Why I Don't Like Sarah Palin

I don't like Sarah Palin.  I haven't liked her since McCain introduced her as his running mate.  Actually, that pretty much guaranteed my vote for Obama--I was on the fence before that.  Seeing Palin's smarmy face as the Vice President just made me cringe, but what really set me against her was her obvious/oblivious use of her children as a political prop.  Her children, especially her son Trig, were carted around and strategically brought out when needed to demonstrate that she was a mom!   "Look at me!  I have a son with Down Syndrome!"  That is what I rememberd most about  the election of  2008.   She has continued in this same vein, but her whining about a Family Guy episode which included a satirical jab at her and her son, was just too much to be believed.  If it bothered me that Palin uses her kids as political props, it infuriates me that the only thing she ever seems to focus on with her youngest child is the fact that he has Down Syndrome.  I've seen pictures on the web--that is a beautiful, healthy looking boy.  You'd never know that just listening to Palin.  She goes on and on about how using the word "retarded" is wrong, and "children with special needs have a hard enough time", but it seems to me that it's just so she can have air time.

You know that part in Airplane!where Robert Hays keeps talking about the past and each individual he is talking is so tortured by that long story that they kill themselves in hilarious ways?  I keep that image in my head to remind me not to go on and on about my son, because I would talk about him all day.   It's an occupational hazard for a parent, understandably so.  Your child is your world when they are small.  For a few years, a parent's focus hones to a razor sharp point on the face or faces of their children.  That is how it is supposed to be.  Sarah Palin may want to gush about that first tooth or first haircut, but she doesn't because that doesn't make for good press.  Nobody wants to read an article about a parent going on and on about their wonderful child; see above Airplane! reference.  

Focusing on a handicap does make for good press, however.  Everyone loves stories about people overcoming adversity, and disabled/handicapped people have a hard road ahead of them no matter who their parents are.  But it's not Palin's adversity; it belongs to her son.  He's the one who is ultimately going have to figure out how to get along in the world; Palin's job is to make sure that he gets the tools(love, interventions, supports, food etc.,) he needs and a safe place to grow.   That's it.  But there's no advantage for her to focus on that, and it sickens me to see her continue to do so.