I think he is being demeaning and she was chosen for her womanhood, but I also feel like you are also being demeaning. I obviously don't subscribe to Palin's politics, but I don't think we need to contribute to the pretty women must be dumb mentality. She is a skilled politician with bad politics, but those politics are in line with her party. (which happens to suck)

She's powerfully inexperienced. Yes, I believe she'll be a puppet simply because she'll mimic what he says and why? Because she's got no experience to form any other ideas. I'm not implying she's stupid because she's pretty, I'm implying she was picked based off of that inexperience so she would BE stupid and easily controlled. Her looks are an afterthought (though, based on republican lines of thinking, women are SUPPOSED to be pretty and quiet, so her looks were probably factored in there too). I've done a lot of research on her lately, and i haven't seen anything to show me she's a "skilled politician." She's a former PTA member, former mayor of a city of nine thousand, and she became governor of one of the least populated states in the country. She has no experience in foreign policy, so it'll be easy to tell her what to do, since she'll have to lean on everyone else. "Trust me, Sarah, we know more about this than you do."

]

I totally agree w/ you mamamayhem but I really don't know if it will work; If anything I think hillary clinton will campaign harder for obama now. Seriously, if the only reason you were voting for clinton is that she has a vag, then yeah palin is the one for you. But ovbiously she is against everything that clinton stands for and I don't think that it will work.
BTW, I know this is a bit off topic, but did anyone else see that Palin's 17 year old daughter is pregnant? The Palin's are proud of her DECISION to have the baby.

Every newscaster I've heard talk about the pregnancy has said "the family's decision" is to keep the baby. The "family's" decision. It's also the "family's" decision that she'll get married. At 17. That'd be fine if we were currently residing in 1961. Maybe if Palin hadn't had her head on backward, she'd have realized that teenagers have sex, and her daughter could've been on birth control and not been pregnant and forced into marriage in the first place.
The reason why I think it'll work, is because there are so many women running around so excited about this, they don't seem to realize what's been nominated is an empty shell with boobs and a vag. Hillary was a hard hitting politico, I'm really hoping that the bulk of women out there aren't going to fall for this. And I hope Hillary comes out with force to campaign for Obama, and undo a lot of the damage that was done during the Democratic race.

I read about her daughter, too. I feel so bad for her - considering her mother's politics and the timing, I bet she's under enormous pressure to marry. I can only hope that's what the girl wants. However, I'm glad that Obama and McCain have decided to mostly leave the girl alone.

I, too, find this rather insulting. But I really don't believe that it will work.
Where I live, the majority of the population is conservative. Don't ask me why... seeing as I live in Northern IL, the SW suburbs of Chicago, and a relatively large town. It doesn't make sense to me, but most of my friends' parents were determined to vote for McCain. However, many of them that I have recently talked to decided to change their minds because of Mcain's "ill-informed decision". And they are not just dropping the vote altogether, they are voting for Obama! When I hear all of these people saying this, it almost makes me happy he chose Palin.
What scares me is if they were to win the election. We all know that McCain isn't the epitome of health and youthfulness. While I think I could stand, however horrible it may be, McCain becoming president... I do not think I could watch Palin take over if something were to happen to him. That alone scares the crap out of me.
Watching her speech last night... it sunk my thoughts on her even lower.

I will admit, my wording has been a little harsh. I don't know, this nomination more than just insults me, it makes me very very angry.
I watched the republican convention at my SO's insistence (I like to avoid television/news/radio etc that makes me angry, I feel it isn't productive or helpful for other areas of my life that the funky mood inevitably leaks into) Her speech where she doesn't actually state where she stands on anything, but feels free to belittle the fact that Obama was a community organizer and helped improve the country on a smaller scale through volunteer work, and how she belittled the environmental positions as well....it really angers me. I tried to give her a shot, I tried to maybe see if there was an up side to this woman, but no. I didn't see one. She was condescending and spoke out of turn about things she had no business talking about. "The presidency isn't a journey of self discovery" or something to that effect, like she has this long standing unblemished record of Washington experience.
I did find it interesting that people will talk about how wonderful she is for raising a child with Down's while running for office. I'm sorry, but I don't feel that a woman who can afford full time care for such a young child so she can be vice president could possibly understand the childcare crisis befalling this country. The mere fact that she can afford these five children and work a high profile job says something to me about how out of touch she's bound to be with the average struggling to make ends meet mothers like me.
Did anyone watch the Daily Show last night? They did this piece interviewing people who attended the conference discussing the fact that people were saying it was Bristol's "decision" to have the baby. As if she had a....what's that word? Where there's two options and you pick the one that's best for you?

I didn't hear Palin's speech (I listen to the conventions on the radio), but most of the people I've talked to have been saying the same sorts of things as you: that it was just kind of petty and mean.
Speaking of the Daily Show, the clip below is pretty hilarious:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah...

I just... I hate her. And even though I will vote for Obama, I think the election's already been stolen.

This was a big topic on the radio while I was driving home today (mostly because of Obama's pig comment) and they said that it was shown that there's been a big shift in white women from supporting Obama to McCain, I was so disappointed to hear that. I'm so proud to be a woman and I would absolutely love to have a woman as president or VP someday, but I'd much rather have a man who shares my political beliefs as president than a woman who doesn't even support my right to choose abortion.

She says we might have to go to war with Russia. She throws the word around like it doesn't mean anything. I suppose to her, it doesn't. Those are someone else's babies she's sending to die. War with Russia. Russia's not even a member of NATO. No one knows exactly how many nukes they have, they have a lot. Russia...if they're at war with us, they won't hesitate. This whole country will be a smoking crater, Canada and Mexico desolate radiated wastelands.
Now I have another reason to vote for Obama. War is real. War has ravaged my generation. The boys aren't coming home the same. They're coming home torn and broken. My brother is in Iraq. I want him home safe, and I don't want him sent back. And I don't want him in fucking Russia.

I received this in an email....
***Rape/Incest Trigger***
Hello everyone!
For most of you, this is probably preaching to the choir. However, I think this mail does get the point across, in a good way. For those of you who havent seen the Vagina Monologues (maybe its sounds offensive or too blunt) trust me, you should see it. Its hilarious, and sad, it will make you laugh and cry and very proud to be a woman, no matter what your political or religious offiliation. Here is Eve Ensler's latest:
Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and
>>activist best known for "The Vagina Monologues", wrote the
>>following about Sarah Palin.
>>
Drill, Drill, Drill
>>
>>I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she
>>was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the
>>claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have
>>a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy
>>whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic
>>or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it
>>is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I
>>need the polar bears.
>>
>>I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my
>>life trying to build community, help empower women and stop
>>violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This
>>is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and
>>cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and
>>solidarity of Feminists.
>>
>>But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is
>>antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story --
>>connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women,
>>giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance,
>>and ending violence and war.
>>
>>I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous
>>choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those
>>candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in
>>so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally
>>disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the
>>world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have
>>seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the
>>presidency with regularity.
>>
>>Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a
>>metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing
>>changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global
>>warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying
>>our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of
>>God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the
>>endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be
>>taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot
>>and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is
>>here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi
>>war, "It was a task from God."
>>
>>
>>Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe
>>women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their
>>will should have a right to determine whether they have their
>>rapist's baby or not.
>>
>>
>>She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I
>>imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many
>>babies that makes.
>>
>>
>>Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather
>>she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to
>>dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate
>>an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who
>>could and might very well be the next president of the United
>>States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the
>>earth.
>>
>>
>>Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting
>>rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has
>>shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
>>
>>Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private
>>right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector,
>>when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are
>>denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and
>>state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
>>
>>I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this
>>election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the
>>future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine
>>whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever
>>uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards
>>dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence
>>through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether
>>we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in
>>alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It
>>will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or
>>whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will
>>determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a
>>closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
>>
>>
>>If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your
>>power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the
>>hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of
>>teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of
>>destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises
>>that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis,
>>doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
>>
>>
>>Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the
>>floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between
>>nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious
>>thing we call life?
>>
>>
>>
>>Eve Ensler
>>September 5, 2008
--
"Well-behaved women seldom make history." --Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

I've tried not to think about SP too much,so far. Anytime I do my brain goes numb, probably with fear. And I'm not even American.
Edit: & I think it's laughable that anyone could possibly think that bristol palin made any sort of "descision" to keep her baby.

I found this article on SP and thought I'd share:
Fault Lines In Feminism: Palin Politics Expose Fractures
By Anne K.
Ream for the Chicago Tribune
September 21, 2008
Policies Not In Interests of Women
By most indications, the governor has struck an admirable work-home balance, realizing her ambitions while raising her children with the active support of family, friends, co-workers and her "First Dude." Apparently Hillary Clinton got it right: It does take a village to raise a child.
Those who have criticized Palin for her personal or familial choices have been wrong to do so. She should be applauded for striking a work-family balance.
She just shouldn't be elected for it, particularly when her public policies are so at odds with the interests of women and girls.
Palin supports abstinence-only sex education programs that have increased the risk of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies for young girls.
She opposes gun control, despite the fact that women physically abused by current or former intimate partners have a fivefold increased risk of being murdered by that partner when he owns a gun, according to the Family Violence Prevention Fund.
Problematic positions on rape
She is a staunch opponent of reproductive freedom, taking a position that is extreme even within her own party: that women who are victims of incest or rape should be forced to bear the children of their attackers.
While she was mayor of Wasilla, her town was the only one in Alaska that required rape victims to pay for their own forensic tests. Charging victims for the "rape kits" necessary to collect evidence and convict sexual predators was a "cost-cutting" measure that continued until complaints about her administration's policy prompted the Alaska State Legislature to pass a bill that banned this anti-victim practice statewide.
And if "results" are what matter, we should consider this: Alaska has our nation's highest rate of reported forcible rapes per capita—21/2 times the national average, according to the FBI. Current and former officials from Palin's administration confirm that an ambitious plan to tackle the sexual violence crisis has apparently stalled after arriving at the governor's office.
Such inconvenient facts fly in the face of Palin's pro-women positioning and remind us that real feminism is not only—or primarily—about gender or personal ambition. It is a belief system that is realized when we are as passionately engaged in the struggle for the rights of all women as we are in the struggle for our own.
The irony is that there is a strong feminist candidate running for vice president. Sen. Joe Biden has a long, impressive history of addressing issues affecting women and girls. But Biden—the principal architect and sponsor of the landmark 1994 Violence Against Women Act, a law that has been heralded as one of the most significant breakthroughs in civil rights for women in two decades—is, inconveniently, a white male.

The polls lie. The media is owned, everything's rigged. By popular opinion, Obama's probably winning by a landslide, but we'll never know, because the media is propaganda and lies.