Similarly obnoxious and inappropriate are the numerous photographs floating around the internet that superimpose Gov, Palin's face on the cover of a fashion magazine or on the body of a woman in a bikini. Objectifying Gov. Palin isn't going to win Barack Obama any votes.Thanks for that bold, clear-eyed assessment, Howard. Just the sort of advice that allowed Hillary to romp through the primaries. How foolish of Obama to think that circulating photos on the internet would be an effective strategy against McCain. So glad we have you in the party to issue these scintillating correctives.
« The folly of pre-season picks | Main | A legitimate beef over sexism » With strategists like these...03 Sep 2008 04:41 pm
Wolfson on Palin and sexism:
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Another choice quote: "On the other hand, questions about how or whether Sarah Palin could raise her five children while serving as Vice-President are outrageous."
I don't think the media was asking how she could raise five children. I think they were asking how she could balance an increasingly complicated family life and VP run while having absolutely no qualifications (ok, that last part was me).
Isn't Howard supposed to have had a "come-to-Obama" moment at the convention?
Course, anybody that believed that believes that Palin is as pure as the driven (Alaska) snow.
Yeah, right.
he's not implying fault to obama is he?
Howard's desperate bid to remain relevant is laughable, pathetic & incredibly annoying! What's wrong, Hillary not returning your calls anymore?
In all fairness to Howard Wolfson (a phrase I'm sure I've never typed before) I think his point was that Dem partisans trying to take down Palin with the photos were instigating a backlash, not that Obama's in any way supporting it. Remember how peeved Obama supporters were about doctored photos of Obamas and how it made you want to see him elected just to show those jerks up? Far right feels that way too. And independent women who lean away from Palin--a few rounds of Ha Ha You Dumb Bitch could lean them back.
The Republicans are running a personality and biography campaign. There will be no issues if they can help it.
"On the other hand, questions about how or whether Sarah Palin could raise her five children while serving as Vice-President are outrageous."
They are? Really? Is there any real reason why, or is anything remotely questioning of relationships between mothers and children inherently sexist? I'm not clear on where the outrageous line is here. I think a lot of middle-aged mothers are wondering what exactly she thinks she's doing taking her 4-month-old special needs child around the country. *They're* asking, at least. The media probably shouldn't I suppose, since the "sexist backlash" card will obviously be played roughly 500 times a day, and pundits are already inane as is.
But Deborah do we even know who sent out those pictures? Do we know where they came from?
These guys really think it is still 1998, where they can reframe any debate just by answering questions that were never asked!
It is pathetic
Ta-Nehisi,
Did you and I read the same article?
Wolfson: "Senator Obama, to his credit, has made clear that such enquiries are out of bounds. Unfortunately some in the media have raised this issue and injected it into the public discussion. Let's be clear -- there is no chance that a man in Sarah Palin's position would be asked how he could possibly raise his children while running for high office. Democrats would be wise to continue to reject this line of attack."
Isn't he absolutely right?
*Groan.*
This is one reason why an Obama-Clinton ticket would have been EPIC FAIL. Idiots like Wolfson would be getting a much bigger mike.
So much for Wolfson's recent mea culpa!
The paragraph adds nothing; he simply should have avoided such a direct response and indirect association; he was Clinton's chief mouthpiece, he can't claim lack of understanding, it was too cute by .00000000000000001!
Kuros,
He's absolutely right. Furthermore, that notion never occurred to me until I read that piece. Scintillating, indeed.
I would have to agree with Wolfson on the point about the pictures and I would expect him to come out to condemn the "The only difference between Obama and Osama is a little B.S." crowd just as publicly.
As far as the point about raising questions about being the mother of a four month old, I haven't heard a single representative of Obama's campaign mention this. Will commentators stop addressing the fringe, composed of individuals, as if they are on the campaign payroll? Obviously this kind of stuff is not productive. Palin's nomination has enough issues as it is based upon merit without delving into all of this nonsense.
And, although we should never buy the right's coy little act about the unwed teen pregnancy being off limits given that they'd be pushing this thing 24/7, progressives need not stoop to that level.
That's why McCain's camp is debating the media coverage so vigorously. If it actually gets back to being a clearheaded analysis of Palin's pick, it's a big loss for them.
But Deborah do we even know who sent out those pictures? Do we know where they came from?
*ponders* Well, I assume they (e.g. Palin's head on another's bikini-clad body) were assembled in photoshop. Then they went out over the collection of tubes we call the internet, from which the Rs are discovering it is impossible to erase anything due to the magic of google caching and screen grabs. Same as legitimate photos (e.g. Obama in Somali attire and Hillary and Chelsea in headscarves).
Like Kuros, I'm not quite sure what the big deal is. He made a legitimate but unexciting point, and the failure of the many anti-Obama photos to generate an electoral defeat for Obama is an object lesson. I'm already seeing some reports of the following: I don't want the tubes tearing apart my childbearing and childrearing and mocking my looks as though attractiveness equalled dumbness, still. I identify, even. Other women look at these attacks on Palin (and I've seen some alleged lefties feverishly insisting that This Is What We Must Do To Win) and identify--what if it were me?
Relatedly--James Carville has been ON lately, and I get the impression that the Palin pick has really fired-up Hillary's former die hards. "You thought this--this--was going to assuage us!?? FEEL OUR WRATH!"
Photos that mock Palin's femaleness risk derailing this bunch when they remember how much they didn't like it when done to Hillary. But I think attributing everything to deep right-wing conspiracy is overselling--the left is not immune.
That's why McCain's camp is debating the media coverage so vigorously. If it actually gets back to being a clearheaded analysis of Palin's pick, it's a big loss for them.
It's the official McCain strategy. Constantly bring something up that you "don't want to talk about" by saying "let's not all talk about it" Or "the media coverage of this event is wrong, you do know that Palin is the mother to a down syndrome child, her daughter even is pregnant. However, we shouldn't bring family into it, even though this really does show how pro-life and conservative they are, but we really shouldn't talk about how Palin had a down syndrome child and her daughter is pregnant"
Same thing with the POW story, "We don't want to talk about how I spent 5 and 1/2 years as a POW, I was a POW for 5 and 1/2 years and it taught me to not use it for political gain. Nobody talk about how I was a POW for 5 and 1/2 years."
These photos have nothing to do with Obama they're no different from the photos beloved of conservatives showing Obama morphing into Hitler etc. The sexist bs got blown out of the water this afternoon by Noonan's unscripted remarks about the choice of Palin. BS and it's over were prominent.
"Isn't Howard supposed to have had a "come-to-Obama" moment at the convention?"
I never bought that either. In that piece he started out saying that he never listened to an Obama speech and then it became it played in the background sometime. I'm like: Dont you want to listen to the speech just to rip it to shreads?
We all know that these strategists spin, massage, mislead, and misremember the truth. Its their job to stay on message. Whatever that message is. My problem with Howard is that he just seems to enjoy it too much. I can see him waking up and saying to himself with a smile, 'Gee what am I going to lie about today?'.
Dude sold his integrity a looong time ago.
Wow, Wolfson really got under y'all's skin during the primary, didn't he?
I mean, he says something that, from what I can tell, every commenter here agrees with, as does TNC, and yet everybody's all stirred up that HE said it.