For the last week with the publication of her new book, the sport on most of the cable news networks and the media as a whole has been to make fun of Sarah Palin as a possible 2012 presidential run. The problem is, listening to cable news networks make fun of anyone is kind of like watching stock market tips from a homeless person.
MSNBC, CNN and magazines like Newsweek seem to have nothing better to do than denigrate Palin as a presidential candidate when Palin has never said she is even remotely interested in running. So they invent the possibility out of whole cloth for no other reason than to try and cash in on her popularity with conservatives and many others.
Fox is just as guilty trying to exploit Palin but on the other side of the fence. They talk about her seriously as a presidential candidate in spite of the fact that Palin has given no indication she will run for president. Or even wants to. None. So why do these cable nitworks ( that's not a typo --- I call them nitworks) and news magazines waste our time with endless discussions of a Palin president run and dumb polls about her as a presidential candidate?
Hypocrisy and money. On one hand they denigrate her as a candidate and treat her as someone not to be taken seriously, even though she still has never given the slightest indication she is interested in running, and on the other hand they cant get enough of her because they think she is a ratings grabber.
MSNBC and CNN insists on giving us one stupid poll after another (would you vote for her --- is she qualified - does she reflect your values -- do you like her glasses) while denigrating the very idea of Palin running for president . Then we get the endless "Will She or Won't She" discussions and the inevitable SNL Tina Fey clips.
A recent Newsweek cover showing Palin in an exercise outfit displaying a lot of leg and thigh has resulted in no complaints of sexism even though the cover shot makes more of Palin's looks than taking her seriously as a candidate. At the same time, while dismissing her as someone not to be taken seriously they put her picture on the cover.
They want it both ways. Put her on the cover to sell magazines to a lot of Palin supporters while at the same time displaying contempt for her as a presidential candidate or a serious person with something to say. Maybe they have forgotten that at one time she was the governor of Alaska.
Feminists have also lost their integrity and have displayed the kind of rank hypocrisy usually reserved for Republicans since there's been no outcry or outrage over Newsweek's sexist cover. Glenn Beck gets a head shot on Time, but Sarah Palin gets a leg shot on Newsweek.
Which seems to say you can denigrate and belittle any woman and her accomplishments as long as a) she is good looking enough and b) her political positions do not meet with feminist or liberal approval. That's not feminism or equality. And that's not liberalism. That's cheap, backstabbing politics.
Photo credit: Palin-Bachman 2012
Comments
Regarding the picture on the cover of Newsweek, Palin posed for that picture. Granted it was for a runners magazine, but she posed for it. It wasn't computer generated or doctored, it was her. The fact that Newsweek decided to use it on the cover of its magazine does not make the picture sexist. Why do some NOW consider it sexist because it's on THAT cover?
Let's be serious, she's already proven that she's not qualified to even RUN for President, much less BE President in 2012. I really think she's trolling for a talk show. She'll most definitely get one from FOX News, and that should be her chosen career path.
Newsweek would have never stolen a photo from one of Obama's many magazine "spreads" where he posed in less than professional attire.
Indeed, being photographed in shorts for a small article inside a Health and Fitness magazine, is very different from showing the world the length of your bare legs on the cover of a widely distributed serious political magazine.
Sarah Palin is not a political figure. She resigned from that profession, and as the article states, she has expressed no interest in returning to it. Right now she is just a celebrity for celebrity's sake, like Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton. No one cries sexist if their legs are on display, Sarah Palin is no different. If she wants the media to leave her alone, she should stop touring, interviewing, and doing what every other attention craving celebrity does.
take Palin for what she is: an American citizen who is not afraid to cite what is now obvious to most. That Obama is another waste as president as he continues to run this country into the ground and spout his inane blathering bobble head retoric. Why can't we elect a qualified person to be president of this country? That's what Palin wants to know!
I believe folks like us are a lot more concerned about the picture than Palin is. Let's face it Newsweek needs to do whatever they can to solicite interest in their mag. The picture was obviously used in a sexist fashion but what the heck she looks good and she has no reason to ashamed that she excercises. Now if it was a picture of Barney Frank in shorts then we would be offended.
I believe that anyone who says they like Palin should be placed in the Obama Socialist Golag!
You can be sexist and racist as long as the person is not a liberal...
If you see through the Obama BS you are a racist and hating on a black man.
If you think Hillary Clinton is a communist idiot who seeks to push forward the same foollishness that made Russia a laughing stock in the 80's and 90's you are a sexist.
BUT>>> If you think Clarance Thomas is a sellout because he is a black man who made his own way through life with out hand outs... That's okay.
If you think that Sarah Palin is the Tina Faye characature and is an idiot... That's okay.
If you think Danica Patrick is a phony because she has actual success as a race car driver and is not afraid of being a beautiful, sexy, woman... That's okay.
Oh yeah and who cares about the Newsweek cover
Newsweek can't really be taken seriously anymore, nor can Time or half of the newspapers in print.
Newsweek put that picture on the cover for profit only- That's all they care about-
But it saddens me to not hear my old heros at NOW and other women's organizations calling out the idiotic cover- I agree- it's only OK because she is a conservative.
I was once a proud liberal but the treatment of any dissent w/in the liberal platform is just as bad as the hypocrisy of the right wing conservatives.
Oh where oh where are the Independent voices?
I don't know what media you read, but I saw plenty of criticism of Newsweek for its sexist cover. As a liberal feminist, I HATE the Newsweek cover and think it's sexist. There are lots of reasons NOT to like Sarah Palin, but to objectify her like that is annoying and only reinforces what she says all the time: the media is out to get her. There are plenty of legitimate reasons NOT to take Palin seriously as a national candidate. But none of them have to do with her love of running, or the fact that she did a photo shoot for Runners World.
Although Madam Moose-Hunter has not specifically said the words "I want to run for president in 2012," you just have to take a look at her book tour schedule and wonder just how many potential readers there are going to be in ... Iowa, of all places (not to suggest, of course, that the good people of Iowa aren't book-readers). No politician ever says "I want to run for president" a full two years ahead of the election, because that attracts attention that goes beyond the shape of his or her legs. Premature declaration would mean a whole rehash of the fact that this woman can't name a single magazine and believes that "foreign policy" is being able to see Russia from the beach. Of course, the Religious Reich doesn't care about that. She's being made into a heroine in that wing of the body politic, and I am quite certain that we're going to be seeing an exploratory committee sooner or later. Not that she'll be president, God forbid -- Fox talk show sounds about right, anonymous.
The reason the feminists won't stick up for her is that she is hot....they hate that. Lets face it, hot women put "feminism" real low on their priority list. Second, she makes everybody look bad by being so damn compitent. 4 kids, (1 with downs), Miss Alaska contestant, News reporter, Hunts, Fishes, Avid runner and fitness buff, Govenor of Alaska, Author, Vice Presidential Candidate, Wife of a seemingly normal and attractive man, and it would be my guess that she,s not too bad in the sack either.
Why shouldn't Palin be considered as a presidential candidate? Look at the professional politicians we have elected in the past as president and the picture isn't pretty. Obama scares millions of Americans with his anti-American ideas. What happened to his promise of being able to reach across the isle for bi-partisan support? Conservatives are Americans too. The hype and fear about Palin is that she isn't the typical politician and this country needs that more than ever. Those who hate Palin are encouraged to do so by the media and the Democrats. They are also the same people who must like being told what to do and how to do it by the government. For me, I like my freedoms, so the next presidential candidate who stands for less taxes, less government control and free enterprise will get my vote. Will it be Palin? How knows, she isn't running yet.
Obama is to president as Marc Rubin is to writer. Both in way over their heads.
Only an idiot would believe that Palin isn't gearing up for a presidential run. The only "sexism" going on is pretending that women should be held to a lower standard than men.
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