Strollerderby

The Obamas should get two puppies and name them Flashy and Callow.

McCain's campaign knew they were not going to win, therefore brought in Palin as the scapegoat.  Truth is, she was perfect for it.  

This article and your publication of such sensationalist material about a mother with such integrity is shameful! Even if you disagreed with her views, to make personal attacks and not celebrate her achievements as a working mom is reprehensible. I expected more from such a progressive magazine.

Shame on You!

-Lisa B (no longer reading your site)

This article is disgusting. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Just because you are jealous that a conservative became successful WITHOUT affirmative action doesn't mean that bashing her is ok. I thought this site was for celebrating parenthood, not bashing conservatives. You are truly sick, sick people.

Wow, Republicans sure are sore losers.

Ahhh, Republicans whining.  Who would have predicted it?

Well, except for absolutely all of us.

Sarah - sounds like you should be listening to Rush Limbaugh or watching Bill O'Reilly. Don't waste your time on anything but. You could also catch a plane to Alaska ...

I didn't like Sarah Palin either -- I thought she was totally unprepared to be VP, and I don't share many of her values.

But this really is petty, nasty, catty stuff --- not the kind of thing any of us should be indulging in (as fun as it may be in a schadenfraude kind of way). Especially if we really believe in one of the ideals Obama ran on -- unity.

It's time for us to grow up.

Sarah -- you might notice that the quotes in this post come primarily from NEWSWEEK, which in turn got them from members of the MCCAIN campaign team. I think your anger is directed in the wrong direction.

I liked the part about Palin addressing aides while wearing only a towel.

That and the part about her accusing Obama of being a socialist while she wracked up more than $150,000 in wardrobe expenses for her and the snowmobile guy.

Fox News, of all places, is also reporting these Palin gaffes. I do think she's being scapegoated though--maybe she wasn't as knowledgeable as she should have been, but then why did the McCain campaign pick her? Because she's attractive, charming, and sort of a "character." They are as much or more to blame for any of her mistakes.

I am terrifically amused that people still imagine Palin has "integrity" after her lies about the bridge to nowhere, and after she spent all that money on clothes, and after Troopergate, and after... I mean, what counts as "integrity" with you guys? Doesn't it require telling the truth and behaving in a way that matches your stated values?

This is lowbrow muck-raking, and I can't imagine what relevance you think that this has on a parenting blog. If I want this kind of schaedenfreude "news", I'll turn to a celebrity gossip site, thank you very much. (I actually abandoned mine not too long ago for continually posting this kind of BS.) I wasn't aware that babble.com was a (mean-spirited) liberals-only playground, though I'm definitely getting that sense.

And Gary, isn't spending $150K on clothes a quintessential exercise of capitalism? What does it have to do with Obama being a so-called socialist? Your "point" makes no sense.

Laura, the great thing about America is that you have the freedom to read (or not) whatever you choose and everyone else has the freedom to write whatever THEY choose.  No one is making you read this but MAYBE, just MAYBE they are trying to make a point about Palin that you are adamantly refusing to see.

If McCain supporters are going on FOX NEWS, of all places to say that she doesn't know Africa is a continent, you can bet it's true. There is absolutely nothing wrong with talking about all of this now. It's still appalling that she was ever even running for vice president. This is a woman who needs very much to go back to school.

www.youtube.com/watch

And I'm with Mamallama - No one has to read anything they don 't want to read.

I'm so tired of hearing "If you don't like something, don't read it!". So what? Now I'm only supposed to read things with which I agree? Isn't that part of the problem with political/ethical/social dialogue in the first place? If YOU only read things with which you agree, I'd ask you, "Please, expand your horizons."

My point is that this is lowbrow, it's mean, and it's nothing that can't be found from any major news source. Again, what relevance does it have to a parenting blog? A post about Bristol Palin and abstinence-only ed WOULD be relevant to parenting; I fail to see how this is. I'm all for disagreement and discussion, but when an article has no relevance in the first place and is more gloating than anything else, it reflects poorly on its author and those who participate in its bullying.

Seriously, do you have to be a card-carrying social liberal to hang out with the "cool kids" on this site? With the snark and mean-spiritedness around here, that's what I'm beginning to think. (And, in case you're wondering, I can't stand Limbaugh or O'Reilly and I'm not convinced that Ann Coulter is not clinically insane. Just FYI.)

Parenting blogs don't have to only be about parenting...they are also forums for parents to read/write about what's going on and what they are thinking.  

And the politics right now are a huge part of what is going on in our world right now and will also have an effect on our children in the years to come.  So how could this NOT be discussed?

As a woman with two daughters I was more than a little insulted that it appeared the Republican campaign chose Palin on the basis of her gender rather than qualifications and I admit that I am happy that their tactic didn't work.  That's the truth of it for me.  

I think Laura and K have a point. My entire family voted for Obama, even the conservatives, and I have more complaints about Palin than you can shake a stick at. But the man most of us voted for did talk about unity and open dialogue. Its not really a dialogue if we're just telling people to leave because they disagree. I'll agree that calling the post 'muck raking' may have been harsh but I can see Laura's point as well.

Imagine if McCain had won and this post was about Biden or even Obama. If Democrats/Liberals/whoever voted for Obama, can't be gracious and respectful in victory, then how can we hope to work with the other side? You know, the people who are also still Americans?

Laura -- well said. And yes, being told not to read something because you don't like doesn't make any sense. Why should a writer be able to express her opinion, but you're not allowed to express your thoughts on her opinion?

Anyway. I agree that this kind of snarkiness seems a little mean-spirited, no matter what news source it's coming from. I may not agree with or even particularly like Sarah Palin, and I certainly don't like the campaign she waged, but it's over now. America said no to her and her kind of politics.

Isn't that satisfying enough?

I don't see any need to drag her corpse through the streets, figuratively speaking.

For the record, I didn't tell Laura to leave the blog.  I was talking about choice.  She had the choice to write what she did too but I felt she was asking others to stop what they were writing about and choose different content.

It's easy to say that Democrats aren't being respectful but this original post is how the Republican campaigners are coming out and dissing Sarah Palin.  It also talked about Clinton and Obama.  I'm not offended.

@Laura: It's not a Liberals only playground, it's the playground of parents with brains and half a teaspoon of sense, which McCain and Palin both lacked.

Palin was enormously naive and plain old vanilla stupid while also being willfully ignorant and encouraged the promotion of willful stupidity. It has long been the purview of journalists to call people out for their stupidity, especially when they they aspire to run a country.

If you are going to walk out in public and act like an idiot, you should fully expect a whole lot of folks are going to point at you and talk loudly about what an idiot you are being.

Laura: You make no sense. So there!

The point I so ineloquently made was that Palin was criticizing Obama for taxing the people who may be better able to afford to pay taxes to provide services for all people. In this case, Palin was "taxing" ALL of the fundraisers to the McCain/Palin ticket to buy clothes for just her and her family.

Probably not a good example. But you miss the point. The point was that Palin is questioning Obama's fiscal policies while her apparent fiscal policy is to get as much as she can from the taxpayers and the campaign donors to her own selfish benefit. Until she gets caught, that is, and then donates the money to charity.

Gary,

Your point is flawed for the simple fact Palin's wardrobe (and the wardrobe for her family) was purchased with donor money.  That's not a "tax."  It's so far from a "tax" that short of it being a refund check or a welfare handout from the federal government, you couldn't make a bigger distinction.

And while we're discussing distinctions, let's look at comparing someone's personal proclivities for clothes and someone else's macroeconomic policies which, if they are put into practice, will impact 300 million Americans.  This isn't rocket science, sir.

Gabriel: So you believe that Palin's policies of personal gain at the expense of others ($150,000 plus for wardrobe, per diems charged to taxpayers in Alaska for sleeping in her own home, travel expenses for all of her family, etc...) do not incriminate her when she criticizes others for their fiscal policies?

And who's with me on this towel thing?!?

I also have a hard time understanding why Laura is reading and commenting in all of the political threads on Strollerderby only to bitch and complain that we're talking about... politics.  I don't go into the Free Republic forums and bitch that the people are OMG CONSERVATIVE because hey -- it's their right to be conservative and discuss things from their conservative point of view.  Reading it would upset me, so, I don't go there.  Seems pretty simple and easy to me.

Liberalism is child abuse. I feel sorry for all your children, especially the ones "pissing off all the McCain supporters." You really ought to have a warning on this site that says "INTELLECTUALLY BEREFT ARTICLES AHEAD."

Wow Ilana...bitter much? Go watch some Sesame Street and learn how to play nicely with others.

Illana... unfortunately that's EXACTLY the type of comment that I've come to expect from a republican. Sigh, can't we all just appreciate each other's views? I think we need both sides of the spectrum to come to the middle for the betterment of everyone, and for that we need to get along and listen to each other!

Thanks to Fushiafinn ("If Democrats/Liberals/whoever voted for Obama, can't be gracious and respectful in victory, then how can we hope to work with the other side? You know, the people who are also still Americans?") and Roper ("America said no to her and her kind of politics. Isn't that satisfying enough?") for a defense of decency. I don't care how much someone doesn't like Palin or McCain (or Obama or Biden, for that matter), but the way in which we talk about public figures MATTERS (or should). Discussing short-comings is one thing; reveling in someone else's 'stupidity' is another. I don't even LIKE Palin, but the contempt and disrespect with which she's being treated in general and on this site is sickening. This is the example we want to set for our children?

Cole Gamble: Was that supposed to be an olive branch of some sort? Most of it was entirely insulting. First off, I'm interested in politics, so I read political posts; but again, my main contention was just that all the Palin-bashing is base and unbecoming. Second, I never used the phrase "liberal elite" (being at least part of one myself) and find the whole class-war that it implies just as appalling as you probably do! And if I'm a part of the "conservative establishment", I must be at the borders of that camp. Review again, please, my original point. Finally, thanks for stooping down to me to take my hand and lead me on the road to enlightenment (and yes, that was sarcasm). Maybe you were trying to be funny in the reply to me, but tone doesn't carry on-line.

I am forced to wonder if my writing is so bad that I can't express myself in the slightest, or if many, many others are too blind to read what I've actually written, instead of simply reacting to particular words.

Knitty, ARE you saying that Babble belongs only to those with liberal views? That's what it seems from above. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that Babble is of a different class than Free Republic or We (Heart) Rush Limbaugh, or something like that. Am I missing something here?

No.  I am saying, and said very clearly, that if you don't like what's being said, then AVOID THE THREADS where the things that offend you are being said.  I can't understand why you spend your time trolling through the political items here at Babble (which is, as you have noticed, predominantly "liberal") unless you enjoy looking for fights.  Which is how it appears to me.

I'm about as far from being a Republican as it's possible to be, and I don't think much of Palin... but this seems more than a little tacky.  Palin lost.  She's back in Alaska.  If she decides to run again in 2012 then maybe this will be relevant, but for now it's just gloating and gossip, and it's nasty.  I thought better of Babble.

Besides, I doubt that half that stuff is true.  This isn't exactly coming from an unbiased source - the McCain campaign staffers are have to be desperate at this point to make sure they aren't blamed for his loss.  And if the rumors about her making the staff cry are actually true then there are personal grudges too.  Look - I think Palin is uninformed and totally lacking in intellectual curiosity.  But the idea that she didn't know Africa was a continent?  Unbelievable.  And I mean that literally.  I do not believe it.  I also do not believe that she didn't know who was in NAFTA.  Alaska is surrounded by Canada, for god's sake.  It doesn't matter how uninterested in world affairs she was - the woman is literate, and passed grade six social studies.  She knows that stuff.

(And Laura - my theory (formed around the time Coulter started attacking 9/11 widows) is that Ann Coulter is a very talented performance artist)

This article is very petty. Obama won, which I am glad for. Now let's follow his lead. Sarah Palin makes a nice scape goat but the truth is that she was not the sole reason the right lost.

A blog is not a newspaper or a magazine. It is not an unbiased news source. It's a sounding board for the people chosen to post in it, where they talk about things that interest them. Babble is primarily a parenting site, yes, but Strollerderby is the domain of its bloggers, who have been given free rein by Babble to talk about whatever they like. Right now, they're interested in politics. Don't like what interests them? Well, there are about a billion parenting blogs out there.

Bloggers are not obligated to be fair to everyone. Blogging isn't news. Blogging is blogging. Don't like blogging? Why the heck are you reading blogs?