars from the Vietnam war and differentiates that Mr. Obama has none of the scars?
What is this, battle of the sexes, battle of the scars and battle of being mom or motherhood?
I will leave you to vote for McCain because that is your right. After hearing your reasons voting for him, I have not an ounce to discourage you. It is my pleasure to leave you in his company.
But let's grill Palin.....
I wouldn't leave you a nasty message on your phone machine. I certainly hope the Rove push-poll people won't do the same to me trying to sell us a Bush clone and a Washington insider for 35 years. Barring some kind of republican voter fraud, your "best candidate" is toast and will soon be sipping warm milk at the home.
Are you STILL voting for McCain?
I guess you think parading her pregnant daughter is the image we want our children to look up to. You think her judgment of traveling in her last days to deliver a speech and waiting while in labor then getting on the plane landing and driving an hour to get to the hospital is an exercise of good judgment. You also believe that she didn't think of her career first and family second. You really loved the last 7 plus years!! I am disappointed, but I always thought US Weekly was a rag paper. I will stick with the original rag, the Enquirer!
LOL, US Weekly is the USA Today of weekly magazines.
People has more news.
US Weakly is just another celebutard rag. Sensationalist pap, pure and simple. The NY Post Page 6 expanded.
I heard somewhere that John McCain was a POW, though that seems to be a rumor.
Another rumor is John Kerry was in Vietnam - I do recall his "reporting for duty" at the '04 convention
didn't work out too well for him, however. I'm guessing John McCain's service is a little bit more credible..
O needs to drop Biden quick and get someone with some executive experience. There is no way Biden can compete with this woman.
Hey there Ms. Reinstein-
Kudos to you. It must have taken some guts to put this in HuffPo. I know what it's like to be a young person whose friends all think that supporting McCain is an indication that one needs to be institutionalized.
Keep your head up :)
O has to dump Biden if this thing is going to stay competitive. It's not too late to get one of the Clintons or John Edwards.
'Been hitting the juice again, huh?
if by "this thing" you mean the republican sitcom Maverick and the Moose, then yes he does. If you mean the election of our next administration, then no, I think we'll stick with the team we have...
Mara, maybe it's time to break from your parents and become your own woman.
To start....c
Given this, can we stop the sarcasm...
The alarm for me is if you are critical of Palin's background then you are somehow making a sexist comment, but it's ok to attack Obama.
This week has been a real eye opener. I supported McCain in 2000 and wanted him to be on the ticket in 2008, but he's starting to look like Bush more and more. I no longer believe he'll be an independent straight shooter in office.
The clearest example this week is when Obama said that families are off limits. In 2000, I think McCain would have stood up and said the same thing. But this week, I know he would attack without conscience if Obama nominated a VP candidate who was having a child out of wedlock. I'm tired of this old Republican 'pit bull' rhetoric. I thought McCain was better than that, but now I'm just disillusioned and disappointed. McCain is not acting Presidenti
McCain has lost my vote this week.
I'd be ashamed of myself if I supported a man whose policies were so dangerously on the edge. McCain is not a friend of women, minorities, students, veterans, children, and basically anyone in America. It's your choice to vote your conscience, but God forbid this man is elects and ruins this country even more. You and others like you who support him will be to blame.
So true Shanni, but unfortunately there's blame, but for what it's worth, means nothing just empty word,. there's no repercusion, to voting in a way that screws up the country. Afterall, where are all those people who voted for Bush two times. Running off scott-free to hit us now with Palin Mccain?
As a People, I think we need to take voting more seriously than we do...Talk about the Republican cult of elite personality! And when I hear Miss Palin talk dis about community organizers
A vote for this duo would be just like Bush, but only much worst. The fundies hate MacCain but love Plain.
I certainly don't think you should be ashamed of yourself dear, there are a great many out there feeling as you do. Of course that is just the thing that perplexes me.
I hear Senator McCain is a maverick. But he isn't. Oh there were a few, very few, ways which led him to object, disagree, side with other than his party. But in the end capitulation was the order of the day. I think he was just confused and kept thinking he should be more open to others and their ideas. He did however, come to heel when he gave it some thought. We often hear "it's the thought that counts"; I think that's what got him so mixed up.
I go a little further - I'm surmising that he still feels, as he has written, guild and a lack of honor regading some parts of his imprisonment. This could be why he mentions this period so often. This also could mean that only achieveing the highest office in the land seems adequate to forgive himself. I wish his fellow Evangelicals and other christians would assure him that the first step is to forgive himself.
First, let me applaud your close. The defiant tone it strikes to Obama supporters ever so subtly imputes responsibility to them for the Republican nastiness you experienced. Most people, I expect, took no conscious note of that masterful stroke. Plus five--no, make that plus seven--propaganda points.
And I must also regard as masterful you managed to advance the case for McCain without once--ONCE
Tonight I watched John McCain try to simultaneously embrace and run from the Republican Party. It was both bizarre and pathetic--and I'm not referring to his media presence (which was both pathetic and bizarre.) Unlike me, you are unable to flashback to 1960 to the Kennedy-Nixon debates, where a shadow-jowled and oily Nixon sweated like the petty criminal it turned out he was. I not only can, but did. I do not mean to imply an equivalency between McCain and Nixon on any level other than how they play before the camera--but McCain transmits a creepy signal all his own.
McCain won't be able to go two months with Palin under glass--she's destined to draw some blanks when faced with a question unaddressed by her programmers--and if the Alaska legislature doesn't genuflect on its investigation, lots of people have an epiphany coming.
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