Political Communication blog

I think Sarah Palin is just a beautiful woman and i don't see how she could "tone it down." Her outfits were not revealing or provocative. What this video is really saying, to me, is that she needs to "ugly it up" a little. Ridiculous.
 

I agree with you Sarah Dale. I think it is sad that some people think that just because someone is pretty that they are not smart. This is crazy. You would think that people would have a little more common sense than this. I don't think she needs to change anything.
 

Wow, honestly that video was pretty funny. I agree with the other comments that have been made. Sarah Palin is a beautiful woman, but she always dressed appropriately. I don't see the need for her to do anything differently in the dress arena. Also, it is interesting to me that they are saying she was too pretty for politics when it seems that a male politician is just out of luck if they are not attractive. Do we see a double standard here?
 

Sarah Palin is attractive, but that had nothing to do with why I voted against her. If anything, it gave me cause to do a little hand wringing because I knew that it made her more likely to get some votes.

A strongly sexist old buddy of mine had earlier in the election cycle argued with me about why Hillary Clinton could not be president (in his opinion, which he attributed to his faith, a woman absolutely should not attain an office where she would be a leader of men). I mean we literally had knock-down, drag-out, friendship-ending arguments over this. (He would always come back though; we're still friends.)

When Palin was chosen, he pulled a 180 and became the biggest Palin supporter you can imagine. What I found especially curious about it was that he made an absolute distinction in his mind to justify it: he said that she was only running for Vice-president. As if the possibility of her having to step in did not exist.

I don't think her looks mattered in the least for why people voted against her. The other analyst besides Pat Buchanan touched on it late in the clip though. The GOP kept her far too insulated. Think about this, she never did a single press-conference. Not one. Not counting the heavily scripted debate, she had what, 2 interviews? And the Couric interview was a disaster. Supporters liked to blame Katie Couric for that, but no. Blame Palin's handlers, who stuffed her head so full of information in an effort to cram, that when it came time to answer the few questions she would receive during the entire campaign, random nonsense came tumbling out instead.

Granted, I would not have voted for her anyway because of party differences, but the whole affair made her look like she didn't know anything and was incompetent, at a time when this country absolutely could not afford to have leaders who are.

What's interesting to me is I've seen other older clips of Sarah Palin, where she wasn't in the spotlight of a national campaign, and she sounded and acted completely different, leading me to the conclusion that the McCain/Palin 08 Sarah Palin was very much put on. The folksy way of speaking, the winks, the you-betchas, I'm pretty sure that it was all an act. And she was never once given an opportunity to prove that there might be more to her than that.

But to suggest her looks cost Mac any votes, in my opinion is just ludicrous and wrong, and a case of some analysts throwing something out there to try to make a story. Pat Buchanan isn't a reporter- his job is to create news. If anything, she revived and energized McCain's campaign, which would have probably floundered about all through the fall, and kept me nervous for a few months. :)
 

I agree too. Completely ridiculous that people are implying that women in her position can either be pretty or intelligent/competent. That's so offensive to me and I'm sure to all women. People saying that are probably just jealous because Palin is so attractive.
 

I didn't see Dan's post until after I posted my first comment, and I do agree with you. Although, I was a huge supporter of McCain/Palin, I did not agree at all that Palin was running for VP. I agree with Dan in that women should not be in a position for President and/or VP. These leadership positions should be for men. On the other hand, I see no problem with women being executives of large corporations. (Politics are in a different realm in my opinion.)

So, I do think it is ridiculous and unfair that people would say Palin is too attractive and imply that a woman can't be both beautiful and intelligent. However, I also do not agree with any woman being in the position of President or VP, as Dan was saying.
 

WHOAH, let me hit the brakes on this. :) I did not say women shouldn't be leaders. That's what a sexist buddy of mine says. He also said that women were fine running a business (considering his mother is a president of a bank in Atlanta, he has no choice there). I don't understand why someone would think this way though, especially a woman herself. Why would you disqualify yourself and your fellow American women like that?

In fact, I think we need a run of not only black men as president, but black women, white women, Latino, Asian, Native American, etc. This country needs different perspectives, or risk becoming stagnant. The white male perspective has had quite a long run, don't you think? Don't you want to see what someone else can do?