So, we have two women in the Republican Party who have designs on the highest office in the land. I must admit I favored Hillary Clinton in the last presidential election. I have been waiting for the day a woman would become President of the United States. But could I vote for a Michelle Bachmann or a Sarah Palin? Duh. No.
Are these the most qualified women the Republicans can put forward? I don’t think even the Party believes that. There are some women and then there are some other women. Where are the other women? You know, the smart ones?
Bachmann and Palin seem to have good credentials when you read their bios. Both held elective office. They broke barriers for women. They are wives and mothers. They had careers before entering politics.
And for those that care, they are physically attractive and telegenic, so important in today’s TV-dominated political campaigns.
But then Michelle and Sarah speak. Out of the mouths of these “babes” come some of the most uninformed statements and backward political policy positions you hear from the radical right wing.
They are “card-carrying” members of the Tea Party Movement. Tea Partiers were protesting on the Capitol steps and spat on Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and shouted “nigger” again and again at civil rights icon, Georgia Rep. John Lewis. I did not hear Bachmann or Palin denounce the vile behavior.
I am really talking about their comments that are just laughable. Could Michelle Bachmann be this dumb?
Bachmann: “The Founding Fathers worked tirelessly until slavery was no more.” She is wrong and nearly 150 years off for when slavery really ended in the U.S.
Bachmann: Speaking in New Hampshire, the first primary state. “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord.” No, Michelle, that would be Massachusetts.
Bachmann: Told Minnesotans she wanted them “armed and dangerous” to fight an energy tax, which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
She doesn’t know U.S. history and doesn’t believe scientific evidence and she thinks she can be President?
Sarah Palin has so many crazy quotations it was difficult to pick a few.
Palin: Talking about Paul Revere after taking a tour of his home. “He, who, warned, uh, the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells…” Blah, blah. What is going on in her head? (I won’t answer that.)
Palin: At a motorcyle rally in Washington, DC, while riding a Harley. “I love the smell of emissions.”
Palin: About NATO bombing in Libya. “Do we use war? Do we use squirmish? What is it?” That statement should make many people squirm.
While both Representative Bachmann and former Governor Palin are wildly popular with some Americans, I don’t get it. They are embarrassing to the nation and especially to women.
I wish they’d quietly leave the political stage before doing damage to women who are really qualified to be President of the United States.
While I certainly agree with the comments on these Tea Party candidates and the family values hypocrisy they represent, part of me feels that this trend–far Right female candidates, is a kind of “chickens come home to roost” in response to all the ’70’s hoopla by the Second Wave femminists (I’m one) encouraging women–any woman–to run for office as well as for women to support any woman who ran. There seemed to be no emphasis on having intelligent political stances, like the need to support the rights of women.
Relatedly, I wonder who will run next. Maybe Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham?
I think the lot of them should all stay home, bake cookies–especially Coulter– and/or darn socks.
Carole,
It’s T & A time at the Republican Party. Stupid and sexy is the way they want their women and these 2 qualify. Why are “intelligent” women sucked into supporting this nonsense? Could be the “Stockholm Syndrome”, where the captives willingly defer to their captors, or in men, the Clarence Thomas “House Slave” selling out of his own best interests to better serve The Master.
Bottom line for the ladies: Sarah and Michelle lower the bar so far that any woman with “low self esteem” will not feel threatened by these perky cheerleaders of inequality, nor will their men, who are scared to death of losing their political advantage to smart women like you.
Thanks for speaking up. Will this upset your Media Masters who are scared of taking political positions? Except Fox, of course, who openly never cross that line of their mission to support the “haves” over the “have nots”, the corporations over the workers, the franchised over the unfranchised.
” I wish they’d quietly leave the political stage before doing damage to women who are really qualified to be President of the United States.”
I couldn’t agree more, however, I was listening to a commentator espouse his view that we shouldn’t take Rep. Bachmann for granted and that she’s gaining with the grass roots christian right. There are others (silent “majority”) who would rather have an incompetent woman in office–anyone who can make the incumbent a one term President . We can’t be smug about this…if we’re not diligent we may have the same expressions on our faces that many had when President Obama won by a sizable majority in 2008!
I must also say that I’ve been voting for many years and as I celebrate my 64th birthday; 2008 was the first time when there were several candidates that I could vote for President and that included Hillary Clinton. It got nasty for awhile and I wasn’t sure which Clinton was running for the nomination and I went with Barack Obama. It would be wonderful to witness the election of a qualified progressive female for the Presidency.