lolaraincoat: (feminist)
[personal profile] lolaraincoat
Okay, so, I am powerless to control my need to read every bit and byte anywhere in the whole internet about Sarah Palin. It's not even about politics - she's like the most implausible fictional character ever, and the more I read, the less plausible she seems, and I'm fascinated.

So anyway, here are some of the my favorite random Vice-Presidential-candidate facts:

When her youngest child was born, she sent an email to her friends and family explaining that even though he has Down Syndrome, he is still "perfect." Nothing odd there, and yay for her for continuing the pregnancy and cherishing her child (pro-choice means pro-choice, not pro-eugenicist-decision-making, all right? Just my opinion of course.) It's just that Palin wrote the letter "in the voice of and signed it as 'Trig's Creator, Your Heavenly Father.'" according to this story in the Anchorage Daily News.

All her kids have appalling names! The youngest kid's middle name is Van because his parents are Van Halen fans! One of the others is named after an airplane! Another is named after a fishing port! And another is named after a city that never got built!

She modeled for Vogue - while pregnant!

She is more willing to throw her vulnerable family members under the national-media train than John Edwards ever was! (I don't even care about his screwing the videographer. He lost me when he decided to stay in the race while his wife went through chemo.) I think anyone likely to be morally offended by her daughter having premarital sex will be mollified by her daughter's marriage, while anyone worried by the possibility that the daughter is not making all her own reproductive and marital decisions with complete autonomy wasn't going to vote for McCain anyway. So it's a wash, politically. But what a story!

She had her ex-brother-in-law fired, and then she fired the guy who didn't fire the ex-brother-in-law fast enough! The ex-brother-in-law either did or did not use a taser on her nephew! She fired the only librarian in Wasilla, Alaska! She fired the Chief of Police too! She loves her family and she loves firing people!

She's just as confused as I am about what the Vice-President is supposed to do all day besides waiting around in case the President dies! And I'm not running for Vice President! But then, Dick Cheney was really sure what the Vice President should be doing, and look how that turned out.

She's very loyal to Wasilla, in the context of Alaskan politics, and to Alaska, now that she's on a national stage! This is great! We might end up with mid-twentieth-century-Mexican-style patria chica politics to go with our mid-twentieth-century-Mexican-style elections!

She only got a passport for the first time in 2007! eta: She used it to visit Kuwait! Thanks Heidi for that important info! /eta

She shoots polar bears! To save them from drowning because of global warming! It's mercy killing! (Okay, that last part, I made that up. She does hunt polar bears, but she does not believe that human interventions are changing the climate, and I'm guessing she would be anti-euthanasia as well, though she's pro-death-penalty so maybe not?)

eta:She may or may not have belonged to a very silly Alaska-secessionist-movement party at some point in her past! As someone who has signed on to more than one obscure and annoying-to-others political organization in my time, I say: She really is just like us! /eta

In sum, even if McCain loses, I think we can expect to see more of Sarah Palin and her family - either in national politics, or on the Jerry Springer Show. Or both.

Date: 2008-09-02 02:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lolaraincoat.livejournal.com
Either she would have to be an idiot, or she would have to be very angry at her mother.

Date: 2008-09-02 02:49 am (UTC)
cordelia_v: my default icon (Default)
From: [personal profile] cordelia_v
Evidently, she was neither of those things. But I doubt she had full and free choice about all this, in the sense that you and I would define free choice.

She couldn't even give up the baby for adoption and go on with her life, because the media would be sure to dig out where the baby had gone to, and would run stories about "where the VP's first grandchild is now," etc.

Married and a baby at 17. Sarah Palin is for the fail there, as a mother. This is not a good outcome for her daughter.

Date: 2008-09-02 03:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lolaraincoat.livejournal.com
Yeah - I dunno where the US is with this right now, but here in Ontario "closed" adoption, where all records remain sealed and everything is anonymous forever, no longer exists. The only differences are in degrees of openness. So Bristol Palin had no choices even when it appeared that she did. It's a very sad novel.

I agree that Palin failed as a parent. Hell, I bet she would agree - though she doubtless sees her failure as her daughter's having sex before marriage, rather than in terms of the outcome.

Date: 2008-09-02 03:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lolaraincoat.livejournal.com
Ah, research! thank you very much. Wow, this adds a whole 'nother chapter to that novel. Pity that Curtis Sittenfeld already kind of owns the Republican-Woman-RL gothic genre. It was wasted on Laura Bush.

Man, I would pay actual cash money to be able to read Palin's mind at a few crucial moments. Instead I'll just have to make shit up, and contribute the cash to Planned Parenthood of Alaska.

Date: 2008-09-02 03:22 am (UTC)
cordelia_v: my default icon (Default)
From: [personal profile] cordelia_v
Wow, this adds a whole 'nother chapter to that novel.

Go ahead. Do another post on this particular aspect (which is in some respects the most twisted, painful, and complicated part of all). You know you want to.

And then you can tell us exactly which moments you'd love to have been able to read Palin's mind.

Date: 2008-09-02 03:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lolaraincoat.livejournal.com
And! AND! Did you see the NY Times just now is reporting that in 2002 in Wasilla, when Palin was finishing up her final term as mayor, her step-mother-in-law ran for the job, but Palin supported her opponent who eventually won? Why the lack of family loyalty? Palin's step-mother-in-law wasn't anti-abortion.

I'd love to be reading step-mom-in-law's mind right now, tell you what.

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