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June 19, 2013
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 Sarah Zamboni Clears the IcePosted on Sep 10, 2008Who would have dreamed that a hockey mom could produce such a bounce? I didn’t even think the puck was supposed to get off the ice. But now that so many women have skated over to her side, allow me another metaphor. Sarah Palin is the Zamboni of this campaign. This hockey mom rolled onto the ice, did a couple of turns around the rink and managed to clear off all the nasty old Republican detritus. She gave the Grand Old (Boy) Party a new image, or at least a new surface. Let us remember that Republicans had long targeted working mothers as the centerpiece of the culture wars. They ran an entire convention on Marilyn Quayle’s line, “Most women do not wish to be liberated from their essential natures as women.” Now their heroine is the in-your-face governor who once said: “To any critics who say a woman can’t think and work and carry a baby at the same time, I’d just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave.” Advertisement Who can forget James Dobson, who blamed the decline and fall of morality on “working mothers and permissiveness,” and told us that real women “are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership.” He now says, “I believe Sarah Palin is God’s answer.” Who can forget Phyllis Schlafly saying “flight from home is a flight from yourself, from responsibility, from the nature of woman.” She now says, “I think a hardworking, well-organized CEO type can handle it very well.” Who can forget Pat Buchanan, scriptwriter of the culture wars? He now says, “For heaven’s sakes, I mean, can’t you have a traditional woman who is also a—you know, a beauty queen and is a governor? What’s the matter?” Who can forget all this? I’ll tell you who can forget: Everyone! Sarah the Zamboni has cleared the ice of this pesky historical memory. Mind you, sexism is still alive and well, although it is enchanting to watch the same folks who criticized Hillary supporters for whining take off after the media for vetting. Back when a Hillary hater asked John McCain “How do we stop the bitch?” John responded, “Excellent question!” Now his campaign says it’s “offensive and disgraceful” of Barack Obama to use the word lipstick. How do you spell chutzpah? Nevertheless, the good news for this cockeyed optimist is that Sarah Palin has made it politically incorrect to criticize working mothers. The mommy wars wage on in playgrounds and the blogosphere, but among candidates and in politics, working moms are the demilitarized zone of the cultural battleground. There is, however, another divide between left and right that has reappeared with the governor’s star turn. It’s the difference between those who think a woman can have it all as long as she can do it all ... by herself. And those who think that it is neither wimpish nor whiny to push for some help. The Emergence of Sarah Palin is actually the Return of Supermom. Mother of five, moose killer and marathoner, she was back at work three days after her son’s birth, juggling a BlackBerry and a breast pump while making Helen Reddy look like a slacker. Call her a role model or a parody, but the fresh face of 2008 looks like the exhausted face of the 1980s. The conservative virtue of Palin’s life is that she doesn’t need anything from anyone outside the family. She isn’t lobbying for, say, maternity leave, equal pay or universal pre-K. Let alone universal health insurance. Or college tuition breaks, especially for that soon-to-be-teen-mom and her soon-to-be husband. Compare this to the actual Wal-Mart mom juggling day care fees and gas bills, fantasizing about a job with benefits and the flexibility to be home when the kids are sick. Somehow the original women’s movement slogan, “The personal is political,” has been turned on its head. It’s more fun to talk about the candidate’s family and eyeglasses than Iraq and the recession. If George Bush was the guy you wanted to have a beer with, Palin is the gal you want to go to aerobics with. The political is waaay too personal. So let us applaud the way Sarah Palin has pushed the working mother out of the firing line of the culture wars. But what about those family issues flattened by Sarah Zamboni?  TAGS:
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By hippy pam, September 14, 2008 at 7:35 am Link to this comment
I’m not good at this- I put an xtra space in http://morosehellhole.blogspot.com/2008/09/
Report thissarah-palin-has-criminal-record.html
By hippy pam, September 14, 2008 at 7:31 am Link to this comment
PLEASE ALL….go to this site…...http://morosehellhole.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-palin-has-criminal-record.html
Report thisBy Outraged, September 14, 2008 at 3:55 am Link to this comment
Article quote: “The Emergence of Sarah Palin is actually the Return of Supermom. Mother of five, moose killer and marathoner, she was back at work three days after her son’s birth, juggling a BlackBerry and a breast pump while making Helen Reddy look like a slacker. Call her a role model or a parody, but the fresh face of 2008 looks like the exhausted face of the 1980s.”
Well…LOL… I think Ms. Sarah Palin to be quite flagrantly full of shit. I am a mother and have six children. Count them folks, six. Palin is full of shit. I don’t mean to imply that when a woman becomes a mother she “loses herself” as is often implicated, only that there is NO SUCH THING as a supermom, just as there is no such thing as a superdad. This is “Brady Bunch” bullshit. In this vein:
1. There is no such thing as a “superparent”.
2. It consumes an inordinate amount of time to be a parent, good or bad.
3. It is IMPOSSIBLE to give “undivided” attention to two tasks.
4. The more children you have, at increasing levels of urgency, the MORE point 4 applies.
5. In America, we exonerate bad fathers as an “understandable” reality.
6. Who is it, that pumps up this “superparent” fantasy? It isn’t feminists, nor is it fundamentalists even… so consider, who endorses this illogical mantra of… women can “work” and “have it all”...? ( “Work” is in quotes, since a sole care giver is only considered “work” when paid, and even at that the wages are non-existent) Who benefits from these very HARD WORKING individuals, women and men…?
Outside of these realities, Palin is human just like everyone one else. What she is claiming, is beyond the scope of the reality on the ground, and that’s all there is to it.
Report thisBy helena, September 12, 2008 at 9:17 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
“Palin is the gal you want to go to aerobics with”?
Report thisI don’t think so. More like the gal who would make me not want to go.
By jessbartwilliams, September 12, 2008 at 8:51 am Link to this comment
Yet another boring article about NOT covering the election. Welcome to the new shade of lipstick. Be a journalist. You can do it. We believe in you. Cover THE ISSUES. We’ll still read it. I promise. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go see how to keep the bank from foreclosing on my house…
Report thisBy Alice Wahl, September 12, 2008 at 5:57 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The female issue that is being kept “under the rug”—as usual—is the fact that all females of our species undergo the emotional upheaval of the change of life, i.e. menopause. We all have to deal with this. If we just let the process unroll, we suffer emotional and physical upheavals for at least several years and sometimes longer. If we decide to forgo those upheavals, we must use supplemental estrogen. Sarah Palin is aging; this is obvious from both her mid-forties age and the birth of a Down’s Syndrome baby. Obviously she has not used supplemental estrogen to prevent births. It is a very legitimate question to ask if she intends to use it for menopausal symptoms. If she does not,
Report thisfor at least a few years during her potential presidency she will be functioning at a lesser level. It is also legitimate to ask if/how she plans to avoid the birth of another Down’s Syndrome baby—possibly during a presidency—or at least on “our payroll” as Vice President.
By dissenter, September 11, 2008 at 10:57 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
First, she had it wrong, there is NO DIFFERENCE between a soccer “mom” and a pit bull…they’re the same…both bitches.
Report thisSecond, here in Canada, where we did not wage revolution to break free of Ye Englishe Colonial Motherland, the term of endearment for a mother is “Mum” or “Mummy” (not “Mom” or “Mommy”)... we would consider it very “americanized” t o use Mom or Mommy to refer to our mothers in an affectionate way.
Well, as to the “supermom” thing, isn’t it just too perfect…first there are the Hollywood bimbo celebrities who have a “bump” as a fashion statement (surprise surprise! that “bump” is a living, breathing, needy Human Being!), who then boast about how first they did not gain ANY weight while expecting and then snapped right back to their nearly pubescent skinny selves after birth, dubbed “pregorexia” by the seemingly philistine media(so what’s new, we have not come a long way here), now young mmothers, and older ones too, for that matter, can add to their list of things to beat themselves up over, that is, NOT being a supermom who has five kids, a working class husband and is GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF ALASKA Too. I bet she can bake a cake between sittings of the legislative assembly.
And, speaking of legistlature, Ms. Palin may have been able to return to the workplace (the governors office) right after the latest baby was born because perhaps the State provided a stipend for a helper of some kind (nurse or governess) for the baby? It’s nice when you can afford to be supermommmm.
By Fahrenheit 451, September 11, 2008 at 9:25 am Link to this comment
@ Blackspeare;
I will never forgive her killing Bullwinkle; there can be no excuse!
Report thisBy Blackspeare, September 11, 2008 at 8:50 am Link to this comment
And don’t forget that Sarah Palin killed an icon of American culture and “Bullwinkle” was his name!
Report thisBy Purple Girl, September 11, 2008 at 7:25 am Link to this comment
Of both Genders
Report thisThe women who have been involved with politics for a few decades have no idea how the womens movement has changed (actually stayed the same).
A Refresher course for those who have ignored our movement for the last few decades and need to catch up
‘70’s Bra burning, vote in EVERY female
‘80’s- hold on to Roe v Wade, DON’T Vote for candidate just becuase she is female, she may over turn it
‘90’s- Some Females Politicans join the ‘Good Ol’ Boys club’ ‘Lil’ Sis Sorority.Working and Hooking for the Corps
‘00’s-Numerous examples of Crappy Females in Politics, Media ,Entertainment…. We Don’t Identify or agree with far more than we are forced to swallow as ‘Archetypes’-Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter,Britney Spears
What we have realized long ago is that We don’t like all women. In fact we are just as discerning aobut them as we are about men!
Frnkly I will not be so kind as to referr to Palin as lipstick, nor even disparage the Intellegence of a Pig… I will go so far as to say Palins is a Housefly with lipstick on! She is bore from the maggots of Cheneycorp, she thus hangs around shit, eats garbage and lands On your ‘food’ just to eat some and shit on the rest!
Don’t hand US this poor excuse for a Public Servant and a Poor excuse of a Mother ( her ‘Traveling Pants’ Birthing Story does NOT go over well with Pro Choicers or Pro Lifers- She endanged that Childs Life!!!
So CheneyCorp your attempt to get your Puppet Boy “Punch” in Office by bring in a “Judy” is not Working. I hate the Neo Cons in (in Red & Blues) feeble attempt to lure in Female Voters.
If Hillary couldn’t get US all, why did you think Sarah Could even half of hers?
I can think of a variety and number this VP choice Offends- not just women and their kalidescope of Concerns, but also men and their particular sensibilities. Why pick someone with so many skeletons not so well tucked away in a closet?
Frankly I feel she is going to be the ‘Perfect Patsy’- She’s gonna take a dive in Mid Oct- She will step down or be forced off the ticket.
And Poor John Who will he find on such short notice? Who is not only been vetted for decades (LOL), And has intimate Knowledge of Current matters facing the Nation. Knows Exactly how the VP office Works- no learning curve delays on internal or external matters- inter office to Interntional….Gee It’s DICK!Even the BS claim of ‘intermediate’ appointment may be tauted- but a replacement will not come. If it is not Dick who replaces Palin- it will be one of his Minions- One of the Graham (Gramm) Boys? LIEberman?
Palin is the ‘Bait’, One of the Others will be the Switch…The Neo Cons (Corps) haven’t suddenly gone stupid or insane.. they gotta plan!And the ones who see it the Clearest are those Mothers ( women) who put up with lies, manipulations, and general BS Everyday, from kids, spouses, bosses, the mechanic… We have Triple PhD’s In Bullshit!We can smell it a Mile away- We have to it’s the only way to run a home and compete in the work world!
We buy Palin as much as we did the ‘Great ’ ad that stated ‘This Bra will make you look more natural’...Ah ‘natural’ means Braless.so why don’t we just go Braless, Or if we don’t like the look of Braless, Why would we Buy this bra that apprarnetly makes us look like we are braless? Dumbasses!
the Palin Pick IS the psuedo natural Bra Ad-
As Logical and insulting.
By KISS, September 11, 2008 at 6:55 am Link to this comment
Palin is nothing more than a screaming shrill shrew that disguises the issues into the dogma of personal attacks. With McCain’s lack of knowledge and submission to the CEO’s of industry he needs camouflage and the lipstick works well for his purpose. McCain is one of those creatures who only want fulfillment of his desires at any cost, Palin is only a tool for his wants.
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