Mom Palin should be home with the kids Tom Smith

This article is a rare Times gem:  a hatchet job disguised as a piece about the 'concerns' women have for Gov. Palin's children.  Mothers want to know, is she spending enough time with her Down syndrome baby (the unaborted one)?  What about her other children?  Here's a woman who doesn't think so, so she's going to vote for Obama.  The concern of women for other women and their children is very touching.  There are plenty of women who will read this, I do not doubt, and think "Gee, she really must be a bad Mom," and not realize they have been propagandized.  It's enough to make you wish the marketplace of ideas were not such a moral sewer.  But maybe women are not as stupid as the Times seems to think they are.  I don't know any women that stupid, but neither are they regular Times readers.

Some jobs you can have and pay enough attention to your kids at the same time, the Times tells us.  But the Vice Presidency?  One can not be so sure.  Let's think about the family.  It's also only right, of course, that this article is written by two women.  How could a man hope to understand these things?

And see if you can follow this logic.  Bristol is 17 and pregnant.  Let's focus intently on that for awhile.  Who is she?  Who is her boyfriend?  How did this happen?  Why weren't they using birth control?  Or were they?  What method of birth control?  And now for the burning issue -- Is it right for Gov. Palin to do something that subjects her daughter to this level of scrutiny?  Wouldn't it be better for her daughter's privacy were she not to run?  This is like a mugger criticizing people for being so careless as to walk at night, except that most muggers would have enough shame not to be so preeningly moralistic.

I am tempted to point out that Bill Clinton managed to carry on his hobbies, which also involved young people, though in a different way, quite actively in the White House.  Given that the VP chair is less demanding, however, it seems likely a VP Palin would be able to do so as well.  You just have to be well organized.  Or perhaps the difference is that Clinton was in no danger of procreating. 

Geez, when that Obama supporter told his fellows to back off, and let the media do the dirty work, he wasn't kidding.

THIS piece by David Brooks is quite smart.  It strikes me as very perceptive and correct, as Brooks sometimes is, when he's not being a complete squish.

This front page story lays out the media assault for now.  The Alaskan Independence Party thing could be a problem if it was for independence while Palin was associated with it.  Given how the Times worded the sentence, however, I doubt this is the case.  It will be interesting to see how the Washington Post, hardly a Republican paper, but far, far more honest than the Times, covers this.  Ditto for the Wall Street Journal.

Comments

[Anon]

yea but unlike most motherly duties, Clinton's "hobbies" allowed for multi-tasking with other presidential activities.

[dearieme]

My understanding of the US VP's job is that it is ideal for a busy mother and grandmother. There would even be time to go and help her husband on his fishing voyages. If Al Globe had done something like that he might not have aquired his honorary surname. If Dick Cheney had, you wouldn't be wasting blood and treasure in Iraq.

[Steve W in Ford]

The complete and total hypocrisy and general sleaziness of the NY Times still does not fail to amaze me. I guess I'm naive enough to hold out hope. Sigh.

For a more even coverage of the issue that actually looks at the facts of how Ms Palin has already handling a demanding job and a family see this story in the WaPost
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090102998.html?nav=rss_politics

My wife and I managed to raise 5 kids by doing just what the Palins are. We made it work and we , and I'd say the kids, were better for it. You keep family close, you make sure you have the kind of job that the kids can come to and you have a spouse that is supportive. At that point it just turns into "life" and you live it.

I think the Palins are GREAT! I'd like to see ANYONE from the NY Times try to keep up with them, or their kids.

[krome]

If a Republican ever questioned any lifestyle choice of a woman, it would be all out Jihad against hom/her at the NYT.

And what all does the VP actually have to do? It sounds like a whole lot less than the GOvernor of Alaska (and given all of the suport staff and household help, being VP is less work that being a stay-at-home-mom).

[Jonathan]

The media treat Palin as an inept single parent even though she has a successful family, a brilliant career and a supportive husband who reorganized his own career to accommodate hers. Does anyone doubt that a liberal Democrat with a life profile like Palin's would get the media's "you go girl!" treatment?

[PaulD]

Of course, the Constitutional duties of the VP are pretty much nothing, except to be available to take over if the need arises. So I think Palin was rightly concerned about being bored with the day-to-day activities of the VP job and apparently wasn't that interested, unless she was promised the opportunity to take on a more significant role in the McCain administration than what is provided in the written job description.
I am LOL at the fake and hypocritical handwringing about "working mothers" that has taken over the MSM and the leftwing of the blogosphere. Oh the horrors Palin and her family will face in the absence of affordable government daycare.

[Stuart Buck]

Great point about the mugger. Further disingenuousness comes from Ruth Marcus, who writes in the Washington Post:

QUOTE My first thought on hearing the news was: What was Sarah Palin thinking? Assuming, as the campaign says, that she knew about her 17-year-old's pregnancy and informed McCain in advance, how could she expose her daughter to the inevitable spotlight that Palin's vice presidential nomination would bring?

The unwed mother -- or at least, the not-yet-wed mother -- has become a more common (this is bad) and less shameful (this is good) phenomenon in 21st-century America. It's the unusual celebrity (the Hollywood type, not the Obama type) who bothers to get hitched before getting pregnant. The baby bump has become a badge of honor, not a scarlet letter.

* * *
As a parent, I sympathize. But as a parent in the media, I also know that the Palins assumed this risk. Anyone who watched coverage of the Bush twins' barroom exploits knew that the avert-your-eyes stance toward candidates' children has its limits.

It's naive to imagine, in the anything-goes Internet era, that Palin's daughter's pregnancy would go unremarked upon.
ENDQUOTE

Yes, how could Palin be so foolish as to expose herself to being written about by the likes of me?

[Nathan]

Sara Palin reminds me of George W. Bush. Glib, full of sound bites and not thoughtful in the least. W was a short-term Governor before he was President and a construct of the RNP/Evangelical/Oil Cartel. Have enough of the American people learned anything in the last 8 years to save our county? We will see.