And as for what they’re saying on the Left…

The New Neo Posted on by

I spent some time last night on certain blogs of the Left such as Firedoglake and TalkLeft, reading reactions to the Palin speech in the comments sections—much of it seemingly from women. The gist of it was:

(1) Sarah’s mean, just like some girls they knew in high school.

(2) Sarah’s a hick.

(3) Sarah made an error when she dissed the MSM, because the press is now going to respond by being mean right back to her.

(4) Sarah’s to be feared.

Reaction number four shows a certain amount of smarts, I think.

Reaction number one shows a remarkable ability to tune out how much of the Democratic National Convention featured “meanness”—towards Republicans, that is. Guess that doesn’t count (or maybe “mean” isn’t “mean” unless it’s delivered by a beautiful woman on the other side—read “bitch.”)

But reaction number three is simply bizarre—had they not noticed before that the press hasn’t exactly been kind to Sarah up till now?

First impressions of Palin’s speech

The New Neo Posted on by

Delivering her address with poise, flair, intelligence, wit, and charm, Palin showed herself to be a formidable presence and a gritty fighter—with a radiant smile. Most amazing of all, she seemed to be enjoying herself hugely.

I imagine Obama and Biden aren’t feeling quite as condescendingly confident tonight as they were this afternoon. It’s never a good idea to underestimate the strength of a pit bull in lipstick.

Rules for the female campaign road: let’s hear it for the Vestal Virgin

The New Neo Posted on by

Watching the Palin feeding frenzy, it occurs to me that we now have new rules for female candidates.

These rules apply almost exclusively to candidates on the Right, of course; those on the Left (unless their name happens to be Hillary Clinton) are given the usual press pass (a phrase I tried to popularize back when I was first blogging, but which unfortunately went nowhere).

Since we all know that a female candidate’s gravitas is highly suspect, and that she is solely responsible for everything about her family, from now on female candidates will not be allowed to have a frivolous past (such as some girly-girl stuff back in high school). Nor can they have families that can be found to have any flaws.

But since those things are not possible for the vast majority of the human race, this calls for drastic measures. So I hereby propose that future female candidates for high office on the Right must be pre-selected early in life and required to take a vow of celibacy, forsaking family and other obligations and entering into a special society somewhat akin to that of the Vestal Virgins of Rome (the thirty-year period could, of course, be easily extended): Continue reading →

Three ancient tales of unwed pregnancies

The New Neo Posted on by

I grew up in an era in which abortion was both difficult to obtain and physically dangerous. Today’s commonplace alternative of raising the child as an unwed single mother was socially unacceptable in the extreme. Effective birth control was nowhere near as easy to find as it is now, either. But the lure of sex was just as great (last time I checked, that hasn’t changed).

My enormous public New York high school had a mostly working class demographic. But the two girls in my acquaintance who became visibly pregnant were from the “better” families. Although it sounds like the script of a movie, one was the captain of the cheerleading squad and one the head of the baton twirlers.

They were not my friends, and so I was not taken into their confidence about their lives. Continue reading →

Democrats: beware the backlash to Palinsanity

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve been doing some reading on the blog TalkLeft, which seems to have a large percentage of liberal Democrat commenters (mostly female?) who supported Clinton for the Democratic nomination. At this point they’re not overly enchanted with Obama, but most plan to hold their noses and vote for him anyway because he’s advocating the policies they favor.

How are they reacting to the media frenzy and blogswarm that Ann Althouse has cleverly dubbed Palinsanity? Continue reading →

Vetting Palin

The New Neo Posted on by

The WaPo takes on the rumor that Palin was insufficiently vetted, and appears to demolish it.

My perception is that McCain was impressed from the first by Palin and was especially taken with her maverick, reformer quality, which he sensed right away. I’ve also think the McCain campaign’s ability to keep this a secret until the announcement of her candidacy shows a capacity to be tight and well-organized, which bodes well for a possible McCain Presidency.

[ADDENDUM: More on the vetting issue.]

And here’s the latest in pretzel-like contortions on the subject…

The New Neo Posted on by

Found in the comments section of Michele Catalano’s PJ article on the Palin baby brouhaha (links don’t seem to work, but the time stamp is 1:06 PM and it was written by “4Heavenssake”):

The first baby was probably a C-section scheduled at a level 3 hospital @ about 6-1/2 to 7 months into the kid’s pregnancy. What do you want to bet that Bristol’s pregnancy with her 2nd child will be one of those really, really long ones? As in she’s not as far along in her pregnancy as her mother is saying?

And here’s the video for the occasion:

The Palin fake-pregnancy rumors: the latest in a long line of campaign garbage

The New Neo Posted on by

I think Palin’s nomination has caused much of the Left to flip its collective wig, or what’s left of it (puns intended).

The rumors about Palin’s baby—that it really was conceived by her 16-year-old daughter and that Palin faked her own recent pregnancy—make National Enquirer stories look like well-researched doctoral theses.

And now the Left should be proud—and pleased as punch—that the vitriol of many of its members has managed to out a 17-year-old’s unwed pregnancy and imminent marriage, the news of which should have been allowed to emerge in its own sweet time and way. Good work, Kos Kids (and congrats to Andrew Sullivan—to whom I will not link but who actually was once an actual bona fide journalist, although that was long ago and far away). Continue reading →

Palin: a less-wordy Obama for the Right?

The New Neo Posted on by

The blogs and airwaves are alive with Democrats looking down on Sarah Palin.

She’s inexperienced. She’s just a pretty face. She was chosen merely for her gender and her “Movie of the Week” life story.

Sound familiar? Just change the pronouns “she” and “her” to “he” and “his,” the word “pretty” to “handsome” and “gender” to “race,” and you’ve got our Democratic nominee for President: Barack Obama.

One huge difference, of course, is he’s running for President and she for Vice-President. Continue reading →

The campaign chess game

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve thought about this question myself: does Palin’s VP candidacy change Hillary’s calculus for 2012?

I think it does. As Ms. Althouse says, it presents her with a conundrum: whose election would be best for Hillary? The way this campain is shaping up—Obama’s Biden move and McCain’s Palin countermove, and all those ads and answering ads—makes me think of it as a particularly knotty game of chess.

And there are more than two players in this game. There are at least three, and Hillary is most definitely one of them.