In an interview Thursday, Palin said she meant only to say that discussion of alternative views should be allowed to arise in Alaska classrooms:

"I don't think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."

She added that, if elected, she would not push the state Board of Education to add such creation-based alternatives to the state's required curriculum.

....

Palin said she thought there was value in discussing alternatives.

"It's OK to let kids know that there are theories out there," she said in the interview. "They gain information just by being in a discussion."

That was how she was brought up, she said. Her father was a public school science teacher.

"My dad did talk a lot about his theories of evolution," she said. "He would show us fossils and say, 'How old do you think these are?' "

Link

 In the meantime she set up, in Alaska, a Climate Change SubCabinet with a Climate Change Strategy

  People who live near hurricane paths don't know the causes any more than you and I do.  I hope you don't really believe  a series of hurricanes never happened in the past.   I personally believe that global warming is definitely partially human-caused but I also know that it has happened in cycles naturally too.

  Right to choose -- she does have one exception (and this is her most radical stance and probably the one most likely to kill the McCain ticket) and that's only if a mother would die without an abortion.  I'd not want her appointing Supreme Court Justices, though I will add that she has shown disinterest in pushing legislation banning abortion and has obstructed such legislative pushes as she's more interested in other things.

  You won't find any source that she wants creationism taught as a science unless in some crazy talking-points memo from some group that loves simplistic point-making based on almost nothing.  She has said that she thinks it can be discussed within a science class in that people who are religious should be allowed to ask about it and then the teacher explains how evolution works rather than refuses to acknowledge the family-raised belief -- causing no real communication and less effect.  She has said there was no need for a course to be made on it but that it could be brought up.  (I would add that there should be a regulation that it be brief and not interfere with the time spent on scientifically based information in a science class.)  Her father was a science teacher.

  If you take the time to read the Full Transcript of the UNEDITED interview with Gibson, you won't keep (I hope) making false statements about her chafing at the bit to go war with Russia.  This is based on Nothing.  The question was about NATO support of MEMBER countries and what might happen if Georgia was allowed to be a member of NATO and she said only "Perhaps so" that we'd have to "help" because NATO Agreement demands that member nations help one another in certain situations of invasion.

Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence Fishing Perhaps no issue is of greater importance to Alaska Native peoples as the right to hunt and fish according to ancient customary and traditional practices, and to carry on the subsistence way of life for future generations. Governor Sarah Palin has consistently opposed those rights. Once in office, Governor Palin decided to continue litigation that seeks to overturn every subsistence fishing determination the federal government has ever made in Alaska. (State of Alaska v. Norton, 3:05-cv-0158-HRH (D. Ak).) In pressing this case, Palin decided against using the Attorney General (which usually handles State litigation) and instead continued contracting with Senator Ted Stevens' brother-in-law's law firm (Birch, Horton, Bittner & Cherot).

i am a former democrat who was driven from my party by what i considered massive corruption and forced to make other choices. i will not discuss the primary as it, too, is verboten here. however, as a daily lurker and an informed voter - who happens to take that right very seriously - despite the fact that i am pro-choice, i am not a one issue voter. no, what you have stated is not necessarily sexism, but it is arrogant and frankly, rude.

in my opinion, that attitude is exactly what has kept me and other voters disenchanted with obama from considering him at all. yes, call me and others stupid. the woman with 5 children has her opinion why she won't vote for mccain/palin. is she stupid because she doesn't agree with me? no. i might consider her uninformed, envious or narrow-minded, but to call her and others stupid simply because they have a different mindset is in itself narrow-minded and mean.

whether mccain chose palin to excite his base or entice voters such as myself (and pretty much all of my family and friends) to vote for him is beside the point. no matter the choice, it would have ignited some and turned off others. had he chosen lieberman, i most likely would have voted 3rd party. same goes for romney.

finally, iris, i am a woman in my fifties. my mom was a charter member of n.o.w. and a pioneer in her business career, being the first woman promoted to manager in a fortune 500 company in the 70s. without her, the women who followed in her footsteps might have waited ten or more years to have the same opportunities. she experienced harrassment, sexism, wage inequality and worked her ass off. it's ok for the black population to vote 90% for obama, whether they believe in his policies or not, but it's stupid for women to want to help a women reach the 2nd highest office in the land for the first time ever. i would have preferred that first woman be hillary, but my former party made other undemocratic choices. as far as i'm concerned, as a woman, sarah palin, compared to obama and what i consider extreme religious views that i believe he WILL inject into government if elected, is more to be PRESIDENT than obama and i'll take my chances in order to break that glass ceiling forever.

By way of disclosure, I would never vote for Palin, or any Republican, in a month of Sundays. However, I don't find it necessary, or politically persuasive to characterize any of her supporters as "incredibly stupid" women. In fact, I doubt that it is ever productive to characterize anybody with a divergent/objectionable opinion as an "incredibly stupid" person.

Is it sexist? Well, the word "stupid" has a particularly corrosive effect on women, because I don't imagine there are many woman in this, or any other country, who haven't been repeatedly subjected to that characterization at some point in their lives.

It's hard to see how her less than two years as Alaska governor and her service as mayor and council member of a small town in Alaska DO qualify her to serve potentially as POTUS or even VP some day.

Heck, even Biden coming from tiny, tiny Delaware has a larger constituency than Palin. And it is hard to translate the myriad demands on a POTUS or VP into a match with the experience Governor Palin has in a fairly unique setting like Alaska.

Foreign policy? Nil. Financial markets and taxes and economic recovery? Has she had to cope with these things even in the small scale that she's worked? My understanding is that Alaska enjoys surpluses and, in fact, issues dividend checks from energy profits to its citizens.

Nor, is it about her views on creationism.

Context is lost when comments are deleted (5.00 / 3) (#121)

by Cream City on Sat Sep 20, 2008 at 05:31:38 AM EST

that show that this was a reply after a series of comments about gender, mothering, etc.

More to your point, your excerpts from the story clearly show that Palin's motherhood is costing McCain support in Florida.  So some commenters here applauded that concern -- and are not called out for straying.  Then other commenters here (some deleted, so that their numbers are not evident now) replied to point out that is supporting sexism for the sake of McCain losing support in Florida.  All on point, it would seem.

Simply put, why single out this comment of mine, when so many others were commenting on that excerpt as well -- and many of them remain undeleted but also unchastised?  What is it about this comment that is singled out, and others not?