Don't Pity This Woman

Palin deserves our scorn, and that's it

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 30, 2008 1:03 PM CDT

(Newser) – The media seems to be lining up to feel sorry for poor Sarah Palin, forced to endure these deer-in-headlights interviews. “I guess I’m one cold dame,” Rebecca Traister writes in Salon, because “when you stage a train wreck of this magnitude…I don’t feel bad for you.” To her, Palin isn’t some wilting victim, she’s a governor who doesn’t care enough about her country “to cram effectively for the test.”

Palin should especially enrage feminists, who’ve watched a great year for women turned into a “misogynistic political mash,” Traister says. McCain could have picked from plenty of qualified conservative women; he picked Palin instead. “I don’t want to be played by the girl-strings anymore,” writes Traister. “This is not breaking my heart. It’s breaking my spirit.”

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (3)]

Upper Deck has produced a "Presidential Predictor" trading card of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin inside its latest baseball release. (AP Photo)

Sarah Palin, left, walks along the grounds of the United Nations with television news anchor Katie Couric, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008. (AP Photo/CBS News, HO)

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin talks to reporters outside Engine Company 10, Ladder Company 10 next to the World Trade Center site, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008 in New York. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin leaves her hotel for a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

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As a feminist, it sucks — hard — to watch a woman, no matter how much I hate her politics, unable to answer questions about her running mate during a television interview. - Rebecca Traister

When you stage a train wreck of this magnitude, I don't feel bad for you. - Rebecca Traister

Roseanne Barr singing the national anthem, Sophia Coppola acting in "The Godfather: Part III," Sarah Palin talking about Russia — they all create the same level of eyeball-squinching discomfort. - Rebecca Traister

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

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Don't Pity This Woman