Feminists Stand Behind Sarah, And Sarah Fights For All Women
By SusanUnPC on October 22, 2008 at 9:11 AM in Barack Obama, Equal Pay, Feminism, Greta Van Susteran, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Media Handling of Story, Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin
Sarah stands up for all women: “"When it came time for choosing, somehow Barack Obama just couldn’t bring himself to pick the woman who got 18 million votes in his primary, and that seems to be too familiar a story isn’t it? … How it is for so many American women that the qualifications are there, but for some reason the promotion never comes?” (And why are some candidates’ wives, like Cindy McCain, not only seen but heard in speeches, but some candidates’ wives secreted away? Well, there’s more on that below.)
Some prominent feminists — including two members of the Democratic National Platform Committee — also stand up for all women (not just women whose politics they prefer):
[A] small group of high-profile feminists has lined up behind the Republican ticket. They stood on stage today at Governor Palin’s side — Linda Klinge, the former Oregon president and now current vice president of the organization NOW, Shelley Mandell, president of the LA chapter of NOW, Elaine Lafferty, former editor-in-chief of “Ms.” magazine, and Lynn Rothschild, a member of the Democratic platform committee. — From the transcript of “Behind the Feminist ‘Left’ Jabs to Palin, On The Record With Greta, October 21, 2008.” [Below the fold, you'll see a more detailed description of these women.]
All of you, especially our longtime fervent supporters of Hillary Clinton, will love the quotes below from Sarah’s spirited speech yesterday:
The ABC News blog Political Radar wrote an excellent, detailed report on Sarah Palin’s speech yesterday. “Palin Reaches Out to Women Voters, Slams Obama for Passing Over Clinton” includes a number of direct quotes from Sarah’s speech, as well as backgrounder facts and details relevant to Sarah’s remarks.
First, here’s the ABC blog’s more detailed description of the prominent feminists who stood up with Sarah on stage yesterday, which I’ve broken up into bullet points for easier reading:
Palin was joined on stage by five women who endorsed her candidacy, including two members of the Democratic National Platform Committee, two leaders of chapters of the National Organization of Women, and a former editor of Ms. Magazine.
- Lynn Rothschild, a Democratic National Platform Committee member and prominent supporter of Sen. Clinton, had endorsed the McCain-Palin ticket in September, but had not appeared publicly with Palin.
- Prameela Bartholomeusz also served on the Democratic Platform Committee …
- Linda Klinge, the current vice president of the Oregon Chapter of the National Organization for Women.
- Shelly Mandell, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, also appeared in Henderson, and had previously endorsed Palin at a public rally in Carson, CA earlier this month.
The campaign has often had former Hillary Clinton supporters introduce Palin at campaign events since her nomination [including Dr. Lynette Long, whose writings you've read at No Quarter], in an attempt to win over disaffected Clinton supporters. After introducing the women, Palin sought to dispute the idea that the Democratic ticket would easily win the female vote.
"Our opponents think that they have the women’s vote all locked up which is a little presumptuous since only our side has a woman on the ticket," Palin said to strong applause.
Here’s the lead section of Political Radar‘s story:
>ABC News’ Imtiyaz Delawala Reports: A day after Sen. Barack Obama campaigned with former Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in Florida, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin slammed him for not seriously considering Clinton to be his second-in-command, citing Obama’s decision as an example of the barriers women face in the workplace.
"When it came time for choosing, somehow Barack Obama just couldn’t bring himself to pick the woman who got 18 million votes in his primary, and that seems to be too familiar a story isn’t it?" Palin said at a rally in Henderson, NV yesterday. "How it is for so many American women that the qualifications are there, but for some reason the promotion never comes?
In stronger language than Palin has used on the campaign trail before, the comments were part of a broader attempt to sell herself as an advocate for women and working numbers at a time when Palin’s support among women has slipped dramatically in national polls since becoming the Republican vice presidential nominee.
"You’ve got to ask yourself why was Senator Hillary Clinton not even vetted by the Obama campaign?" Palin continued. "Why did it take 24 years, an entire generation from the time Geraldine Ferraro made her pioneering bid until the next time that a woman was asked to join a national ticket?"
"In the long history of our country, 74 people have held the position of President or Vice-President, and why have the major parties given America only two chances to even consider a woman for either office?" Palin asked. "This glass ceiling, it is still there, but it’s about time that we shattered that glass ceiling once and for all."
[...]
Building on her theme of equal rights for women, ABC News reports, Sarah Palin next “sought to tie her critique of Obama’s tax plans with her support for working women.”
As all of you regular readers here know, Barack Obama pays female staffers far less than do John McCain and Hillary Clinton, but ABC News excuses that because Obama has more male staffers.
Palin sought to tie her critique of Obama’s tax plans with her support for working women, while charging that Obama does not pay women in his Senate office at the same level as men, raising the issue as one of "fundamental fairness" that she would address as an advocate for working women.
"Out on the stump he talks a good game about equal pay for equal work, but according to the Senate pay roll records women on his own staff get just 83 cents for every dollar that the men get," Palin said of Obama. "That’s 9,000 dollars less every year that he pays the guys. Does he think that the women aren’t working as hard? Does he think that they are 17 percent less productive?"
The Palin campaign cited press reports from last month and Senate records to back its claims on Obama’s pay to Senate staffers. The discrepancy, however, appears be that more top level staffers in Obama’s Senate office are men, and therefore have higher pay. The Obama campaign points to the many senior-level female staffers currently employed on the presidential campaign trial. …
Excuses, excuses.
While we’re talking about women, can anyone tell me where in the hell Michelle Obama is? Is she too assertive, too blunt, too acrimonious and divisive to be seen? Must she be kept hidden to protect her husband’s campaign?
Has Obama’s campaign “tested” the effect of Michelle Obama’s visibility versus her invisibility? Does Obama lose a point or two in the polls when she’s seen and heard?
I’m just curious. But it’s good that the Republican candidates proudly let their female candidates and partners speak.
It is notable, though, that neither Cindy McCain or Sarah Palin has ever felt compelled to mention that their husbands are “stinky” in the morning or can’t remember to put the butter away.
And I’ve never heard the husband of either woman mention, frequently, that his wife reminds him constantly how imperfect he is — like Barack Obama does. (In his speeches, Obama uses the example of Michelle’s criticisms to convey to rally crowds that he is an imperfect man, but the frequency with which he makes the reference sets off alarms for me.)
In contrast, Sarah Palin always speaks positively about her husband. In yesterday’s speech, she praised her husband’s help in allowing her the time to attain her political goals and the importance of KEY legislation that has helped women:
Palin praised her husband Todd for his support while she has pursued her political career, while saying said that federal laws need to better support working mothers — especially those in households without a father.
"I’ve been very, very blessed to have a husband who’s supported me along the way. He’s a great dad who doesn’t disappear at bath time or run from diaper duty, and I appreciate that," Palin added. "But a lot of women have it much, much harder than I’ve had it. And they need child care, which today can cost some families a third of their household budget. And they need reforms in labor laws that allow greater flexibility in the workplace, including more tele-commuting. And they need a tax code that doesn’t penalize working families."
As she has done before on the campaign trail, Palin cited the positive impact that Title IX had on her career.
"Women of my generation were allowed finally to make more of our own choices with education, with career, and I have never forgotten that we owe that opportunity to women, to feminists who came before us," Palin said. "The belief in equal opportunity is not just the cause of feminists, it’s the creed of our country — equal opportunity."
Palin said that if elected, she would seek to spread that opportunity to other women around the world, especially for those in countries facing persecution where women are "murdered in honor killings, places where women are sold like commodities in the nightmare world of the sex trade, and places where baby girls are unwelcome as a matter of state policy and their mothers are forced to have abortions."
“Now no one person, no one leader, can bring an end to all of those ills, to all of the injustices inflicting upon women,” Palin said. “But I can promise you this, if I am elected, these women, too, will have an advocate and a defender in the 47th vice president of the United States.”
We bash the MSM all the time here. While this ABC News report isn’t perfect, it is rich in detail and direct quotes, and it gave all of us who didn’t see Palin’s speech a great picture of her messages in her speech yesterday, as well as the stories of the prominent women who stood with Sarah Palin.
And I think it is notable that Sarah Palin is GROWING as a candidate. Her delivery and the construction of the thoughts behind her remarks are excellent. There’s no doubt, in my mind, that as vice president, she will grow and learn and work very, very hard to represent this nation proudly.
by Ronald Scott
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