Lisa, Kathryn – I must say I didn’t love Rudy’s line: “How dare they question whether Sarah Palin has enough time for her children and the vice presidency? They would never say that about a man…”
I understood the politics of it and liked the turnabout. But I do think that the concerns aren’t crazy, even if so many of Palin’s liberal critics are offering them in the worst and most disgusting bad faith.
I trust the Palins have wrestled with these questions themselves (what family could avoid them?). What outrages me in the context of Palin, is not some “sexist” liberal double standard between men and women, but the glaring double standard liberals hold for liberal women and conservative women (ditto liberal blacks and conservative blacks, Hispanics, gays, Jews, newts, aardvaarks whatever). If a liberal woman were on the Democratic ticket they’d go ballistic in outrage if anyone pulled 1/1000th of the crap they’re hurling at Palin.
How women balance motherhood and work is a delicate issue with many legitimate perspectives and public policy angles (as I am the son, husband and, in due time, father of Palinesque women, I think my own views should be pretty obvious). Society is still working out these issues. But liberals have an oppressive and bullying approach to the debate. Agree with them — on everything! — or you’re an apostate, a fool and, now, a bad mother.
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The liberals are questioning whether Palin is being fair to her family, and how she will have time to care for her Downs baby. When did they ever get so concern about a woman’s place in the home?
If a liberal woman with the same circumstances as Palin was on the Democratic ticket, they would be hailing her as a superhero.