Also, how is it that it’s not okay to go after Michelle Obama when she stumps for her husband, but it’s okay to go after Palin’s pregnant teenaged daughter because of some arcane rule you and your buddies on the left made up?

Please. Michelle Obama can’t be touched even though she’s leading rallies for her husband, but it’s open season on a 17-year-old girl because her mother says she’s a mom? Your logic is so twisted I’m getting dizzy trying to follow it.

You also seem to have completely blown past the issue of the press INVESTIGATING Palin and about to release the fact that her daughter was pregnant. That’s why the press release was issued. Palin was forced into it.

J4J: http://blogs.jta.org/politics/2008/09/02/1226/sarah-palins-looming-pastor-problem/

I agree with you on the racism thing and also think it is worth pointing out when criticism of Obama depends on racist tropes. Same goes for Palin and sexism. To be fair to both, neither has really played the victim card the way others might (Jesse Jackson, Hillary Clinton).

As for Palin and Jews for Jesus, I have not heard of that connection. Cite, please.

I’m not dismissing all racism here. But I don’t believe that if Obama is not elected, it’s because Americans are bigots. Some Americans are bigots. But I really don’t think we’re a nation of David Dukes, which is how some on the other side are making out non-Obama voters.

Of course racism is playing a part in this election. Some people are voting for Obama BECAUSE he’s black. Some people are telling us we SHOULD vote for him because he’s black. How is that not racist? Of course, it’s considered the “good” kind of racism.

Four years ago, I thought that America was not yet ready for a black president. Now, I think she is. But not this one. And not because he’s black. Because he’s green.

1. I’ve never even seen a moose. Have you, Meryl?

2. The Bush Doctrine permits the US to use military means to quell emerging – rather than imminent – threats to national security. It was enunciated over time, starting with the ‘axis of evil’ speech and coming into force with the invasion of Iraq. I believe Charles Krauthammer gave it a name, but he did not bring it into existence.

3. I was 14 when I got my first passport and used it to visit four countries (not including Canada and none of which I could see from my home state) before I left high school. I even live abroad now (again, not in Canada).

4. I go to shul maybe a half-dozen times a year.

5. I reject the premise of your question. If my teenaged daughter got pregnant, I would not issue a press release about it. If I did issue a press release about it, I certainly wouldn’t bitch when reporters followed it up. Following up press releases is part of a reporter’s job. If I held the same political positions regarding sex and abortion as Sarah Palin, I might see in my teenaged daughter’s pregnancy a reason to re-evaluate my thinking. I guess that’s another way I’m not like her.

6. This is a good question. If you believe gender is a social construct built on certain irreducible biological facts which must nevertheless be overcome in order to achieve genuine liberation, then the answer is yes. If you define feminism as being atleast as much of an asshole as the next smug Republican male, then no.

7. No.

8. Clinton, Clinton, Nader, Bush.

9. No

10. False

11. False.

How’d I do?

I’d like to ask a question now: are you at all concerned, Meryl, with Palin’s Jews for Jesus dalliance? I seem to recall you’ve promulgated some rather astringent opinions on the subject of deceptively proselytizing Jews.

I also find it interesting that someone as perceptive as you are about anti-Semitism is so dismissive of the possibility that racism is at play in this election.

I don’t know where you are going with that but according to all the pro-choice woman I know, including my wife, the answer would have been yes.

Clinton is said by friends to be “gutted” that she put 18m cracks in the glass ceiling for women only to have Palin kick in the pane. But she is thought to share Palin’s conviction that the media are treating the Alaskan governor unfairly.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4749000.ece

Actually, looking for this quote, the first reference I found to Hillary and “gutted” was Monica describing how she felt “gutted” when Bill admitted the sexual harrassment on national TV and never appologized to her. Kind of a funny term, and telling maybe of sympathy for Monica, in a way. I don’t know.