This is one time I think the candidate should step down to spend more time with her family. A cursory look at Sarah Palin’s personal life, details of which are exploding as from an overripe papaya:
· She's the mother of an infant
· She has four other kids
· Her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant
· She may have canned an official who refused to can her brother-in-law
That her husband has a decades-old DUI, I don’t see as fair game. He’s a grown man and she’s not in charge of what he did as a 22-year-old. She does, as a mother, have untold responsibilities to her kids. You know how much work an infant is? Not much, but it’s a ton of time, as a baby tends to have needs at any and all and often inconvenient times. Okay, so maybe she farms out that part of the mothering job; she gets a nanny. She can also hire cooks and drivers and tutors, so the day-to-day family stuff is taken care of. But the kids still need attention, and if you think older kids don’t, I will only say: ha. My 18-year-old daughter called me yesterday from JFK airport in New York (I’m in Portland, Oregon). She was in the back of a cab and wanted to know how to get to downtown Brooklyn.
“Just tell the cabbie to take whatever way has less traffic at this hour,” I told her.
“But he’s asking me which way,” she said, sounding cranky from the red-eye flight, maybe feeling a little unsafe, unsure.
And this kid’s not pregnant. Anybody out there remember the first time she was pregnant, the 100,000 questions, the fears and tears? If you were seventeen and living at home with your parents, whom would you ask? And expect to answer you? Do you farm this out, too?
I imagine there are people reading this whose hair is going up in flames at the idea I’m suggesting the above might be a mother’s job, and interpret this to mean, I don’t think a woman should be president. Bull. But I don’t think this woman should be president right now. I think it is nigh impossible for her to optimally perform both jobs at the same time. Would I be of the same opinion if Palin were a man? I don’t know. And if I thought she would make a truly outstanding president, would I surmise she could do both? Yes.
But I don't think she would. Leaving off any parent’s responsibilities, let's look at the responsibilities of a politician. From the Washington Independent:
If a small-town mayor ever ruled with an iron fist — it was Palin. Eleven days after taking office in 1996, she mailed letters to each of the city’s top managers requesting that they resign as a test of loyalty.The Anchorage Daily News at the time reported the strange events: (via Nexis)
Mayor Sarah Palin sent the resignation requests Thursday to Police Chief Irl Stambaugh, public works director Jack Felton, finance director Duane Dvorak and Mary Ellen Emmons, the head of libraries. A fifth director — John Cooper, who oversaw the city museum — resigned earlier this month after Palin eliminated his position.
Cooper initially resisted resigning, but to no avail. Palin also later fired the police chief, saying she knew in her “heart” that he did not support her. She left the head of libraries a letter saying she was out — though Palin later decided to spare the librarian after being convinced that she would tow the line.
Do click on that last link, to see what Palin expects, namely, people’s “full support,” though she declines to cite why she doesn’t think she has it, beyond, “You know in your heart when someone is supportive of you.” Have we not had enough of someone making decisions via a vital organ other than the brain?
Go home, Sarah Palin, and use that "heart" to support your family, though there are questions as to the costs of that loyalty, too.