The nomination of Sarah Palin begs the question - just who is the real feminist in this election?

Barack Obama who talked a lot about how proud he was of Hillary Clinton, but didn’t consider her or another woman for the office of Vice President?

Or John McCain who actually nominated Sarah Palin, a woman, for Vice President?

Before you answer, read Obama’s for Equal Pay, Yet Pays Female Staffers Less than Males that says while Barack Obama has a lot to SAY about equal pay and employee benefits for women, John McCain actually employs more females on his campaign staff and pays them more.

As I said in a previous article - vocal Democratic women raised the fair market value of Republican women in this election.

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The Associated Press checked the facts against what Sarah Palin said last night.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to read it before you watch John McCain’s speech.

Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention.

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“What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?”

“Lipstick.”

Okay. But where does she stand on POLICY that effects mothers?

It’s a fair question.

What exactly does she mean by “promising to advocate for special needs kids?”

Momsrising.com < ---click there, to send letters to Sarah Palin asking her where she stands on ISSUES effecting mothers.

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Well, it’s about time that Republicans noticed that the women have the biggest balls in the room.

Republicans did a complete about-face, if I may quote Rudy Giuliani,
“How dare they question whether Sarah Palin has enough time to spend with her children and be vice president? How dare they do that? When do they ever ask a man that question? When?”

Was that a flying pig that just flew by my head? Am I in a frozen hell? Pinch me, am I dreaming?

Sarah Palin knocked the gender issue on its ass last night at, of all places, The Republican Convention.

There is virtually nothing I don’t respect about the woman. Except her politics.

I won’t participate in the national ripping apart of Sarah Palin because I fundamentally disagree with parts of her worldview.

But, the bloodlust of the audience scared me.

The cheering as she spoke of how ridiculous or silly our constitutional protection of warrants in search and seizures of our citizens was a RED Flag. Nazi Germany didn’t need silly things like warrants. It is one of the things that sets America apart from fascists, I guess unless a Republican gets elected.

There are people in this country who like war. They believe its good for our economy and they are motivated by their short-term profits. They believe it somehow makes us safer to keep an aggressive position. Certainly an aggressive position will always keep us at war. Which really is pretty good for the economy. That’s the logic.

Several times last night commentators and politicians declared that Sarah Palin is the future of the Republican Party and I think that’s fantastic. I don’t see how it could be bad for women to have women represented in both parties.

I watched more than one speech by a strong and successful woman last night.

Meg Whitman shared her secret of success - pretending sexism didn’t apply to her and believing it too. It appears to be an effective strategy.
“And when I began my business career, female executives were still a novelty. She knew if I worked hard and delivered the results, I would succeed in this remarkable nation.

Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard said, “As a woman, I support him because I know he values the contribution of women to our families and to our communities,” Fiorina said. “… As a business person, I support him because I know his programs will strengthen small business, foster growth and create jobs.”
“One of the things I have been told by many, many Democrats over the last several months is how disappointed they were in their own party for not standing up against the sexist smears that Hillary Clinton endured,” she said. “The Republican Party will not stand by while Sarah Palin is subjected to sexist attacks.”

I’ll tell you what, Republicans sure as hell wouldn’t be taking the pro-woman road if Democratic woman hadn’t been so upset about Hillary.

Democratic women raised the “fair market value” of Republican women.

I’d be interested to know whether these three women raised the fair market value of women in their own corporate and government structures.

Did they choose to pay women equally and offer family medical leave of their own volition, without regulation?

There was also some talk among newscasters and pundits about this election being a “cultural war” between small town and urban America.

I don’t know if I see that.

What I do see is that this election might just be about fear and trust.

Either you trust The Government to govern effectively and serve The People or you fear The Government and think they’re out to get you and your money (To what end? Government doesn’t operate for profit.)

Now me, I trust The Government more than I trust The Corporation due to the whole voting thing and my constitutional right to participate. The Corporation is responsible for most of the complaints I have currently - cause there’s virtually no regulation protecting Citizens.

Democrats don’t think it’s a sin to tax corporations, regulate corporations or insist they deliver what they advertise for a fair price.

Republicans seem to believe that if Corporations are required to pay their people a fair price, and insure them, then they’ll go out of business. I’ve seen My Sweet Sixteen often enough to know that Corporations in America can afford to do a lot more than they’re currently choosing to do. They need regulation because their only basis for making choices is short-term profit.

Also, I have to point out that BOTH Barack Obama and John McCain claim “they won’t raise taxes.”

Who’s taxes? That’s what I want to know.

Exactly who is McCain talking to when he says this? Middle-class families like mine or just corporations? Let’s get specific about this.

Barack Obama says he won’t raise them for people making $250,000 or less. Which includes my family. In fact, he says he’ll lower mine. Obviously, I’m down with that.

Does John McCain’s no tax promise include me?

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Summer from Wired For Noise wrote on Twitter that she thought John McCain was using Sarah Palin - and her very checkered, easily criticized biography as a decoy.

Someone to hold in front of himself and take all bullets.

Chivalrous?

Maybe not, but it’s certainly plausible.

The other plausible theory is that she was chosen strictly for her abortion stance.

There’s a population in this country who vote on only the one single issue of abortion.

They will overlook the economy, healthcare, war, education - and vote on abortion. They will do it motivated by what they believe is “self-sacrifice for the moral good.”

Sarah Palin was handpicked for them.

I get it.

I just wonder if you can actually run a country based on one opinion. One moral stance. One issue. Clouds all other issues for a lot of voters - so much so that it’s holding our nation hostage says Marie Wilson, President of the White House Project.

If John McCain dies - pretty likely, certainly not unlikely - it’s not like she’s going to become Secretary of Abortion Law - she’ll become President of the United States.

What is McCain so eager to hide that he’s so blatantly distracting the American people?

It might be a reasonable question.

Then again maybe he just needed a SuperStar to compete with the RockStar quality of Barack Obama.

I still don’t know what to think. Still sorting through all the information about Sarah Palin and the very many diverse opinions on her.

I will definitely be watching her speech tonight at the Republican National Convention.

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It’s not working - but, let’s keep doing it and expect a different result and call it “the right thing.”

That seems to be the logic of abstinence-only education.

Isn’t that also the definition of insanity?

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McCain’s daughter is thrilled with his choice of Sarah Palin.

This from McCainBlogette.com where his daughter blogs from the trail.

I was seriously concerned that the old guy can’t use a computer. At least now I know he knows someone who can use a computer.

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Sarah Palin had a Downs Syndrome baby last year.

Great CHOICE.

Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is having a baby resulting from a teen pregnancy.

Great CHOICE.

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“Mrs. Clinton’s recent candidacy was a moment of reckoning for women of her generation, who treated her run as a mirror in which to examine their own lives. With Ms. Palin’s entry into the field, a younger generation of women have picked up that mirror, using her candidacy to address the question of just how demanding a job a mother with such intense family obligations should tackle.”

An interesting story in The New York Times, about what Sarah Palin represents to women: A New Twist in the Debate on Mothers.

Conservative women, who have traditionally criticized women for working, are super-excited about Sarah Palin being a mother of 5 and being a potential Vice President.

Feminist working mothers are questioning whether Sarah Palin can pull off being a good mother and be Vice President.

I’m so confused.

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* She’s a working mother.

* She’s the Governor of Alaska.

* She has 5 kids.

* One of them has Down’s Syndrome and is only 5 months old.

* Currently under investigation of wrong-doing in her state.

* She gave birth in office.

* One of her daughters is currently a teen pregnancy statistic, who will keep the kid and marry the father. I wonder what her position is on abstinence-only education?

* One of her sons is going to war in Iraq, which makes her proud.

* She has direct ties to the oil industry.

* She was a beauty queen.

* She is a member of the NRA.

* She’s also a union member.

* She’s so extremely pro-life that she wants to make breathing, voting, tax-paying women’s physical autonomy secondary to any fetus whether it’s viable or not and under any conditions including rape and incest or if the mother’s health is at risk. (How does she feel about birth control? I want to know.)

Some of the Republican women I’ve spoken to are thrilled. They secretly wanted Hillary to win and suffered terrible disappointment when she lost. Yet, they refused to vote for her.

Some of the Democratic women I’ve spoken to are thrilled. They don’t really care how a woman gets into The White House as long as she gets there.

Some of Democratic women I’ve spoken to are pissed off that McCain is dividing women’s interests using a cheap trick.

Some of Republican women are pissed off that he picked a woman who should be at home taking care of her kids.

Most of what I hear from men is whether they would have sex with her. They would.

Or, if they are one of the good guys, how not ALL men are crass enough to think this is socially acceptable criteria on which to comment or vote.

Honestly, I have no idea what I think about all this.

I think lots of things about Sarah Palin as a candidate - some of my feelings conflict with my other feelings.

My friend suggested, “You’re not a party voter - you’re a pussy voter.”

But, am I?

One part of me thinks - the best odds of getting a woman as President of the United States is electing a 72-year-old white man and waiting for the stress of office to cause a mortal stroke or heart attack.

Those odds of this guy dropping dead aren’t half bad. The guy has already had cancer before. Wouldn’t it be wild if America never directly elected the first female President of the United States?

But, then I consider my direct economic need to be able to buy health insurance at a fair price. To buy it from a universal system that views the patient’s needs as equal or more important than the insurance company’s need for the type of profit that breeds the little monsters on My Sweet Sixteen. My economic need not to have my health insurance connected to my husband’s job - so that we may have the right to open a small business or switch jobs and so that we are not left uninsured if he loses his job in this economy or that I not lose my insurance if I lose my husband through death or divorce.

I’ve always said, I’m an economic healthcare voter.

McCain’s $5,000 tax credit for our family won’t accomplish any of that. It will have no affect on my family’s health insurance situation at all.

I just don’t know what to think.

I said before I don’t have an insane loyalty to Hillary Clinton, I have a rational loyalty to me and my family’s best interest.

I’m leaning in my own best interests, but I’m vacillating like crazy! Is it too soon to determine my bests interest? I need more information - I can’t wait for the debates!

My interests - a woman and health care - are now competing and only one can win. Hillary had the whole package, but now I have to choose.

I think this, at the very least, gives women enormous leverage in this election. Leverage like we’ve never had before. We need to be vocal about who can carry our vote.

Here’s what I want to see both candidates offer me - a woman voter:

* Affordable Health Care untied to my job, my husband’s job, and that I can purchase without discrimination on the open market

* Equal Pay

* Family Medical Leave Insurance for all workers

* Flexible work hours, provided tax incentives

* Abortion reduction that doesn’t diminish my Physical Autonomy

* Appropriate regulation on marketing and advertising that directly targets children, especially the kind that sexualizes them

* Long-term, Economic plan that puts emphasis on long-term economic policy in best interest of middle class. That values people over corporations.

It’s unlikely Republicans - whether McCain or Palin - are going to offer me any of that.

It’s too soon to have all the implications of Sarah Palin figured out. But, it surely makes things more interesting. Everyone’s reaction is fascinating.

If Barack Obama loses, at least I’ve got a woman in The White House - it’s not the worst door prize ever. Or is it?

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“Sarah Palin is hot. I’d hit it like the Exxon Valdez.” from twitter.

“Biden will spank her =)” from twitter.

Vice President I’d Like to Fuck dot com (VIPLF.com) acronym for a new website up within hours of her nomination.

These are just examples of the sexually derogatory sexism appearing all over the internet in the first few HOURS of Sarah Palin’s nomination as McCain’s VP.

Still think all the sexism and misogyny in this election was about Hillary personally? Maybe now you realize it’s about all women?

Including YOU and Me.

Just for fun let’s collect them: So we all understand what kind of respect the men in the United States of America have for anyone female.

Copy and paste all the sexually derogatory and sexist references to Sarah Palin, Republican Vice Presidential candidate, in the comments section of this post.

Not criticism of her politics or credentials and experience- but criticism that traces her worth or value to her sexuality or fuckability.

Just for kicks, we might throw in her ability to mother and be Vice President simultaneously and how that makes her neglectful of her infant baby with Downs Syndrome. It only took CNN 5 minutes to question that.

Gee - I wonder why women have self-worth and body-image issues?

I wonder why women feel conflicted about working and mothering?

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This just in from Emil’s List.

EMILY’s List is hours away from the August fundraising goal that will allow us to stay on track to fully fund one of our biggest WOMEN VOTE! programs yet, turning out nearly 6.5 million women voters — with a special focus on young, first-time voters — for Democrats up and down the ticket. I know you just made a contribution, and I can’t tell you how much your support means — to me and to all our women candidates. But with only 67 days left until November 4, it’s essential that we all do everything we can to mobilize voters and reclaim our country.

Click here to make an immediate contribution to EMILY’s List.

I donated another $100. I want Women to vote. It’s vital for getting good law that empowers women and their families.

I’ll tell you this - it is WOMEN who will decide this election. We need to get as many registered as possible so we will have real power in our own government.

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I was completely wooed last night by Barack Obama. He’s like a political rock star.

He says everything I want to hear. When he speaks I feel like I believe his intentions are where they are supposed to be. He shares my values.

Truly, I believe his plan is the best one economically. He’s a long-term thinker. I’ve no interest in short-term profits - I’m interested in long-term economic thinking that looks at the country as a whole and focuses on the middle class.

I was converted completely during his speech.

I was moved. Heartened. I “drank the Kool-Aid.” He speaks to my soul.

I like being called to my higher self. I like the country being called to its higher self.

I ate it up.

Then after Barney ended CNN came on they were talking about Sarah Palin, 44-year-old female Governor of Alaska and mother of five children, being John McCain’s Vice President.

Sarah Palin VP would muddy the waters for me.

I’m emailed Michelle at Scribbit - who blogs as a mother from Alaska - to find out more about this woman. Here’s what Michelle says about her own governor:

Oh we just woke up to the news, they been buzzing with speculation here for weeks the possibility of this happening.

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If there is one event I would have liked to see at the Democratic National Convention it is the Emily’s List Gala. Yes, even more than Barack’s speech.

You can see a moving photo album of the event here.

Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama sat among all the female Senators and Congresswomen with their supporters on the 80th Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote.

Even if you didn’t vote for her - I hope there was a place in your soul that was sorry Hillary didn’t win. A place in your heart that wanted a woman to bust through the glass ceiling instead of fill it with 18 million cracks.

I honored the 88th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment (August 26, 1920) - establishing my personal right to vote - by making a $100 contribution to Emily’s List.

Emily’s List puts women in office.

Look Hillary would have been great. I would have cried tears of joy. Really. I would have been so happy for my daughter to see that.

But, there are others. Other women who can have the power to write law come election day. Women who are running for Senate and the House of Representatives who represent, you and I, and our uniquely feminine economic struggles.

We need women to look at every law and say, How is this going to impact women and their families? Is this policy good for everyone or just you? and vote accordingly. Emily’s List helps them get into office.

Join me in celebrating the anniversary of our right to vote by donating to Emily’s List and helping female candidates get elected to the United States Senate and the House of Representatives.

When Women Vote, Women Win!

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