Hockey Mom
I disagree with almost everything in this Megan McArdle post but this is well-put:
The “hockey Mom” schtick is a political lie. You could not possibly be a hockey Mom and the vice president of the United States, or for that matter, governor of Alaska. Todd is a hockey Mom. Sarah Palin, whatever she has done in the past, is now exactly like male politicians: someone else is doing the main work of raising her kids. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, of course, and as political hogwash goes, it’s pretty low-grade.
Right — as far as Palin goes, this is boilerplate BS that’s not worth criticizing — I doubt you could run for office without engaging in some implausibly pieties. But it would be nice for the country as a whole to spend some time appreciating the basic fact that they only way for women to achieve anything resembling social and political equality with men is to go beyond formal legal equality and actually have more Palin-style marriages in which a man is willing to play a basically supportive, family-oriented role so that his wife the talented public speaker can pursue her political ambitions. I think it’s great that the Palins have been able to combine a marriage like that with an approach to life that’s otherwise quite traditionalist, and it’d probably be good for America to have some more discussion of that.
44 Responses to “Hockey Mom”
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September 4th, 2008 at 11:28 am
You worked with that? She hates Democrats. I was unsure about this before, but now it’s clear. Wow.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Doesn’t Todd take off for weeks at a time to go work on the oil fields for BP? Exactly who is taking the kids to all those hockey games?
September 4th, 2008 at 11:31 am
According to the National Enquirer, hockey mom also found time for adult extracurricular activities…
September 4th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Mr. Palin, as I understand it, works for BP, presumably full-time, but I haven’t heard what work experience Sarah has outside her elected positions. I think full-time mom (or dad) or part-time career/dad/mom in any combination or proportion that works for the particular individual is fine, and we as society shouldn’t be judgmental about it, but rather look to the person’s individual qualities and skills. My issue with Palin (besides the her mostly ridiculous expressed philosophies) is her life experience as it relates to the job she is seeking. I live in a town with a population three times that of Wasilla (and we are considered “semi-rural”!) in a metro region ten times the population of Alaska. The people who hold town council and mayoral positions all have careers outside politics, generally in business or professions, and it would be shocking, aand not in a good way, to see any of them thrust onto a VP nomination (or governorship) like this.
Also, I would like to know what books she tried to get banned as mayor.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Is Todd the “hockey mom”? FWIW and it’s not worth much, a commenter on one of the blogs said that was the pledge when Palin ran for governor, that Todd was going to be the primary caregiver, but that the kids have been palmed off on friends and family. Which sounds like an environment a notch below having a full-time nanny in terms of receiving consistent care and supervision. I mean, if one cares about “family values,” I imagine there’s a legitimate question here about whether either father or mother is actually fulfilling their duties as a parent.
It could all just be random internet chatter, though, I don’t know. There’s plenty of policy-related issues to knock Palin on without getting into her personal business.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Ask and ye shall receive. Wrinkle in Time is the one that throws me. That has Narnia-level religious overtones to it. I have no idea what her beef with that one would be.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:54 am
She had a city manager for at least some of her terms as mayor of a town of 6500. With a city manager on the job, there would be plenty of time for her to take her son to hockey. And, as far as we know, of the kids it’s only the older boy who played. She or her husband might be hockey players, but adult leagues play late at night.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:57 am
It takes a village with oil money and lavish federal funding.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Fellow liberals, stay away from the “hockey mom” angle. There is no margin in it. Also, stay away from the experience angle. The McCain campaign was surely gleeful when the Obama campaign criticized Palin’s lack of experience. Palin’s experience and her skills as a mother should not be the issue here.
I have no doubt whatsoever that, were Palin to become president, she would very competently and skillfully go about implementing the dangerous and horrifying policies she favors. My problem with her is that she is in favor of, and would work to implement, policies that I find dangerous and horrifying.
Really, why harp on the experience thing at all? Is there really any liberal out there who would rather that Palin do a better job of implementing policies they disagree with? It makes no sense.
Focus instead on the fact that
1) Sarah Palin is a serial liar.
2) Sarah Palin is a corrupt Alaska politician.
3) Sarah Palin has radical right wing views.
4) Sarah Palin is a former member of an avowedly anti-American organization.
Pretty much any other line of attack is bound to backfire.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
That list of the books she wanted to ban is bogus. The Harry Potter books were released after 1997. She tried to ban some books from the library in 1996.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Re: who helps take care of the Palin kids – in a video of an talk Gov. Palin gave at her former church in the past year, she acknowleges a Kristy or Chrisie in the congregation as having been “my nanny when my kids were little”. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t fit with the image being given. I think if the Obama’s mentioned a nanny, the “elitist” charge would be loudly trumpeted by the Republicans. Having a nanny would probably be considered as
is out of touch with working Americans.
The link to the video is at http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/09/03/palin-iraq-war-task-from-god/
September 4th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Is Todd the “hockey mom”? FWIW and it’s not worth much, a commenter on one of the blogs said that was the pledge when Palin ran for governor, that Todd was going to be the primary caregiver, but that the kids have been palmed off on friends and family.
It takes a village, eh?
September 4th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
The WikiDudes say:
September 4th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Remember this shtick is coming from the same people who told us that George W Bush was the candidate who more people would want to sit down and have a beer with, oh, and that he quit drinking, but never mind, you can have a beer and he’ll sip a mineral water, but it will still be better than drinking with Kerry who probably likes some liberal beer like Samuel Adams.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
There’s some talk of putting Palin front and center in the limelight–ahead of McCain. But if anyone is Dubya 2.0 it’s Palin. An oil-friendly partisan wrapped in a cuddly, approachable package with a resume that looks good until you start digging–andthen the credentials start to fall apart.
There’s a lesson there for Democrats–for a while Bush looked like an easy kill. (Don’t underestimate her.) But there’s also a lesson for voters and I think enough of them have learned it: approachability isn’t the same as character. And if you elect a mascot, someone you DIDN’T elect and DON’T want to cuddle (a Cheney or a Rumsfeld) is going to end up running your country.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Yep, the banned book list appears to be taken from (or perhaps shares a common source with) this, a short list of books that have been “banned at one time or another in the United States”. (as discussed in comments here.
Critical thinking and careful source-checking, folks. The GOP won’t do it, so we have to very carefully model it for anyone else who may be looking for help . . .
And Kay – I’m no great fan of Mc2by4Megan, but really, is the literally dehumanizing pronoun absolutely necessary?
September 4th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
And that should be “this, a short list of books . . .”
September 4th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Its not like Obama is running around claiming he cooks dinner every night. You can’t be a hockey parent and be responsible for a municipality at the same time. She should just STFU about it already.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Dan Kervick writes:
“Doesn’t Todd take off for weeks at a time to go work on the oil fields…”
rmwarnick writes:
“According to the National Enquirer, hockey mom also found time for adult extracurricular activities…”
The NE needs to keep digging. It could turn out that while Todd was away, his drilling involved more than just oil fields.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
McArdle is an idiot.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
The “hockey Mom” schtick is a political lie. You could not possibly be a hockey Mom and the vice president of the United States, or for that matter, governor of Alaska. Todd is a hockey Mom.
It’s a political lie? Come on. First of all, the identity she is referring to predates her governorship. Would MY or McArdle find it impossible for a small-town mayor to be a hockey mom? City councilwoman? Member of the oil and gas conservation commission? How could you begin to draw the line?
And as many have noted, Todd works on the oil fields! He’s no hockey Mom either. They seem to balance parenting responsibilities as best they can, just like millions of Americans. This line of attack has zero chance of success.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Megan McArdle gives know-nothing pseudo-libertarian pseudo-independent pseudo-intellectual David Brooks types a bad name.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Um, Matt, isn’t Hilary Clinton a counter-example to your “the only way” statement? Bill was hardly the stay-at-home Dad for Chelsea.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
No one can seem to answer for me: WHO PLAYS HOCKEY?
The oldest one is shipping off to Iraq (when did he stop playing league hockey?), are the three daughters hockey players?
Whats with the hockey mom schtick? is that even true?…
September 4th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Lots and lots of pedantic straw grasping from the progressives.
Palin wasn’t always gov and mayor, was she (remember all that lack of experience)? Her son is 19, isn’t he? Do you think he probably played hockey when he was younger, before she started in politics full time? Just because she’s not ‘technically’ a hockey mom NOW doesn’t mean she wasn’t before.
September 4th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
No one can seem to answer for me: WHO PLAYS HOCKEY?
Levi Johnson?
September 4th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
The only thing I need to know about Sarah Palin is that she was so much more energetic and attractive than McCain will be tonight and when McCain joined her on stage last night, the contrast was jarring. McCain looked incredibly old and feeble. The juxtaposition of Palin last night and McCain tonight will be really bad for McCain.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
No one can seem to answer for me: WHO PLAYS HOCKEY?
Speaking as a Canadian, *we* do. Which, if you’re an American makes it awfully foreign.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Levi Johnson?
The boy can score…took that “Drill here! Drill now!” mantra to mean something entirely different…
September 4th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
” I think it’s great that the Palins have been able to combine a marriage like that with an approach to life that’s otherwise quite traditionalist, and it’d probably be good for America to have some more discussion of that.” — Matthew Yglesias
Yeah, it’s great!
My God, I never cease to be stunned by just how dumb Matt gets when he’s trying to earn feminist brownie points.
Whether it’s suggesting Obama blow the election by putting Katherine Sibelius on the ticket with Obama or now finding the bright side of the Palins (his rejection of trad gender roles gives her the opportunity to better censor books, deny evolution, cut funding to young mothers and reinvigorate McCain’s campaign!) he indulges in the kind of dumbshit ‘Women’s Studies’ thinking that progressives really, really don’t need right now.
It’s, also, really embarassing.
September 4th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
of course it’s a lie. she’s a hockey grandma.
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