Okay, so my no-politics rule has been blown right out of the water, and I continue to be obsessed with Ms Palin and her campaign office the Fox News Channel. So of course, I had to watch Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren interview Sarah Palin last night, from which I drew a number of interesting conclusions.

• Palin may be ignorant of world affairs but she’s a very, very smart politician
• Palin will be running for President someday and has already started her campaign
• Palin should hire Greta as her Press Secretary
• Van Susteren is the worst sexist of them all

Here’s the question from Greta about all those mean women journalists:

VAN SUSTEREN: How about women journalists? What was your thought about them, the ones -- the ones -- not the ones who spoke favourably about you but the ones who spoke unfavourably?

PALIN: I just would have loved to have the opportunity to have sat down and spoken with them…

I believe you did, Sarah. Wasn’t her name Katie Couric? And where was the question about the meanie boy journalists who asked you hard questions?

On the subject of attracting feminist support…

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it's interesting. You lured some feminists to the Republican ticket, which you might not expect. I mean, feminists have typically been Democrats. By feminists, I mean some of the farther left. But you lured some of them. But if you think about it, a woman on the ticket is very exciting for women. Why do you think that you didn't get more women? I mean, you're a working woman. You've been successful as a governor. Why do you think some women probably weren't lured to your ticket?

PALIN: I don't know, but I'm going to work harder on that, if anything ever happens in the future in terms of me running for office, to kind of put more women at ease, I guess, with the idea of me or any other woman serving in higher office.

What I find irritating about this — other than Van Susteren’s determination not to ask anything that might cast Palin in a bad light — is the assumption that female journalists should be asking different questions to male journalists. That somehow women should be nicer, care less about issues and demand less of a candidate because we’re all the same gender. That Sarah Palin’s success scares us poor girls because we’re not used to “women in high office” (something she’d know was nonsense if she could see Europe from Alaska) is such utter nonsense that it’s insulting.

In my experience, women don’t have a problem with women in high office. I think they didn’t all jump on the Sarah Palin bandwagon not because she’s female and the idea is too new and shiny for them to cope with. They didn’t follow her  because women vote for issues that means something to them and their families over gender and right or wrong, during most of the campaign, Palin came across as an ignorant twit.

And since when do you have to be left wing to be a feminist? Hasn’t Palin heard of Margaret Thatcher?

Oh, maybe not. You can’t see England from Wasilla.

The full transcript of the interview is here

Given that most of the time us woman are voting for me gender has never really come into it. I personally won't vote for a woman just because she is a woman. I am voting for whoever based on thier policies, pure and simple.

I personally think a lot of woman were put off by her being an ignorant twit, and I think Amercia was at the point they were sick of an ignorant twit running the country why would they want to put another one in that position (well vice position!)

opps I really should proof read before posting! lol that should be 'voting for men' in the first line... not me... ha me in politics... i wouldn't last a day!

I admit she scared the heck out of me, not by being ignorant, but on the topics she did put out there as core beliefs to her being. Especially the interview where she refused to admit blowing up abortion clinics is an act terrorism.

It's as Sam Bee put it. 'Vagina Americans have to stick together'

I'm not the only one who thinks this is an issue...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-clothier/why-americans-still-need_b_142830.html

Good old Fox 'news' - it's always fascinating to me that anyone would actually want to become a journalist for Fox. What shining role models you have (Bill O'Reilly for instance)

Sarah Palin is just plain scary. It doesn?t surprise me that Alaska has her as a Governor ? after all its probably too cold most of the year to get out and vote so her extended family got her in. But it stunned me that McCain chose her as his VP running mate ? OK I can see that they thought she would appeal to women (after all they also thought we had the brain cell of an amoeba and were stuck in the kitchen in bare feet anyway) but I think that what they really thought is that all the good ol? boys and redneck America would just love her. And undoubtedly they did?those who took time out of their busy shootin? schedule to go in and vote. But to the more enlightened parts of the planet, Sarah represents a world where freedom is a word in a country music song lamenting cheating hearts.

Her argument that she needs to work harder at putting women at ease so they get used to the idea of women in higher office is ridiculous. What the hell is Condaleeza Rice? A block of flats? Women don?t have issues with women being in higher office ? they have issues with idiots in higher office!

The only thing that tempers things a little is that we DO tend to focus more on the superficial issues with women in power. In NZ they had a woman prime minister for 9 years and she did a damned fine job of leading the country. But I have heard even the smartest of women comment when they see Helen Clark on the telly that she really could have done something with her hair. Lets forget that she told the Americans that they could take their war in Iraq and stuff it their jacksie, lets sit back and go ?hmm those teeth could have done with a bit of work hey?? And the fact that she never had kids?well all that did is create sniggering comments that she isn?t really a woman at all.

So it seems that despite leading a country to record low unemployment, and good economic growth ? many people focus on what she looks like. And lets be honest, that kind of shallowness is driven by women and not men. Men don?t spend millions of dollars per year on magazines that extol the virtues of drinking nothing but water and lemons to get that bikini body; the top ten tips for getting a man into bed; and the winners and losers on the red carpet. Women judge other women on what they look like and we are very good at undermining the success of other women.

I work in HR and I cant even begin to tell you how many women I have interviewed who have said things like: ?I don?t like to report to a woman. I just work better with men.? Many women don?t trust women in authority and are more likely to question the validity of the senior woman?s role ? accusations of casting couch promotions are common, even when it is obvious that the manager was promoted or employed on experience and qualifications.

I guess what I am saying is, that Sarah Palin doesn?t have what it takes to be a woman in power. Yeah she is nice looking enough, but she isn?t smart like Condaleeza and determined enough like Helen Clark. And that is why women don?t vote for her.

I'd happily vote to put llama's into power, provided they were smart llamas:)

Preach it, Jennifer! :)

I was open to Sarah Palin when I first heard about her, but I came to despise her as I got to know more about her and watched her interviews. There's no doubt she is a smart enough person (I think you have to be to get anywhere in politics), but she doesn't have the necessary experience.