"No Ordinary Woman"

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[Steve]

By Judith Warner
NY Times Oct. 26, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/opinion/26warner-1.html

Snippets:

In 1977, Bella Abzug, the former congresswoman and outspoken feminist, said, “Our struggle today is not to have a female Einstein get appointed as an assistant professor. It is for a woman schlemiel to get as quickly promoted as a male schlemiel.”

In other words: women will truly have arrived when the most mediocre among us will be able to do just as well as the most mediocre of men.

By this standard, the watershed event for women this year was not Hillary Clinton’s near ascendancy to the top of the Democratic ticket, but Sarah Palin’s nomination as the Republicans’ No. 2.

With her five children, successful political career, $1.2 million net worth and beauty pageant looks, Sarah Palin is really not an average woman, much less the worthy schlemiel envisioned by Abzug. She’s actually, as Colin Powell carefully said, quite “distinguished” — for her looks, her grace and charm, her ability to connect with an audience, her ambition and her drive. Those are admirable, even enviable qualities. But the American public, defecting from the McCain ticket in a slow bleed, is clearly not convinced that they amount to vice-presidential qualifications.

Seems like “real America” wants something more than a wife, mother or girlfriend in a female political leader.

Maybe we’ve come a long way after all.

[anne]

Keyboard alert

Someone called Kate posted this comment on Palin's Deceptions:

Back this spring Sarah addressed the Republican governors and they learned soon after that she had (ostensibly) been oozing amniotic fluid- one of those female states that make men nervous, if not appalled.

This week the videos showed the governors eyeing Sarah sideways like a herd of wall-eyed horses about to spook. I wondered how many couldn’t resist horrified speculation on her capacity for unpredictable birthing even as she speaks.

 

[Dianna]

It is sickening to think about SP in politics, period, but the fact that she came so close to being in the White House, worries me.
I wanted to share this article on Michelle Obama, though she is not an elected official, what a relief that we didn't go for stupidity this time. The Obamas bring intellectualism and grace. SP would have been a huge embarrassment and one destructive force.


Michelle Obama: First Lady of the United States

By Kim McLarin | TheRoot.com
New house. New role. Relating to the nurturer-in- chief.

Nov. 5, 2008--The first first lady to enter my consciousness was Rosalynn. I was 13 at the time. She was 50, the child of a farmer, the wife of a former governor, the mother of three. I could not relate to her, exactly—she was older than my mother and white and from a deeper kind of South than the one in Memphis where we lived. Still, I liked Rosalynn. She seemed quiet and gentle and down-to-earth, a nice enough lady to be doing whatever it was that first ladies did. Anyway, it had nothing to do with me.

After Rosalynn came Nancy: thin, chilly, glamorous; no relating there. On to Barbara, who seemed motherly and kind (this was before those Astrodome comments); she reminded me of my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Chenowith. Then Hillary: smart and capable and eager to do real work. By the time Hillary came along, I was old enough to understand that being a woman would play nearly as important a role in my professional life as being black, and so I watched Hillary with an interested eye. She was older than me and white, a first-generation feminist who grew up financially comfortable and secure. I still could not relate, precisely, but I was happy to see her kicking against the cookie-baking chains. After Hillary came Laura, the quiet Texas librarian. No doubt Laura Bush is more complex and accomplished than she has been portrayed, but to me she has remained a cipher.

Now comes Michelle Obama, first lady of the United States, a sister, a mother, a civil rights baby and accomplished professional, a speaker of truth. Feeling like you can relate to someone is not the best basis for picking a president, but it's pretty good for welcoming a first lady into your embrace.

[K.R.]

No Ordinary Woman indeed 

A must see collection of SP Moments on The Daily Show

[seachele99]

No Ordinary Woman indeed 

A must see collection of SP Moments on The Daily Show

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God Bless Jon Stewart and The Daily Show - second only to AKM & the Mudflats blog, they kept me functional during the campaign.