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If John McCain hoped to pull the element of surprise with the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, he achieved that in more ways than he was counting. For anyone following politics, the topic of the week is Sarah Palin.
While I (and others) may be critical of McCain’s choice, I think the criticism has taken a disturbing turn. Surrogates for the Democratic party are questioning whether she can be a mom and a vice president, especially since she has a special needs child and a young daughter who is five months pregnant.
It’s fair to critique Palin for her views, McCain for his judgment, and the Republicans for their politics. We can debate the issues and even the character of the candidates. But we should not be spending our time critiquing Palin because we think she should be spending her time focused on her family rather than on public life. You and I may not pursue public office or even the VP slot if our circumstances were similar to Palin’s, but let’s judge her based on her experience, qualifications and politics.
Finally, I take issue with Tim Rutten’s sophomoric criticisms of Palin in today’s LA Times. Rutten’s thesis is basically this:
The particular brand of social conservatism in which Sarah Palin quite evidently believes deeply would deny other American families and other American women the freedom to make these same intimate decisions according to the dictates of their own consciences, religious convictions and traditions.
Rutten assumes that the decisions available to Palin and the family include options that are available to other families. In other words, abortion may not have been on the table when the Palin family was considering how to move forward with their teenage daughter’s pregnancy or even her own pregnancy with her fifth child who was diagnosed (in-utero) with Down’s Syndrome.
If anything, it seems that the Palin family is in line with her convictions by following through with both pregnancies. Rutten is free to critique her values and positions, but to suggest that she is a hypocrite is far from fair.
Finally, as a disclaimer, I am not a registered Republican. I write this defense to make sure that we debate the right issues rather than the sensational ones that the media wants to highlight.
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Eddy,
First of all, I’m very excited about your upcoming convention. I’m cancelling my cable TV in protest of not having coverage.
Secondly, I wanted to offer a mild counter to the comments about Palin’s ability to lead while parenting a child with special needs. As a parent of a child with special needs, I can certainly agree that there should a “hands off” by the media when it comes to family members. Her having a special needs child doesn’t disqualify her leadership in public life, whether as a VP candidate or as govenor. I’m sure there are some ways that it will strengthen her leadership, perspective & capacity.
Having said that, however, I do think it is a valid question to ask - how is she able to do it? The term “special needs” is appropriate, because, well, there are special needs involved in raising a child with CP (in my case) or down syndrome (in her case), that aren’t just “run-of-the-mill” (if its possible to say about parenting). Therapy, hospitalization, medications, etc. all are time & energy consuming. And while I don’t think she needs to give an account to the American people about how she’s handling all these things, I do think the question is valid to consider, as much for her son’s sake if not for her candidacy.
Thanks for your thoughts Scott, especially since you have a unique perspective on the joys, frustrations and pressures that the Palin family must be feeling.
I’m not sure anyone in public service is giving an appropriate amount of energy to his or her family (regardless of the needs or pressures of the family). I imagine that the young Obama girls are getting pretty shafted while mom and dad are out on the campaign trail.
If elected, we may see Palin sponsor her own private daycare, private clinic and pharmacy in the West Wing.
But I am kind of curious to see Palin hit the campaign trail with the Bjorn!