Summing up Palin

She's a nightmare. She looks like Wall Street, talks like a populist, and has a heartless, dictatorial core that only reserves love (but not attention*) for her own family. She's infectious, exciting, folksy, fun, approachable, determined, focused, and CERTAIN about God's world.

We need to do all we can to peel away all this disarming attitude and to reveal the actions of the fear-ridden little dictator underneath that beautiful sunshine.

*I've been thinking often about Palin and the way she brought her infant onto the brightly lit, noisy, overwhelming stage at the convention--something I wouldn't have done with either of our babies. But was I being too critical? Then I was reminded about Phyllis Schlafly and how she's always been the conservative symbol for feminists who think women should be no more than wife and mother. This isn't quite accurate, I think Schlafly's position was pro wife-and -mother, but not anti-work. But in either case, the biggest argument today is "what's best for children." And that's a whole can of worms for feminists and Phylis Schlafly who was really discussing a woman's sense of happiness, not a family's happiness (which often requires self-sacrifice). I grew up with a father who dedicated his life to the ministry and was out of the lives of his children most of the time. So when I look at Sarah Palin, I see a parent, and a mother, who is putting most of her attention elsewhere in a BIG WAY. I'm not saying she's wrong, but I am saying that she's not pro-family by any stretch of the conservative imagination. If the right was saying this about John Edwards' campaign, then they can darn well say this about Palin.

Peace.