I found your post interesting and share most of your views, but just dont get your second point….

I don’t think Governor Palin is bad for women. I don’t choose a candidate to vote for based on whether or not they’ll be good or bad for one demographic.

I don’t agree with Governor Palin’s policies, she’s too conservative for me. I prefer moderate candidates because I think they’re better for the majority of the country. I don’t see how Governor Palin is necessarily bad for women because she’s conservative. Unless of course, she goes moose hunting at the Supreme Court to coerce the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Which is unlikely. We have a Congress and a Supreme Court to keep the Executive branch in line and if she ends up as president, I don’t think women are going to end up pregnant and barefoot, chained to their microwaves. She’s unlikely to champion the causes of more liberal women and since she’s economically conservative too, there’s not going to be an equal pay bill pushed through Congress supported by her. That doesn’t make her bad for women, just not a champion of more liberal policies.

I see the Governor Palin is bad for women as just another scare tactic. Along with all the other ones we’ve heard this election season. Don’t vote for McCain, you’re sexist. Don’t vote for Obama and you’re racist and risking Roe v. Wade.

What happened to choosing one’s vote based on the issues and one’s political ideology? My ideology is moderate and independent. Senator Obama’s ideas are a nice utopia, but from my experience, they don’t work. His background concerns me, there’s been no explanations to my questions that I find acceptable, just doublespeak, threats and dodges. Senator McCain, while I disagree with much of his platform, has a history of being a moderate. I’m more comfortable with that and will vote for him unless I think Governor Palin’s conservativeness will have a major role in his administration. If she will, third party or write-in Senator Clinton here I come.

This saddens me to write this email. I always thought that if I no longer wanted to watch a program, I would just change the channel; remove it from my TIVO schedule. But after being a faithful viewer since the beginning, I find that I cannot just walk away with letting you know why. I guess it seems like since we have had a long relationship and because it was something that meant a lot to me, that I owe it to you to tell you why.

To tell you a little about myself, I am an independent voter who usually votes Democratic but sometimes Republican. I base my vote on the person and not the party. I tend to lean liberal on some issues and conservative on others. Sometimes I am just in the middle. This being said, I have always loved the concept of the show.

I will be honest and say that I usually took the opposite view of Elizabeth Hasselbeck and quite often found her to be sometimes irritating in her seemingly blind loyalty to Republican/Conservative issues. That being said, I realized that her input was vital to this roundtable of women and had often wondered why there was not another conservative or moderate voice at the table. I appreciated the addition of Sherry Shepard to the view as I saw in her a person who seems to have some liberal views as well as some conservative views. I have always loved Barbara, Joy, Whoopi as well as Meredith, Lisa and Rosie.

But now, with this election season, I am feeling something I have not felt before as a viewer. Disrespect. I know we all have our own personal reasons why we support either the Democratic nominee for president, Barack Obama or the Republican nominee for president, John McCain. But while I have always tuned in to The View, knowing that I may or may not agree with any one of the ladies, at any time, depending on the what the “hot topics of the day” were; I always felt that I benefited by being exposed to the views of others. I might possibly learn something that might have me alter my view (I guess that would be considered a flip-flop in todays culture) or find that the discussion just reinforces the view I already had. One thing was certain, I always respected the views of those I did not agree with.

Back to the issue at hand. As I watched the show yesterday, as well as for these past few weeks since the announcement of Governor Palin as the vp nominee on the Republican ticket; I am continually disturbed at the outright contempt some of the co-hosts appear to have for her. I respect their their choice of the presidential candidates as well as their concerns about the suitability of Sarah Palin as his running mate. But I am disturbed at the level of contempt for Sarah Palin as a candidate because of her conservative views.

Yes, we need to learn more about her; we want to learn more about her. I have learned a lot by researching on the internet. Whenever I have heard conflicting information (bridge to nowhere, funding cut for social services for pregnant teens, troopergate etc), where possible I searched for information on the internet, credible information. There is a video available on CSPAN of one of the debates she participated in when she ran for governor of Alaska. She ran against two male opponents. The video is about an hour and a half long. I watched it and learned a lot Sarah Palin.

Have the producers at The View tried to book Kaylene Johnson, the author of the book, “Sarah – How a hockey mom turned Alaska’s Political Establishment on it’s ear!” I think she would be a great guest to have on. I guess she may not make a good guest because it seems to me that the media (and some of the view ladies), just want to find information to confirm how horrible Palin is or how bad she would be for women.

I am so disappointed in yesterday’s show (9/12/08) with Senator John McCain and his wife Cindy. I feel that some of the co-hosts did not treat their appearance with the professionalism that one would expect from the “Ladies of The View”, nor did they treat Senator McCain with the respect that he should have had; not because he is a war veteran, a U.S. Senator or because he is running for president, but just because he was a GUEST on their show.

I was surprised at times when Barbara seemed to avoid making eye contact with John McCain when she was asking him questions. It just seemed so unlike the Barbara Walters that I have admired for so long. Quite often, Whoopie seemed to be rolling her eyes at the ceiling. For whatever the reason, it appeared very disrespectful. And while I have always enjoyed Joy’s wit and her take on issues, I am feeling myself getting tired of being made to feel that I must be some kind of disappointment to womanhood because I hold different opinions than she does on some issues. I just love Sherri Shepherd. I see a lot of me in her. I took to her right away because she seemed like a woman who had, on some issues, a definite view or belief, while on other things, she was open about not really understanding the issues but showed her desire to learn, to understand. Now I come to Elizabeth Hasselbeck. I cannot believe that she has come to be my favorite co-host! I used to find her very irritating at times! But now, I have so much respect for her and her place at that table. To continue at that table when she knows that oftentimes, in heated issues, she is on her own. Even when I disagree with her, I feel bad for her when it seems like she is being ganged up on!

So, I guess this is goodbye. I no longer feel at home at The View; to often I feel like an unwanted guest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyrMS6MBuSg

See Charlie Gibons gaffe and how interview may backfire.
http://www.upi.com/news/issueoftheday/2008/09/12/ABCs_Gibson_grilled_Palin_hard_but_it_may_backfire/UPI-81241221234472/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202457_pf.html

Barry has an ad running in Florida saying that McCain has 7 lobbists on his campaign. Then they ask how many will be with him in the White House.

McCain should do one showing Wright, Ayers, Rezko and the rest of Barry’s motley crew asking the same question of Obama.

In one creative stroke Rove has rehabilitated the Republican brand and significantly damaged the Democrat’s, all achieved via the willing hands of Donna Brazille et al, that power-hungry mob, blinded by their egos.

I don’t know what crawled up her butt. I have a guess she gets her information from Joy, and that’s like getting no information at all.