Quotes of the day

He wanted to know what the baroness and others thought about Sarah Palin and her ability to command attention. There’s a women’s explosion happening, he said, but it’s not happening in the progressive sphere. Why is all the energy among women on the right, the cohort Palin dubs “Mama Grizzlies”? Surely progressive women love their children and their way of life and the Constitution every bit as much as the self-appointed Mama Grizzlies. Goudie ducked the question, but as the breakfast concluded and she was bidding farewell to her guests, she confided to me, “The Mama Grizzlies are winning.”…

The women candidates she considers Mama Grizzlies would have been out there anyway; I don’t think she inspired them to run. But she’s given definition to a movement that would otherwise be just a bunch of kooks, or one-offs. She’s fenced off a wing of the GOP that she owns, and in politics, when it’s your turn to ride the rocket, that’s what you do. A Republican source says Palin is nothing new, she’s really Pat Buchanan in drag—the same issues except that her reality show is a lot more gripping. The media went overboard for Buchanan in 1996 when he won the New Hampshire primary, defeating establishment favorite Bob Dole. But the insurgent campaign of a former Nixon speechwriter can’t compare with the ongoing soap opera of the Palins. Bristol and Levi together again!

When I ran the Palin-as-Buchanan theory past another Republican, a woman this time, she said that was an insult to Buchanan, who is deeply serious and has thought about these issues. She doesn’t agree with his conclusions, but he rode the rocket at a moment in time, just as Palin is poised to do. This friend does corporate focus groups that have nothing to do with politics, and at the end she likes to ask what the participants think of various people in the news: “When you mention her name, they all smile, even if what comes out of their mouth is that she’s terrible.”

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We already know of the rank and obscene sexism rife in the Democrat Party. Men in the Republican Party were supposed to be more decent, have more character, and be more understanding of the diversity and strength of the American people. So here’s a suggestion to you more decent, more Godly, more in-touch Republican Elitists, contemplating the gutter from which to smear Palin, or Haley or any other conservative woman–instead of working out your issues about women while campaigning or in public office, work them out in a psychiatrist’s office and let the women who are striving to right this nation get to work…

Newsflash: the game has changed. We know the old rules and Romney and every other Republican who fancies himself ‘presidential’ will be held responsible for what his proxies say and do. If you’re not sure, Mittens, how to handle an influential political woman, first you can stop with the pandering and proceed with genuine respect. You and your proxies attack her on the issues, not personally. It’s that simple.

And one other piece of advice Mittens and Anonymous Numbskull Team: Grow Up. You have seriously misjudged how to deal with The Girl in the Room.

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