End the Mommy Wars

The fight over Palin's family is beyond the pale.

By Kathleen Deveny | NEWSWEEK
Published Sep 3, 2008

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  • Posted By: eightstarsofgold @ 09/16/2008 5:17:11 PM

    Ooops. See the follow up article in the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily New on Governor Palin dated April 22 - it has more specifics. I referenced the earlier article.

  • Posted By: eightstarsofgold @ 09/16/2008 4:56:11 PM

    Has anyone paid attention to the FACT that this woman risked her unborn child (one she knew to have Down syndrome) by traveling to Houston TX to give a speech? Responsible mothers don't jump on airplanes in the last month of pregnancy to fly a good 2,000 miles (ONE WAY) just to give a speech.

    Governor Palin was eight months pregnant (a high risk pregnancy because of her age and the baby has Down syndrome) yet she chose to jump on an airplane to advance her political aspirations. Doctors routinely recommend you don't fly that late in your pregnancy - let alone a high risk pregnancy.

    And her precious fifth child was born a month early (back in Alaska) less than 18 hours after Governor Palin gave her speech in Texas. The risk she took did not result in giving birth on an airplane nor did it result in the death of her son - but no one will ever convince me that it was an acceptable risk. That baby was born a month early and because Trig Palin is healthy today - no one is aking the tough questions.

    Women carry the babies - that makes the MOMMY wars an issue for women and let men off the hook. But for all the male politicians who neglected their wives and children in pursuit of their careers -- well, not one of them was carrying a Down syndrome unborn baby in their belly when off pursuing their political ambitions.

    Then this Hockey MOM discovered - 4:30 a.m - that she might be in labor. She noticed contractions that were "different" and amniotic fluid was leaking. That's generally considered being "in labor" but Governor Palin CHOSE to avoid doctors and hospitals in Texas -- gave her speech a couple of hours later, then caught one of several plane flights back to Alaska. Her baby was born - in Alaska - roughly 26 hours after Governor Palin woke up in Houston Texas.

    Read the Anchorage Daily News article dated April 19, 2008 -- way back when truth trumped the Vice Presidential nomination.

  • Posted By: daplane @ 09/14/2008 3:52:39 PM

    It seems quaint now, given the photos circulating of the rifle-toting Palin

    She knows that the bikini shot's a fake right? So much for fact-checking.

  • Posted By: bammer @ 09/14/2008 12:46:01 PM

    WHEN THE LIBERAL ELITE "MAIN STREAM MEDIA" INJECTS ITSELF INTO A NATIONAL US ELECTION, IT LEADS TO THE "LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES"

    IF THERE'S WAS NO "MSM" BIAS AGAINST HILLARY, HILLARY WOULD BE THE US PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AND OBAMA WOULD BE THE VP CANDIDATE

    IF THE TICKET IS CLINTON/OBAMA.....THERE IS NO SARAH PALIN EFFECT

    IF THERE IS NO SARAH PALIN, THERE IS MCCAIN/ROMNEY REPUB TICKET

    THEREFORE, THERE WOULD BE 8 YEARS OF CLINTON/OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

    THEREFORE, THERE WOULD BE 8 YEARS OF OBAMA/KEANE ADMINSTRATION


    BY US LIBERAL ELITE MEDIA BACKING OBAMA AND TRASHING HILLARY, THEY LOSE A POSSIBLE 16 YEARS IN POWER AND WILL PROBABLY NOW LOSE 8 OUT OF THE LAST 11 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

    THE MSM DESERVES WHAT IT GETS

  • Posted By: wilywascal @ 09/10/2008 8:51:38 PM

    The office of Vice-President is a time-consuming and absorbing one that involves frequent travel around the globe. At the same time Palin is mother to an infant suffering from a birth defect which results in the requirement of exponentially more parental care than that of a healthy, normal child. Despite the mythical fantasy of the multi-tasking ???supermom???, something has to give; either her infant and family or the elected office will not receive the full energies and attention they deserve. Will Palin???s husband now play the subservient and caretaker role, in contrast to her religious beliefs? To avoid any confusion, I support feminism, think the ERA should have been passed long ago, and concede women are generally more apt at multi-tasking than men. This is to illustrate how the ideologies professed do not square with the practices???a nice way of pointing out another of the many hypocrisies Palin and the conservatives are engaging in here. Another point to be made here: their propaganda casts themselves as every-man or every-woman, but how many voters enjoy the privilege Palin enjoys of taking their child???whether healthy and normal or disadvantaged???to work with them? (Or for that matter, how many average families feel fortunate just to own one humble home, compared to McCain, who couldn???t recall how many mansions he owned?)

    Palin denied funding for a WIC program and student housing/child care facilities for families seeking vocational training. Yet Palin is projected and projects herself as supportive to and a paragon of family values.

    Unlike the demagogues on the right that are widely disseminated throughout the media, who will frequently without any justifiable provocation demonize and disparage the opposition and their family members???including children and pets???there is no evidence of any existing effort to brand Palin???s underage pregnant daughter a heathen whore, and no one is ridiculing or diminishing her son???s tragic affliction like Limbaugh did with Michael J. Fox. Despite the fact that these right wing propagandists routinely without question DO cross the line, they are made to suffer no consequence. This isn???t to suggest that others should copy such reprehensible behavior, but there is a discernible and appreciable difference between what they do and how Ms. Palin and her family have been treated by both the media and the opposition. However well intentioned Ms. Deveney is, I must respectfully disagree with her assessment.

  • Posted By: wilywascal @ 09/10/2008 8:50:35 PM

    To say this is a ???fight??? over Palin???s family is a gross mischaracterization. Using this broad definition, one could then make the claim this article is ???fighting??? over her family. For myself and I???m sure many others, this isn???t about Palin???s gender. Nor is this about Palin???s family. What it???s all about is the inherent hypocrisy that is blatantly flaunted.

    Palin is a staunch proponent of abstinence-only, opposed to the tried-and-proven more successful sex education in our schools, so when her own daughter points out the fallacy and hypocrisy of Palin and the radical religious right's position (a conundrum Palin was recently asked about while out campaigning and refused to answer), it isn't about attacking her family, it's about the issue. Moreover, it is the height of hypocrisy to use your family to advance your politics, as Palin does, then take umbrage when your family is brought under scrutiny. Apparently, Ms. Deveney feels what???s good for the goose is NOT good for the gander; Palin can hold up her family to attack other???s positions, but others should not be allowed to reciprocate by then pointing out their objections or the inconsistencies to be found between her espoused ideology and her family. It's no different than in a court of law: once the defense opens an improper line of questioning with their witness, it then becomes fair game for the prosecution to cross-examine.

    Furthermore, Palin identifies herself with the lunatic radical religious right that advocates women as homemakers, flattering and playing up the all-important maternal role while downplaying other equal contributions they might make to society and advising a subservient role in marriage. Judging from what has been reported, Palin???s husband has played questionable and possibly improper roles while she has served in public office, and has belonged to an extremist group of secessionists (that Palin herself is guilty of pandering to), all of which invites and validates legitimate inquiry, particularly when the office sought is the second most powerful in the nation.

  • Posted By: bammer @ 09/09/2008 6:38:45 PM

    TO: NBC, MSNBC, CBS, CNN, NYT, CT, WP, Newsweek, Atlantic Weekly, LAT---

    WHAT MAKES YOU WORTHY OF TELLING US WHAT YOU THINK?

    The Main Stream Media should be ASHAMED AS HELL OF ITSELF; but, we know, it has NO SHAME!!! It NOW thinks it should get involved in the vetting of a VP, while it GAVE A SHAMELESS PASS to OBAMA for the PRESIDENTIAL SLOT.

    So you think giving SOFTBALL questions to OBAMA in the debates proves anything. Do you think not tracking down his associations, record, accomplishments or lack thereof proves anything? Do you think that attacking a 17 YEAR OLD GIRL of a candidate AND THE CANDIDATE HERSELF MAKES YOU WORTHY OF TELLING US WHAT YOU THINK?

    It proves that the MSM is trying as hard as we have ever seen to CONTROL an election like a Chicago Party Machine, or a government controled, Banana Repubic press.

    The MSM press has been disgraceful and there has been and will continue to be a decline of the MSM into tabloid, celebrity, and sexism journalism.

    With some MSM outlets like NBC, MSNBC, CBS, CNN, NYT, CT, WP, Newsweek, Atlantic Weekly, LAT, and others becoming tabloids following DailyKos, MoveOn.org, and HuffingtonPost, the vast majority of normal, middle class, independent/moderate WILL BE SICK OF YOU.

    ANSWER THIS QUESTION:

    WHAT MAKES YOU WORTHY OF TELLING US WHAT YOU THINK?

  • Posted By: Ranger-Suasponte @ 09/05/2008 10:33:51 PM

    ABOUT SARAH PALIN:

    http://webpages.charter.net/suasponte/

    If you really want to know Sarah Palin's history (in detail) this is a "must read". It was written by Anne Kilkenny, a resident of Wasilla, Alaska.

    • Posted By: concho rose @ 09/06/2008 2:52:51 PM

      I read this piece, and I think it took courage for this resident to speak up.. Congradulations and I am sending to everyone I can find. If this is the "Choice" of the Republicans to be one-step behind the President, it shows them to be the most Ignorant group yet, just like "W" God Bless this Lady, speak up

  • Posted By: concho rose @ 09/06/2008 2:46:27 PM

    Holy smoke.. I think McCain made a horrible choice for VP.. If I ever considered voting for him, forget it. If he sincerely thinks that's the best the Republlicans could produce..he needs some real help. This woman is nasal twang..I' not sure what, but she needs to pull up and pack her"lipstick, her hockey stick and take that brood back to whence they came" To have a special needs child who is a "prop" and a pregnant teenager, setting examples..neither McCain or she have a clue. This whole thing is a stunt..to get the topics off the "real problems" facing the American population, ie $.4.00 gas, double heating oil and electric bills, groceries going up , college tution, health care..wake up and see this for what it is. While everyone is crooning over this "dame" I have't heard one word that deals with any of the mentioned problems. And if the Republicans think I' voting for a "skirt" they better think again.

  • Posted By: Palin supporter/mother @ 09/06/2008 2:23:13 PM

    I am a very ultra conservative mother of two. A very private woman in her 40s. I probably made quiet a few mistakes raising my children, but my children still come to me with issues, and sometimes just to keep in touch with Mom. I wasn't always around. I worked and went through a fairly deminoshiing divorce on both sides.
    There is one thing that I do believe in that Senator Biden stated, "Palins children are off limits to critics" that includes still discussing the pregnancy issues. Whether Sara Palin kept a secret for so long. Well did you ever think that maybe she is being a mother and waiting as long as she possibly could to protect Bristol? In my book that is called the Mama Bear syndrome. Maybe she was told by McCain's advisors to hold off with this news until she was presented to the nations publicly.
    Maybe after she was asked by McCain, she sat down with her family and discussed the pros and cons of running in this national election. The pressures that would be put upon them. These are all assumptions that this happened, or maybe it didn't. I personally think that she did discuss this with her family. She didn't just make the decision on her own, and said good luck keeping up with me .
    How do we know she's not a good mother, or even a so so mother? We don't . Most of us have not sat down with this lady to see the private part of her life. We just see what is thrust out in front of us with television,news papers,magazines...etc. What I have seen is 90 percent one sided.
    We all have to start some where. Where in the world book do we need to know everything before starting something? Most of the time we learn as we go with anything, jobs, first time mothers and fathers...etc...
    Sarah Palin is smart. let her show us. We need to give her a chance. Let her make her mistakes, let her fix them, but her daughter Bristol and the rest of the children are not in this battle for Vice Presidency. They are there to support their Mom, stand by her proudly, learn from her. After all they have unconditional love for her and dad.
    I don't believe in everything that Palin stands for, but I will say this. I will listen to her a little closer. I believe Senator McCain made a very good decision in his selection of a Mother of five, brain,and ambition to accomplish anything that she sets out to do. However long it takes. She will learn, and she will always be there for those children. I think she will also be there for nation to help with changes, fight for changes, and guide the changes.

  • Posted By: Palin supporter/mother @ 09/06/2008 2:20:28 PM

    I am a very ultra conservative mother of two. A very private woman in her 40s. I probably made quiet a few mistakes raising my children, but my children still come to me with issues, and sometimes just to keep in touch with Mom. I wasn't always around. I worked and went through a fairly deminoshiing divorce on both sides.
    There is one thing that I do believe in that Senator Biden stated, "Palins children are off limits to critics" that includes still discussing the pregnancy issues. Whether Sara Palin kept a secret for so long. Well did you ever think that maybe she is being a mother and waiting as long as she possibly could to protect Bristol? In my book that is called the Mama Bear syndrome. Maybe she was told by McCain's advisors to hold off with this news until she was presented to the nations publicly.
    Maybe after she was asked by McCain, she sat down with her family and discussed the pros and cons of running in this national election. The pressures that would be put upon them. These are all assumptions that this happened, or maybe it didn't. I personally think that she did discuss this with her family. She didn't just make the decision on her own, and said good luck keeping up with me .
    How do we know she's not a good mother, or even a so so mother? We don't . Most of us have not sat down with this lady to see the private part of her life. We just see what is thrust out in front of us with television,news papers,magazines...etc. What I have seen is 90 percent one sided.
    We all have to start some where. Where in the world book do we need to know everything before starting something? Most of the time we learn as we go with anything, jobs, first time mothers and fathers...etc...
    Sarah Palin is smart. let her show us. We need to give her a chance. Let her make her mistakes, let her fix them, but her daughter Bristol and the rest of the children are not in this battle for Vice Presidency. They are there to support their Mom, stand by her proudly, learn from her. After all they have unconditional love for her and dad.
    I don't believe in everything that Palin stands for, but I will say this. I will listen to her a little closer. I believe Senator McCain made a very good decision in his selection of a Mother of five, brain,and ambition to accomplish anything that she sets out to do. However long it takes. She will learn, and she will always be there for those children. I think she will also be there for nation to help with changes, fight for changes, and guide the changes.

  • Posted By: jstan @ 09/05/2008 3:27:32 AM

    I have voted for Democrats. I have voted for Republicans. I am an independent voter. Here, though, the Democrats continue to lose my confidence in their desparate, no-holds-barred willingness to inflame an issue which they would otherwise scream bloody murder about if it involved a Democrat. The party claiming to embrace "women's liberation"; the party embraced by a vast number of Hollywood bimbos of both sexes demanding the right to copulate at will, drug and booze freely, divorce as a hobby and leave children in psychic debris; the party that would rise up in righteous indignation out of making a public spectacle of a Democrat candidate's child; the party with a burgeoning population of voters slipping children onto the welfare rolls out of wedlock as the norm; the party, on the other hand, that found little irony in lionizing a former president well known not only for using females like his daily cigar but also for raping a few. Today's Democratic Party. A party, frankly, not of the Democrat Truman. Does the word "hypocrit" have any use here?

    • Posted By: sregis @ 09/05/2008 10:24:02 AM

      for an independent voter, it seems you're mindset is pretty well established. still, why not take that supposed independence, look beyond party politics, and decide based on the actual candidates?

      • Posted By: jstan @ 09/05/2008 4:17:17 PM

        I have. I had been tending toward Obama. But based on Democrat antics in the face of the startling and heartening entry of Palin, as well as "Dem-more-of-the-same," I have switched.

      • Posted By: jstan @ 09/05/2008 4:15:04 PM

        I have. I was tending toward Obama. But for a variety of reasons, including those above as well as the startling good choice of Gov. Palin in the face of Democrat antics, I have switched.

  • Posted By: rf3k @ 09/05/2008 3:37:16 PM

    Well written. The attacks that I've read coming from other women are vile and disgusting. When will we stop being so judgmental of other women? I hope that some day women can stay at home or go to work without so much criticism and harsh words directed at her. I'm only 33 and I am already sick of it.

  • Posted By: michellebecker@charter.net @ 09/05/2008 12:34:40 PM

    As a woman who has professionally worked with, not for, teenagers for over twenty years I am struck by all of the value judgements and stereotyping surrounding teenage moms and their behaviors. The other night "Dr. Phil" chastised David Letterman for not :understanding" that teenagers hormones take over and they are largely out of control. I have two teenage children, a 17 year old son and an 18 year old daughter. Both are absitinent in a small community where sexual behavior amongst teens is prevalent (In the 2008 graduating class of 350 students there were 18 pregnancies). The point is that my children are not abstinent simply because I tell them to be. They remain abstinent because they are making an informed
    choice. They are educated about the financial, emotional and physical potential consequences of sex. They understand that sexual behavior comes with great potential responsibility. They have a vision of their young adulthood that includes education and social exploration that a baby would prohibit. Children are very capable of making informed choices - if we allow them the unedited information to make thiose choices.

    • Posted By: sregis @ 09/05/2008 3:34:44 PM

      if i may be so bold- as a professional and a mother, you must also be aware that we can't follow our kids around 24-7 and they can't always be believed. they may or may not be having sex. if they are- or even if it's a remote possibility (90+% of the late-teen population), then there needs to be some focus on how to prevent pregnancy.

  • Posted By: H.L.C. @ 09/05/2008 11:58:04 AM

    I agree that this kind of sexism needs to end, and to demonstrate the country's commitment to ending sexism, we should institute Selective Services for women--immediately!

    *Expressed with all the sarcasm this female can muster*

  • Posted By: BKProsser @ 09/04/2008 12:42:03 PM

    The family challenges of Sarah Palin are being faced by american famalies every day. The american people have problems with questions about Gov. Palin's 17 year old daughter, and whether she is or can be a good mother while being Vice President. The attack on the teenager was wrong. Someone said Gov. Palin paraded her children out so they were fair game, Obama alos paraded his children out on the stage. What's the difference? Everyone should leave the candiates children alone!!! Their all stil questons about Sarah Palin. However, there are many questions about Obama that the american public is waiting to hear. Obama is not being questioned about past relationships, theology, experience, etc... Without further explanation about Obama's past I as a democrate cannot vote for him. This is what our co workers are saying, and our families. If these questions are not asked and answered I and many others will be voting republican for the first time in my voting history. BKProsser

    • Posted By: sregis @ 09/05/2008 10:33:44 AM

      "Obama is not being questioned about past relationships, theology, experience, etc... Without further explanation about Obama's past I as a democrate cannot vote for him. This is what our co workers are saying, and our families. If these questions are not asked and answered I and many others will be voting republican for the first time in my voting history. BKProsser"

      you must be joking? not being questioned about his past; his theology? are you following the campaign?

  • Posted By: neophyte @ 09/04/2008 1:03:44 PM

    I don't think people are attacking her kids, they are questioning her and they are phrasing those questions in the context of her kids. Most every president we have had has carried a less-than-honorable sibling, Billy Carter, Clinton's brother, Neil Bush. I really think most Americans, faced with a child's unplanned pregnancy in similar circumstances would worry about their child. That's not what I see Gov. Palin doing. She just grins and says, "It's O.K. They'll get married" This calls her judgement into question. Isn't she worried sick? I would be and I believe the vast majority of responsible parents would, too. I'm not saying she should give up her dream of political prominence or even defer it. But, gosh, if what she says is true she just got finished watching her sister cope with a bad marriage. You would think she would think twice before pushing her daughter into what could be the same thing. I would feel better about her if she could just stop multitasking for a minute and sit down and express some real thoughts about her child's well being. At least Obama recognized that being an unwed, teen mother is a burden on a child that is best avoided. Palin just ridicules him and lets her own daughter suffer the "blessing" of the ignorance she doesn't seem to have made any effort to avoid. As we look at her as a candidate to be the potential president of this country some people seem to think they are choosing a Miss Buffalo Chip.

    • Posted By: star3 @ 09/04/2008 5:55:34 PM

      We all deal with difficult situations in our own way that is comfortable for us, it does not have to be understood by anyone else, as long as we & God understand. I'm sure there has been a meeting between the two sets of parents and an agreement made, which the two young people were a part of. And if I am any judge of human nature, there were probably a lot of private chastising and tears when the announcement was first made, but what good would it do to walk around with a constant sad face, and looking miserable? Thats not going to change the facts of the situation. So the only other option is to square up your shoulders and deal with it. Dealing with it----THIER way is precisely what they are doing. I don't consult with my neighbors or anyone concerning how I should handle my personal, private situations---do you? Just because she is a public figure does not mean she is required to be accountable to the public for how her family decides to deal with private matters. Get off the worried parent trip already. If these two young people are old enough to make a baby, then they are old enough to raise it We're not talking someone who is 13 or 14 years old here; they are adults, or on the verge of being.

      • Posted By: sregis @ 09/05/2008 10:29:05 AM

        "If these two young people are old enough to make a baby, then they are old enough to raise it"

        wow.

  • Posted By: jstan @ 09/05/2008 3:27:09 AM

    I have voted for Democrats. I have voted for Republicans. I am an independent voter. Here, though, the Democrats continue to lose my confidence in their desparate, no-holds-barred willingness to inflame an issue which they would otherwise scream bloody murder about if it involved a Democrat. The party claiming to embrace "women's liberation"; the party embraced by a vast number of Hollywood bimbos of both sexes demanding the right to copulate at will, drug and booze freely, divorce as a hobby and leave children in psychic debris; the party that would rise up in righteous indignation out of making a public spectacle of a Democrat candidate's child; the party with a burgeoning population of voters slipping children onto the welfare rolls out of wedlock as the norm; the party, on the other hand, that found little irony in lionizing a former president well known not only for using females like his daily cigar but also for raping a few. Today's Democratic Party. A party, frankly, not of the Democrat Truman. Does the word "hypocrit" have any use here?

  • Posted By: Redrose40 @ 09/03/2008 3:15:33 PM

    I am tired of the "double standard garbage". You make the children then raise them. Man or woman. In the Palin household neither do the job. Most women who whine are like Sarah Palin. They want power, status, money and stuff. I see it all the time. I bet Deveny lives in a large house, drives an expensive car , has her stuff and has paid household help. The children get lost in the relentless drive for success. Before you all jump on me: I have a college education. I own my own business that I put on hold until my son went to first grade. We struggled and downsized so my child would have a full time parent. Most women like Palin and deveny love their stuff and power more than thier kids.

    • Posted By: star3 @ 09/04/2008 9:12:35 PM

      Red, who are you to tell anyone how to live their life? What makes you think one way is better than another, I have known stay at home moms and working moms, and both sets of children were equally well balanced and happy. This is still, America, remember? WE get to decide how we will live. Maybe your nick says it all, so if its dictatorship you want to live under, then move to Russia, they will be glad to accomodate you.

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