There has been a lot of coverage in the Left blogs about comments made by Sarah Palin about Hillary Clinton. And let me be clear, the comments are bad. But I think it is important to state precisely what the comments were. Too often the Left screams about deceptive misquotations (See Milbank, Dana), so I think it is important not to live in a glass house. So here is what Palin said, in pertinent part:
PALIN: . . . [F]air or unfair and I do think it is a more concentrated criticism that Hillary gets on so many fronts, and I think that is unfortunate, she does herself a disservice to even mention it. You have to plow through that and you have to know what you are getting into - I say that with all due respect to Hillary Clinton and to her experience and to her passion for changing the status quo - when I hear a statement like that coming from a woman candidate, with any kind of perceived whine about that excess criticism, you know a sharper microscope put on her, I think that doesn't do us any good - women in politics, women in general wanting to progress this country. I do not think it bodes well for her a statement like that because, again, fair or unfair, it is there that's reality I think it is a given - people can just accept the she is going to be under that sharper microscope So be it. Work harder prove yourself to an even greater degree that you are capable that you are going to be the best candidate and that of course is what she wants us to believe at this point. So it bothers me a little bit hearing her bring that attention to herself on that level.
Palin accepts that Hillary Clinton suffered from sexist coverage (something the Left blogs have NOT accepted. See John Aravosis for instance) but that Hillary should have sucked it up. Pretty bad stuff. But she did not call Hillary a whiner or deny that Hillary faced sexism.
Her attitude was similar to that exhibited by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi:
Yes, there was sexism," Pelosi told a group of reporters over breakfast this morning. . . . Pelosi said Clinton had benefited from the excitement that was generated among women by her candidacy. But that was offset by sexism, she added, stopping short of pinning Clinton's defeat on gender bias. Pelosi said she hadn't studied the question in detail but was merely speaking "instinctively."
Pelosi also said that she has been a victim of sexism, "all the time. But I just think it goes with the territory."
"I think that women, we have to get away from the politics of victim. This is about you go out there and you fight," she said. "I think that what Hillary Clinton did was tremendous for the country. She has kicked open many doors, which now we have to bring many more women through, millions more women through. My being speaker of the House was breaking the marble ceiling in Congress, which is hard. Sen. Clinton [had] a bigger challenge to run for president of the United States. What we have to do now is say, we have to translate that not just for individuals, but for all women."
I found Pelosi's statements to be bad too. I found the denials of sexism, and the ignoring of sexism to be incredibly bad on the Left, particularly in the blogs.
Let me put it this way, most of the Left blogs are the wrong messengers for attacking Sarah Palin on this statement.
