Camille Paglia, an Obama supporter, gives Palin her due:
Pow! Wham! The Republicans unleashed a doozy — one of the most stunning surprises that I have ever witnessed in my adult life. By lunchtime, Obama’s triumph of the night before had been wiped right off the national radar screen. In a bold move I would never have thought him capable of, McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his pick for vice president. I had heard vaguely about Palin but had never heard her speak. I nearly fell out of my chair. It was like watching a boxing match or a quarter of hard-hitting football — or one of the great light-saber duels in “Star Wars.” (Here are the two Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn, going at it with Darth Maul in “The Phantom Menace.”) This woman turned out to be a tough, scrappy fighter with a mischievous sense of humor.
[…]
Here’s one episode. My father and his visiting brother, a dapper barber by trade, were standing outside having a smoke when a great noise came from the nearby barn. A calf had escaped. Our landlady yelled, “Stop her!” as the calf came careening at full speed toward my father and uncle, who both instinctively stepped back as the calf galloped through the mud between them. Irate, our landlady trudged past them to the upper pasture, cornered the calf, and carried that massive animal back to the barn in her arms. As she walked by my father and uncle, she exclaimed in amused disgust, “Men!”
Now that’s the Sarah Palin brand of can-do, no-excuses, moose-hunting feminism — a world away from the whining, sniping, wearily ironic mode of the establishment feminism represented by Gloria Steinem, a Hillary Clinton supporter whose shameless Democratic partisanship over the past four decades has severely limited American feminism and not allowed it to become the big tent it can and should be. Sarah Palin, if her reputation survives the punishing next two months, may be breaking down those barriers. Feminism, which should be about equal rights and equal opportunity, should not be a closed club requiring an ideological litmus test for membership.
crossposted @ Cjunk
Close the open italics code from the quote, cjunk.
8^)
Doh! You caught it right as I was posting.
I read alot of blogs today and somewhere the question was asked where is Canada’s Sarah Palin? The closest I have seen is right here at SDA. I just think the similarity’s are uncanny. If kate can skin a moose, who knows what the future holds.
A good article and the statments about the democrats can be applied here as well.
So Kate, when you skin a moose which end do you start with?
Bah! Larry King had Joy Behar of The View on tonight, and they were heavily dissin’ Palin.
Who needs that particle accelerator when two intellectual giants such as these meet up?
That is a good piece by Paglia. This following bit applies to the Lib/left up here in Canada, too:
“The witch-trial hysteria of the past two incendiary weeks unfortunately reveals a disturbing trend in the Democratic Party, which has worsened over the past decade. Democrats are quick to attack the religiosity of Republicans, but Democratic ideology itself seems to have become a secular substitute religion. Since when did Democrats become so judgmental and intolerant? Conservatives are demonized, with the universe polarized into a Manichaean battle of us versus them, good versus evil. Democrats are clinging to pat group opinions as if they were inflexible moral absolutes. The party is in peril if it cannot observe and listen and adapt to changing social circumstances.”
Another great example support coming from an unexpected source is found in this interview of former Democrat Senator from Alaska, Mike Gravel:
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/09/comedy-gold-lefty-radio-hosts-crestfallen-as-palin-defended-by-mike-gravel/
In it, two left-wing MSM journalists (sorry for repeating myself) went mining for some dirt on Sarah Palin and got the shock of their lives. He supported Palin, suggests she will be cleared completely in “Troopergate” and argues strongly that she has more executive experience in every way than Obama. This coming from a man who ran as for President in the 2008 Democratic Primaries.
Cjunk, thanks for posting the link to the Paglia piece.
Read it from start to finish, and all I can say is that she is 10 (20?) years late.
Most of what she writes is old news to those of us who long ago understood what utter scams feminism and modern liberalism are.
I give Paglia little credit for her sudden discovery of truths that were there to see for anyone with an open mind. Given that she writes for Salon, I’m strongly included to think that she doesn’t even believe everything she writes.
We’ve had feisty women leaders in the past in Canada. My favourite besides Judy LaMarsh who did a great job in Pearson’s cabinet was Deborah Grey.
Unfortunately as I have said elsewhere you have to be bilingual to get to the top here in Canada so that eliminates a lot of people.
I appears that women in the US MSM can’t stand to see a woman get ahead in politics. When I saw Palin give her acceptance speach, I said that that media would hate her. If she is such a light weight as the Dems seem to believe, why is Obama now running against her instead of McCain?
The fact remains that Obama has never ever proved himself worthy of our support by saying no to someone or something. He always parses his
answers. “Above my pay grade.” and then Probably.” In other words he wants the credit without the responsibility – the credit to win those who might have liked him to have given a better answer, but denying the approbium of having made a poorer remark. He can’t cut it both ways, but in every thing he has ever uttered he is constantly caring more about how
people react to what he says, than to what he actually says or, God forbid, actually believes. This is the ultimate in salesmanship so that the
unsuspecting voter doesn’t even know or realise that there is no deep backing over what he is being sold or told – hence the name, Fast Barry…
Suggestion: that Obama have a couple of terms service in the Senate (like Joe Kennedy recommended to Jack) first, Prove he can say “no!” or have a bottom line for something first, and only THEN run for the highest office of RESPONSIBILITY in the world!
(BTW, check out Wretchard’s latest at the Belmont Club on the Surge, showing that Obama (plus other Dems plus bzresinski) were really really wrong and their ideas, and obama’s inexperience could have been very coastly – as it can now and in 2009 over other issues – like Iran. He was convinced by Brzesinski’s theorizing, whearas McCain bloody well knew by experience what it would have been like to pull out of Iraq too early. See “Deadly Knowledge”
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/ )
Kate, thank you for sharing that article. It’s long but WELL WORTH a read!
Throughout it, I couldn’t help thinking back to the Heather Mallick car wreck smear piece. Both writers openly label themselves as ardent feminists and big time Obama supporters. But she Paglia has a brain that can think outside of the painted lines of her general political doctrine.
Americans have Paglia and we in Canuckistan receive our enlightenment from the likes of Heather Mallick. Never again will I wonder why we’re often called an insignificant nation chalk full of delusional people obsessed with illusions of grandeur.
Don’t worry the ardent feminist are in awe of Palin. As soon as they get over their jealousy, they will come onboard.
A feminism that cannot admire the bravura under high pressure of the first woman governor of a frontier state isn’t worth a warm bucket of spit.
But the one fundamental precept that Democrats must stand for is independent thought and speech. When they become baying bloodhounds of rigid dogma, Democrats have committed political suicide.
Ouch
TJ,
Camille Paglia isn’t discovering anything ten years too late. She’s been saying the same thing for at least that long. If the Democrats ever listened too her, they’d win a lot more elections. Fortunately, they won’t.
To say that she doesn’t believe what she writes is about as far from the truth as I can imagine. As far as I can tell, she writes what she believes even when it goes against her own team.
The leftist feminists are green with envy – or better term yet – plain witchy JEALOUSY!
GO SARAH PALIN!!
Camille Paglia: “Feminism, which should be about equal rights and equal opportunity, should not be a closed club requiring an ideological litmus test for membership.”
She’s hit the nail on the head. I AM, actually, a feminist–I believe in equal rights and opportunities for women and am no shrinking violet–but I have refused to call myself a feminist since the women’s movement was hijacked, back in the ’60s, by the litmus-test idealogues who insisted that feminists had to adhere to a rigid check list in order to gain membership in the feminist sisterhood club.
It’s just as exclusive a club as the old boys’ network they so disparage. They’ve taken on all the same baggage and, yet, insist that they are tolerant, open, and diverse. In a pig’s eye they are.
And, TJ, Jared is right. Camille Paglia has been criticizing the Gloria Steinam/Hillary Clinton/NOW feminists for years. She’s a smart cookie and can see straight through them. They don’t like her very much because, like Governor Sarah Palin, she’s got their number and she doesn’t need to be a member of their closed club in order to boost her sagging self-esteem. The self-esteem of Paglia and Palin has never been sagging, as far as I can see!
CNN had a report on this morning talking about how Sarah Palin manages to raise 5 kids. My goodness, the backhanded sexism is incredible.
Anyway, American politics is interesting, in that if she survives the withering initial fire then she will pick up support. Lots of women will stay quiet, but support her till they know it is safe to speak.
I think you will see lots of women come out in support of her in the next couple of weeks. Nobody knew who she was, so it is a matter of due diligence. She proves herself under fire, there will be oodles of support, why do you think HRC is holding off.
If HRC knew this woman was weak she would have had no qualms about going up and pushing her over.
The fact that she is being cautious means she is doing the same thing, and if she determines that Sarah is no pushover she’ll leave her alone becasue she’ll know how it looks.
Obama did what he needed to do to shore up his own weakness in experience. He probably should have chosen Bill Richardson though so he could point to governorship experience as opposed to the old legislative windbag in the Senate.
Obama should have seen what counter move was, I think he expected Romney or Liberman, which would have meant Pres Obama.
Obama is rethink ing right now, they arent sure what to do, Sarah doesnt present a good target at this moment. Honestly, they made her the issue and they should ignore her for a bit, but they can’t. I think Sarah Palin is becoming/has become a genuine American Political Phenomena….
One mistake and it all goes kablooey, but the longer she stands and if she survives the debate with Biden….hmmmm, never underestimate the Democrats ability to blow a presidential election.
When is the Biden/Palin debate?
That was an interesting article. I must admit, I have only vaguely heard of her. When I did it was as Camille Paglia – the feminist. I tend to avoid reading any articles by modern feminists because my reaction falls somewhere between -what planet do they come from to complete disgust(like MM’s CBC hackery yesterday). This Camille Paglia article was not only readable but informative and mature. I would still never self identify as a feminists because the brand has become so damaged.
Paglia is one of the few leftists I would dare read. I have long thought she is in denial about her conservatism.
She listens to Limbaugh and Hannity every day!
Paglia’s very reliable: a breath of fresh air–for a long time–on the rabble side.
I love the way Paglia thinks and writes.
How this permits her to remain a donk is a mystery wrapped in a conundrum woven into an enigma…
I suspect that if Paglia wasn’t a lesbian, she might call herself a conservative.
Batb, Tammy Bruce is a lesbian and she now finally calls herself a conservative. I love Camille but she isn’t a conservative: she’s a libertarian bordering on anarchist. And I mean that in the nicest way, of course.