A Friend Stopped By | 09/06/2008 2:48 pm

Margo Howard Asks: Can You See The Smoke Coming Out of My Ears?

Editor’s Note: A longtime journalist, Margo Howard went into the family business (her mother was the fabled Ann Landers) in the 1990s as Dear Prudence. Her broad experience and understanding of human nature provide answers for the troubled — and entertainment for everyone else. Click here to read her column on Yahoo!

I know, I know, everybody and their dog is weighing in on Sarah Palin, but I must add to the noise. I am channeling Joan Rivers here, but can we talk? I am going to come right out and say it … and I will say it in English. I think the deal with the kid who is knocked-up is tacky. I have no problem with a 17-year-old getting tripped up with her boyfriend of a year. My problem is with a mother who not only allows it to be breezed around the globe, but who then gets very in-your-face about it, as in, “I dare you to make something of it.”

The conservative fundamentalists who would have raised cane if Chelsea Clinton had gotten herself in a family way at 17 have found a way to pretzel this around so that the family is heroic for not choosing an abortion. And … as if this weren’t enough, the father-to-be, or “sex on skates” as one publication called him, is flown to St. Paul where he is met at the airport by John McCain!

Are these people crazy? It all looks like a reward for, well, never mind. Then, the kid winds up on stage with Palin’s family and he is chewing gum. And … in place of a ring on his ring finger is the tattoo “Bristol.” If you can think of anything more tasteless, do drop me a line. I have about had it with “family values.”

Read more about: Election 2008, John McCain, Politics, Sarah Palin

573 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Mooselini Creepy……………..that is so funny.,

By Dona Howlett on 09/07/2008 3:40 am

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Personally, I thought an earlier one—Caribou Barbie was cleverer. Shall I tell some for Sen Obama I see on other sites—also clever and even laugh-out-loud funny, but I would never post them here. I keep thinking there will be a more elevated discourse here.

By Star Lawrence on 09/07/2008 10:36 am

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You want elevated discourse? Here’s your girl in action Using the words ‘elevated’ and ‘discourse’ in connection with Palin=total oxymoron. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1vPYbRB7k

By Suzanne de Cornelia on 09/07/2008 12:15 pm

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Woman. She is a woman.

By Star Lawrence on 09/07/2008 1:49 pm

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Not what a woman is in my book. Not the kind of ‘woman’ I wish to endure.

By Suzanne de Cornelia on 09/07/2008 3:14 pm

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Maurine - I did come back on-line to respond to a few of the “alerts”. Okay - I will accept your claim that there is no Sisterhood. Apparently, there never was. As for the speech, we all realize that the candidates have speechwriters. The good ones have speechwriters who listen to their candidate and work with the candidate so that the speech is “real”. When President George H. Bush said that line “read my lips, no new taxes”, everybody new that was not the way he spoke. And he hated saying it; and that also was apparent. When Peggy Noonan wrote the speech for President Reagan to give at the 40th anniversary of D-Day, and when Reagan said those words to the greying and elderly men sitting before him, “these are the boys of summer, the boys of Pont du Hoc”, (I hope I got that spelling correct). It was from the heart - and Reagan meant every word no matter who wrote the speech and the audience knew it. I cannot fault a candidate for having a speechwriter. Sarah Palin delivered her speech beautifully. It was an introduction of her to country and she reveled in it. I do understand that she spent quite a bit of time with her speechwriter to make it so. I am sorry she is “creepy” to you. I had no such feelings; quite the opposite.

By Bonnie Oliver on 09/07/2008 4:03 am

Make no mistake, Bonnie. There is a Sisterhood, but it’s a Sisterhood by choice, not by obligation. Sarah Palin, whose value system is the antithesis of my own, has no place in my Sisterhood which includes the courageous women who fought for a woman’s right to choose, who believe that church and state should be separate, who have more respect for their children than to flaunt them before the world when they are vulnerable, and who tell the truth. Sarah Palin delivered a good speech, in front of a teleprompter, after hours of rehearsal. I stand by my statement that either you or I could have done the same had we been coached as she was. I have to laugh at the Republicans tauting Sarah Palin’s wonderful speech…the absolute first and only exposure the country, outside of Alaska, has had to her….when the very same Republicans have hammered all through this campaign the fact that Barack Obama “gave one good speech”, claiming that it does not qualify him to run for President of the United States. Just more Republican hypocrisy. I am thoroughly sick and tired of it.

By Maurine H on 09/07/2008 10:49 am

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The teleprompter broke down half-way through her speech. Could you have handled that?

By Fly O. T. Wall on 09/07/2008 11:43 am

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You bet your boots I could have.

By Maurine H on 09/07/2008 1:16 pm

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Could I have given the speech that Sarah Palin did and do it as well as she did? I don’t think so. I am comfortable with public speaking (at times) but what she accomplished was astonishing. That does seem to be the consensus opinion of the pundits … even if they disagree with her politically. I could not tell that the teleprompter malfunctioned. Yes, she did rehearse and she memorized much of the speech … but that is not unusual for a candidate. The line about Obama “he gave one good speech”, came originally from Senator Clinton and not the GOP.

By Bonnie Oliver on 09/07/2008 2:17 pm

Bonnie, please be kind enough to explain to me which platform issues Sarah Palin addressed and how she would fix the problems in this country. As far as I could tell (and I believe we were listening to the same speech), Sarah Palin spoke about herself, her PTA affiliation (which, if you check you will find was short-lived), her being mayor of a small town (whose budget she literally destroyed by creating a multi-million dollar deficit), and how she put a plane on eBay (which, incidentially, didn’t sell there). She also trotted out her family and exploited her children in the crudest possible way. Then she laid into Barack Obama with snide remarks and little winks. That speech may have wowed all the people who were expecting the Republican Convention to be a big dud (witness John McCain’s acceptance speech), because Sarah Palin is a novelty, but there was no content, no leadership, no concern for her country, and no genuine qualifications to become Vice President. She said the Iraq war “was of God.” That, alone, made me want to vomit. She also said she would spend the next 67 days campaigning, which, as it turns out was yet another untruth, because Sarah is in a classroom somewhere for the next two weeks trying to learn a little about the U.S. government. And this is the person who would be ready to step into the Presidency at any moment? Unthinkable!

By Maurine H on 09/07/2008 3:48 pm

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Maurine - How can you expect a Vice Presidential candidate to answer all of your questions in her acceptance speech? Sarah Palin was being introduced to the nation and more people tuned in to watch her than did tune in to watch Senator Obama. Her duties in her speech include the acceptance of the nomination, the introduction of her family, her support and championing of Senator McCain as the best candidate for the country to elect and to make some fun of the Democratic Party. She did it all! And the delegates fell in love with her and the folks watching at home were not only impressed but enthused. She is now a mega star in the political arena just as Senator Obama became when he gave his Convention speech in 2004. Your questions will be answered but this was not the format. The debate will be important. Her deportment, style and speeches on the campaign trail will be important. Lots of people and lots of detractors will be watching her very carefully. The pressure is overwhelming; and so far, she has proven that she is up to the task.

By Bonnie Oliver on 09/07/2008 4:03 pm

I agree, Bonnie, the debate will be important, and I am looking forward to it. I was making the point that Sarah Palin’s track record and understanding of the Vice Presidency were thin, at best. You point out that she is a “mega star in the political arena just as Senator Obama became when he gave his Convention speech in 2004.” I must agree here, too. Senator Obama’s speech in 2004 was electrifying not only for its delivery, but for its content, which was stronger and lacked the continual personal negative remarks about Republican opponents. What I find so ridiculous is the Republican litany that Obama “gave one great speech” and therefore is not to be taken seriously, despite his service to this country in the State Senate and now in the U.S. Senate. How is Sarah Palin, at this point, anything but a “one hit wonder”? Until her carefully scripted speech at the RNC, she was unknown to most Americans. Don’t you find that hypocritical? I hope that Sarah Palin does make it to the campaign trail and is not sequestered away from the media. She needs to show her true colors to the American public most of whom know little about her without having spent hours researching her record. I have the luxury of time and I’m able to do that, but most people don’t and can’t. Before handing over such enormous power to this person, we should throughly understand her. Bonnie, usually we are on opposite sides, politically, but I know you to be an intelligent woman, and I enjoy reading your posts.

By Maurine H on 09/07/2008 4:48 pm

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Maurine - Mugsy wrote about her concerns which almost mirror your own concerns about Sarah Palin. Hopefully some of the rhetoric here at wOw about Governor Palin’s hair style, her clothes, her husband, parenting, her speech pattern, birthplace, accent and much else - in negative connotations will diminish. I think giving her a week or so to adjust to the schedule, the types of questions that will be asked, the organization of her time, is not too much to ask. I have heard, though, that she might only do news conferences on the campaign trail with only the local media. I think that is sufficient until the debate. But I have also heard something about an interview by Greta van Susteren being possible.

By Bonnie Oliver on 09/07/2008 6:28 pm

Bonnie- Oh, she’s worse than creepy. I don’t belong to any ‘Sisterhood’ with something that’s completely destable and repugnant. They are keeping her off the Sunday talk shows and wrote her speech and worked with her for three days to deliver it. You may think it was ‘beautiful.’ There is absolutely nothing beautiful about this person to me…quite the opposite. Here she is in action without the team intensive helping her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1vPYbRB7k UGH!! I’m praying all right. Praying that the Enquirer gets her affair story out to make this creepy woman go far, far away.

By Suzanne de Cornelia on 09/07/2008 12:26 pm