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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Sarah Palin and the Double Standard |
| 2008-09-04 |
| Susan Estrich, Fox News Should a mother with five children, one of them a pregnant teen and another an infant with special needs, be running for vice president? The question is being much debated, in newspaper stories and columns, on blogs and Web sites, and, yes, around kitchen tables across the country. No would be asking these questions if she were a man. No one asked whether Arnold Schwarzenegger should run for governor because he has four children. They looked at Maria, his wonderful wife, and said, what a beautiful family. A mother doesn’t get the same treatment. This is how the double standard works. . . . I have no doubt that Barack Obama can count on his fingers the number of times he has been home in the last 19 months to put his two beautiful daughters to bed. In interviews, he says as much, expressing his gratitude to his mother-in-law, who has taken over many parenting responsibilities during the campaign, given that his wife has been away a great deal of the time as well, making appearances and raising money. Does this make him a “bad father"? Should it undercut his claim to the presidency? Of course not. Why should Sarah Palin be different? . . . She is the governor of Alaska. She may be qualified, or she may not be. Being a mother certainly teaches you things -- I think it has taught me a great deal, frankly -- but it is not why anyone should vote for her. If she thinks she can do it, if her husband and children support the decision, as they seem to, who are we to say otherwise? She deserves what every father running for office automatically gets: a chance to be judged fairly, based on experience and ideology, qualifications and competence, not our second-hand judgments of her most private decisions. Here's the punchline: Susan Estrich is the Robert Kingsley Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of Southern California. She was Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the first female president of the Harvard Law Review. She is a columnist for Creators Syndicate and has written for USA Today and the Los Angeles Times. Estrich's books include the just published "Soulless," "The Case for Hillary Clinton," "How to Get Into Law School," "Sex & Power," "Real Rape," "Getting Away with Murder: How Politics Is Destroying the Criminal Justice System" and "Making the Case for Yourself: A Diet Book for Smart Women." She served as campaign manager for Michael Dukakis' presidential bid, becoming the first woman to head a U.S. presidential campaign. Estrich appears regularly on the FOX News Channel, in addition to writing the "Blue Streak" column for FOXNews.com. In other words, Susan Estrich is as lefty and feminist as they get--and, to her credit, she thinks the Palin-bashing by her team is over the top and isn't afraid to say so. You go, girl! Both of you! (Sarah P. and Susan E.) |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #3 This is a fair article. Kudos to Estrich for writing it. Though I still think she's a blow hard. I didn't know she had kids either. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2008-09-04 23:37 |
| #2 My first impressions of her came during the 2004 election night coverage, when she showed up on Fox with her face "freshly pressed", saying she had it on "very, very, very good sources that Kerry was pulling away" in her 3 pack a day, old broad down the end of the bar persona. Since then I have listened to her, found out how accomplished she was, and I gave her a second listen to, and I find that she still sounds the same, but she is sharp and I look up when she is on TV. On behalf of me, my accomplished wife and my 2 young adult daughters, I appreciate what she says here, and couldn't agree with her more. |
| Posted by: Capsu 78 2008-09-04 18:33 |
| #1 Susan Estrich has kids? Huh. I guess I mis-took her. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2008-09-04 16:42 |