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Nov

13

Message to GOP pols: Sticks, stones may break bones, but name-calling makes you lose

Filed Under Campaigning, Elections, Politics, Republicans, Statehouse, Voting | 4 Comments

The disrespect, marginalization and haughtiness shown by older GOP politicians in New Hampshire toward people who take the initiative to change what they think they could do better is appalling and obvious in this example of Republican contempt gone wild.

Vanessa Sievers, a Dartmouth College junior, was not content to wait tables or make coffee as a side job. Instead she ran for treasurer of Grafton County, N.H., and won, unseating the incumbent and unleashing a war of words.

The current county treasurer, Carol Elliott, 68, called Ms. Sievers, 20, a “teenybopper” in an interview with a local newspaper, The Valley News, and said she had won only because “brainwashed college kids” had voted for the Democratic ticket.

…

There has been no love lost between Ms. Elliott and [the person who suggested to a group of Dartmough students that they consider running, county registrar of deeds, Bill] Sharp, who contends Ms. Elliott would not tell him how much money was in a county account linked to his office. In the Valley News interview, Ms. Elliott called Mr. Sharp a “buffoon.”

…

The county Republican chairman, Ludlow Flower, however, does not think that new media or college students belong in a county race.

“College students are not involved in local things at all,” Mr. Flower said. “They’re only involved in Dartmouth College. They don’t buy property here, they don’t pay taxes here, so they’re not concerned with how the treasury is handled.”

I guess that’s another version of who is a “real” American and who isn’t?  That tuition they pay, the utilities they use, the food they eat and the jobs they fill to pay for school are also evidence that they’re not concerned with how the treasury is handled?

Sigh. This kind of outcome might be another reason why, as much as some right-wingers in Ohio don’t like it, Kevin DeWine is trying to sound a new tone because this old one just ain’t gonna translate into wins for anyone.

Meanwhile, score another coup for the influence of social media on elections:

Ms. Sievers beat Ms. Elliott by 586 votes out of about 42,000 cast, and won big in Hanover, home to Dartmouth, and Plymouth, home to both Ms. Elliott and Plymouth State University.

…

Ms. Sievers’s big investment in the campaign was a $51 advertisement on Facebook, which she paid for with her own money.

“I took advantage of new media, and she did not,” Ms. Sievers said.

The GOP has a long, long way to go.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:50 pm November 13th, 2008 in Campaigning, Elections, Politics, Republicans, Statehouse, Voting | 4 Comments 

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Nov

13

If Palin makes good on calling Clinton, they can discuss how polarizing they are

Filed Under Culture, Hillary Clinton, Politics, Sarah Palin, Women | 2 Comments

When, during the primaries, I would hear or read even President-elect Obama – say that Hillary Clinton is so divisive, is so polarizing, I kind of knew but didn’t really understand for a long time what they meant by that.  If people feel one way or the other, strongly in either direction about someone, that’s about the people with the feelings, more than the person whom others are saying is divisive. That a person elicits strong reactions, in one direction or another…well, if you want to win elections, we know that’s not the best way to be, so wouldn’t you think a candidate would work their darnedest to gravitate toward being something other than polarizing, right?

Well, today, Gallup came out with some numbers about how people feel about Sarah Palin – nothing incredibly new or surprising.  But this conclusion at a post about the numbers at Real Clear Politics really echoed from Clinton:

All in all, not much new here: opinions of Palin remain sharply divided along partisan lines, and while her image appears to have improved marginally in the days following the election, she’ll probably remain a polarizing figure in the years ahead.

Really interesting.  I want to know: are the candidates divisive, or is it the electorate that feels divided about them?  And is that connected to them being women? See – I think there’s something in that, not them themselves.  But that’s just a thought.

Meanwhile, I’m keeping an informal lookout for when Palin makes that call she told Greta Van Susteren she was going to make to Hillary Clinton:

VAN SUSTEREN: Have you ever talked to Senator Clinton?

PALIN: Have not, but I’m going to call her tomorrow.

VAN SUSTEREN: You are?

PALIN: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: What are you going to tell her?

PALIN: Yes. I’m going to tell her, More power to you. You — I’ve got a lot of respect for what she has accomplished. And she — you know, I feel like she certainly — having gone before me, she helped shatter glass ceilings left and right. And yes, that one is still there above Hillary, above me, above every woman.

But she certainly cracked it a lot. And I have respect for what she was able to accomplish. Still disagree on a lot of the policies that she would adopt if she were to have been elected, but just understanding what she went through also, and that life-work balance that no doubt she’s had to strike all these years. I have a lot of respect for that.

That was aired on Tuesday, November 11.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:36 pm November 13th, 2008 in Culture, Hillary Clinton, Politics, Sarah Palin, Women | 2 Comments 

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Nov

13

RNC files lawsuit to overturn McCain-Feingold

Filed Under Barack Obama, Congress, Courts, Ethics, John McCain, Law, Politics, Republicans | Comments Off

From the Washington Times, the who, the when and the what:

The Republican Party will file federal lawsuits Thursday seeking to overthrow the McCain-Feingold federal campaign finance regulations, Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. “Mike” Duncan revealed Wednesday night at a private dinner with the nation’s Republican governors.

The move is considered a slap in the face of the Republican Party’s failed 2008 presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was dramatically outspent by Democrat Barack Obama, and of President Bush, who signed McCain-Feingold into law in 2002.

The where and the how:

Mr. Duncan said one suit will be filed in the District of Columbia to strike down the soft-money ban that is the central tenet of the McCain-Feingold Act — formally known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. “Soft money” is largely unrestricted contributions from wealthy individuals, corporations and labor unions.

The second suit will be in a Louisiana federal court to strike down the limits under the law Mr. McCain co-sponsored with Sen. Russ Feingold, Wisconsin Democrat, that control coordination between parties and their candidates.

And the why:

“It prohibits us from spending over $84,000 in coordination with a candidate in a congressional race,” Mr. Duncan said. “That means we have to find some group to raise and spend money but without any coordination” with the candidate, his campaign or the RNC.

“That does not allow for a unified message,” he said. “We don’t think there is anything corrupting about coordinating with a candidate.”

Just like Ohio Republican Chair Bob Bennett said Tuesday morning.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:11 pm November 13th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Congress, Courts, Ethics, John McCain, Law, Politics, Republicans | Comments Off 

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Nov

13

Is Obama a Jew or an Arab?

Filed Under Barack Obama, Israel, Jewish, PostWH2008 | 2 Comments

I love this post at Life in Israel:

This image was cropped out of the Haaretz website… these news items ran one after the other….

So, is he Jewish or is he Bedouin Arab?

Rafi goes on to comment about how everyone seems to want to claim Obama as their own. I’ve gotten that sense as well and also think about what demands those claims bring with them.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:43 am November 13th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Israel, Jewish, PostWH2008 | 2 Comments 

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Nov

13

Tina Brown: Who does look after Palin’s kids?

Filed Under Parenting, Sarah Palin | 6 Comments

I went back and forth ad nauseum on three women-only listservs about the salience of that question.  I felt free, and others on the lists felt free, to agree and disagree about whether that question gnawed at us and about whether or not it was something any of us should write about.  Overall, few of us did write about it – including me. But it never stopped bothering me that we knew about Joe Biden and John McCain and Barack Obama’s integration or lack thereof into the parenting role yet heard almost nothing from a candidate who held up the image of mom constantly, yet never gave it any meat (broken record alert: conclusory).

Now, Tina Brown, in The Daily Beast, says it.  If you don’t know who Tina Brown is, well, then, you don’t know who she is. But if you do, then you will probably raise an eyebrow and be curious to see what she would have to say about this subject, because she herself isn’t exactly the first image that comes into one’s mind when thinking about successful women who juggle or manage it all.

I don’t agree with all of Brown’s assertions about how Palin “must” feel and so on, but I agree with the desire to want to know the feelings, whatever they are.

For example:

That’s why the missed opportunity in Palin’s interviews (interviews that will be rich ridicule fodder for other reasons) was her answer to Van Susteren’s most sisterly question about the ordeals of the campaign: “Was it harder on your family, do you think?” “My family’s pretty tough,” she replied, “and they—because I’ve been in local office and state office since ’92. You know, the kids have grown up with this. I think they’re kind of used to that, which is sort of unfortunate, if you think about it, that they’ve—you know, they’ve grown up seeing things said and written about their mom that, you know, even they know hasn’t always been true. But I think that they know that that’s sort of the nature of the beast of politics.”

Oh, really? Eight-month-old Trig knows? Seven-year-old Piper, who was yanked from school and her friends for two months, knows? I’m unwilling to believe that Palin is an uncaring mother, so this blithe statement of unreflective parenting reflects and reinforces what working women with children seem obliged to tell themselves.

What’s the point in even asking or wondering about the Mom in Palin? From Brown:

Politically and policy-wise, Palin’s post-election publicity blitz, like her two-month run as McCain’s running mate, demonstrated that she was at least four years, and more likely eight, from being ready for national prime time. But she could play a valuable leadership role—right now—by being honest about and sharing what she really does know about: combining healthy ambition with mothering five kids. Confronting the pain she must have felt—and, even I dare to suggest, the guilt she won’t allow is there—at her own parental oversight when her teenage daughter got pregnant. Struggling with that other decision she has also blown off as an easy call: to continue with her own late-in-life pregnancy when she found she would give birth to a Down syndrome baby. (And it was a decision, “pro-life” platitudes notwithstanding.) If Sarah Palin would address these things honestly with American women and tell it like it really is, she might not redeem the intellectual blunders of the trail. But she might redeem herself, and—who knows?—maybe, someday, win herself national office.

I know exactly what Brown means.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:29 am November 13th, 2008 in Parenting, Sarah Palin | 6 Comments 

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