If Politics Isn’t Child’s Play, Why Should Sarah Palin Get the Kid-Gloves Treatment?

Wednesday, September 03, 2008
by Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com

It seems there’s a lot more drama tucked into Sarah Palin’s resume than rank-and-file Republicans were led to believe.

So it’s not surprising that the same moral-values zealots who were counting on her story to inject some perkiness into John McCain’s campaign for the White House would be trying to flip the script.

They are, after all, used to doing that; to using their arrogance, the media’s timidity and the public’s fickleness and short memory to obscure the real issues.

It would be a shame if they got away with it again.

The weekend had barely passed when Palin, the Alaska governor and former beauty queen who the 72-year-old McCain tapped as his running mate, was forced to out a family secret: Her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant.

Had it been Michelle Obama announcing that one of her daughters was pregnant, the same zealots that questioned her patriotism over a slip of the tongue and Barack Obama’s patriotism for not wearing a flag pin would be lambasting their parenting skills and their lack of moral guidance.

They’d be quoting Bill Cosby and salivating at the chance to plant another seed of skepticism about Obama into the minds of Americans; if he can’t manage his family, they’d say, how can he manage the country?

Oh, but they’re demanding that everyone cut Palin a break.

Reporters and pundits who dare infer that the 44-year-old Palin, who not only has a pregnant teenage daughter but an infant son with Down’s Syndrome, might have too many family issues brewing to be a heartbeat away from the presidency should McCain win, are quickly dismissed as sexist. No matter that it’s a legitimate concern -- and a concern that I would have if Palin were a man.

I’d have that concern because children with special needs tend to need more attention than other children. Add a pregnant teenager to that mix who is on track to becoming a child bride, and the possibility for more family drama is upped exponentially.

That’s a common sense concern, not a sexist one. Because if McCain wins and dies in office -- which would be a real possibility considering his age and his numerous bouts with skin cancer -- this woman would be in charge.

Ironically, many of the people who are playing the gender card to defend Palin’s working mother bona fides are some of the same people who are the most hostile when it comes to supporting things that impact the lives of average working mothers; things like subsidized day care and equal pay.

On top of that, the moral values crowd that is praising Palin for being true to her “pro-life” values because Bristol “chose” to have and keep her baby are the same ones who continue to push saying no to sex instead of pushing safe sex.

They are also the same ones who talk forgiveness and mercy for girls like Bristol who engage in sex outside of marriage, but who elevated Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2004 Super Bowl to a national symbol of moral decay.

And, eerily enough, it helped get George W. Bush -- perhaps the worst president in history -- re-elected.

I hope that people won’t be cowed by the machinations of the zealots and pundits who now, all of a sudden, are demanding that everyone treat Palin’s issue with her pregnant teenage daughter as a private family matter -- especially when they cared little about the privacy of former President Bill Clinton’s family as they waved a sperm-stained blue dress at him.

And while I’m certainly not suggesting that people condemn Sarah or Bristol Palin, or that the press stalk and harass them, I do believe that the media shouldn’t back off on airing legitimate concerns as to whether any parent with a special needs infant, a pregnant teenager, a thin intellectual resume and little exposure to international issues is best suited to be a heartbeat away from the toughest job in the world.

Most of all, I hope people don’t fall into that same line of thinking that cursed us with another four years of George W. Bush -- that because Palin is going through what a “normal” family might go through, that means she’s qualified to run the country.

A lot of people voted for Bush because they believed that he was an average Joe; a guy they could sit down and have a beer with.

And look at what happened.