ABC anchor impugns Sarah Palin as a neglectful mother

[NicoleWasHere]

ABC Anchor Impugns Sarah Palin As a Neglectful Mother

On ABC’s Good Morning America on Saturday, co-anchor Bill Weir bristled with hostility during an interview with a McCain campaign spokesman about the choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate, suggesting she was unqualified and too conservative. At one point, Weir even suggested that by running for Vice President, the Governor would be jeopardizing her four-month old daughter, who has Down’s Syndrome.

Weir confronted McCain political director Mike DuHaime: “Adding to the brutality of a national campaign, the Palin family also has an infant with special needs. What leads you, the Senator, and the Governor to believe that one won't affect the other in the next couple of months?” When DuHaime offered a general answer about Palin’s “incredible life story,” an obviously irritated Weir jumped in, exclaiming “She has an infant -- she has an infant with special needs. Will that affect her campaigning?”

Just a few moments later, that line of questioning was quickly criticized by ABC’s Cokie Roberts as sexist. Without mentioning Weir, Roberts said questions “about who’s taking care of the children...traditionally has very much angered women voters when women candidates are asked those questions and male candidates never are.”

Earlier, reporter David Wright sarcastically noted that McCain and Palin campaigning “looked a little like father and daughter out for an ice cream.” Wright, Weir and co-host Kate Snow all found ways to tag Palin as conservative, with Snow calling her “quite conservative,” but a week earlier, nobody on the same program thought it worth mentioning that Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden was liberal.

Weir’s approach was the most obviously contemptuous of Palin, as he suggested the Governor was only picked because she was a woman; was too conservative for doubting that global warming is manmade; and finally was skipping out on her Down’s syndrome daughter. Here are all of the questions he posed to DuHaime:

# Now joining us from Minneapolis, the political director for the McCain campaign, Mike DuHaime. Mike, good morning....Uh, how many hours did John McCain spend with Governor Palin before he chose her?

# If a man had this exact resume as the Governor, would he be the running mate this morning?

[DUHAIME: I believe so.... ]

# Governor Palin, on the record, opposes abortion. She opposes gun control, the theory of evolution, uh, being taught in schools. Also, she disagrees with the belief that global warming is manmade. That, all of that, may thrill Christian conservatives, but why would a feminist Hillary Clinton supporter vote for that ticket?

[DUHAIME: Well, I think really Hillary Clinton supporters, or anybody, are going to be making a choice between Senator McCain and Senator Obama, and what you've got there is Senator McCain with somebody who has the judgment, who has the experience, who has the life story of somebody who is ready right now to be President. Senator Obama clearly doesn’t.]

WEIR, INTERRUPTING: But you don’t hope that this choice -- you don't hope this choice lures some female voters?

[DUHAIME: Well, I certainly hope -- I think we had a great opportunity for female voters before. I think we've got that now....]

# And, and, must ask, adding to the brutality of a national campaign, the Palin family also has an infant with special needs. What leads you, the Senator, and the Governor to believe that one won't affect the other in the next couple of months?

DUHAIME, PUZZLED: In terms of her personal life? You know, I think, you know, the extent that people want to look at her, she's got an incredible life story with five children, with a son going into the military. She’s got-

WEIR, INTERRUPTING: She has an infant -- she has an infant with special needs. Will that affect her campaigning?

DUHAIME: I don't believe it will affect her campaigning. I don't believe it will affect it at all.

WEIR: Okay. Appreciate your time this morning. Mike DuHaime.

DUHAIME: Sure thing, Bill. Thanks.

Moments later, as she analyzed the Palin pick with co-host Kate Snow, ABC’s Cokie Roberts scolded such questioning as a reflecting a double standard that only women candidates face:

KATE SNOW: Well, how will the nomination play out there particularly with women voters? Let's turn to Cokie Roberts, ABC News longtime contributor who joins us now from Washington. Good morning, Cokie....Let me ask you about Gail Collins this morning, a columnist in the New York Times, has written a scathing column this morning talking about the choice and basically suggesting that the only reason the Governor was chosen was because she is a woman, and let me quote from Gail Collins, she says, ‘the idea that women are going to race off to vote for any candidate with the same internal plumbing is both offensive and historically wrong.’ What do you think?

COKIE ROBERTS: That's correct, that women do not necessarily vote for women. However, if you get a lot of questions about who's taking care of the children, it might make people angry enough to vote for her, because that is something that traditionally has very much angered women voters when women candidates are asked those questions and male candidates never are.

But, look, the people she's going to appeal to among the Hillary Clinton voters are not feminist suburban independent or Republican women necessarily. It's going to be much more the blue-collar Democrats who we've come to call Reagan Democrats who have not settled on Barack Obama. Women have settled on Barack Obama. His entire lead in the polls going into the Democratic convention was among women. So it is other voters, other than women, that Sarah Palin is really aimed at.

SNOW: So you're saying it's men that she might attract.

ROBERTS: It's men.

SNOW: She is quite conservative, right? I mean she's, as Bill pointed out, she’s anti-abortion, she’s for gun rights. She's got quite a conservative record.

ROBERTS: Well, and on some -- on a lot of those issues you've had a lot of Democrats who have been economic Democrats and social Republicans. But, look, it's not just issues that make the difference here. It's an out of Washington, breath of fresh air, definitely a reformer -- and once Obama picked Biden as the ultimate Washington insider and expert and grown-up, McCain started looking someplace else and the frontrunner for a while was Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, and the same criticisms would have been there of Tim Pawlenty as are there of Sarah Palin: No foreign policy experience, very little governmental experience, period. So as long as he was going to face those kinds of objections, why not go for a woman? Why not make some history?

ABC Anchor Impugns Sarah Palin As a Neglectful Mother | NewsBusters.org

[kingcap72]

[DUHAIME: Well, I think really Hillary Clinton supporters, or anybody, are going to be making a choice between Senator McCain and Senator Obama, and what you've got there is Senator McCain with somebody who has the judgment, who has the experience, who has the life story of somebody who is ready right now to be President. Senator Obama clearly doesn’t.]

That takes balls for the McCain camp to still play the inexperience angle AFTER picking Palin.

As for judgement, Obama picked a VP that he met more than one time, and had actually worked with.

[laynes]

Please...

This wouldn't even be an issue if she were a man. This is exactly what the media needs to continue doing if they want to get the female sympathy vote for Palin.

Would a man be considered "neglectful" if he was in the same situation? No..he wouldn't.

She's not qualified.. but it's not b/c of her kids.

[mamaste]

The fuck? That baby has a daddy, right? I think she's a terrible choice for VP, but having children is not the reason.

[Aella]

The moment I heard her husband is essentially a stay at home dad, I knew some jackass would go THERE.

[HWBL]

Yeah, the kid has a father, too, but I think that Bill Weir made
some good, and gutsy, points. Mr. Palin Husband is an oil production
operator for BP on Alaska's North Slope. He is NOT a stay at home
dad..... I am a bit troubled that a mother with a special needs child,
who already has a responsible job as governor, would take on
such a hectic and even heavier job only four months after the
child's birth!
This has not so much to do with her being a woman and women
being picked on more than men as far as parenting goes. It has
to do with the timing (the child is still an infant) AND the special
needs of this particular child.

[Aella]

^I didn't know the husband worked full-time.

Mind you, if she was a male candidate with a working wife, you can bet the media would STILL go after the woman. The double standard is alive and kicking.

[Chimera]

I was disgusted when they dragged that poor baby onstage - ridiculous showing off how wonderful she thinks she is.

[nana55]

Originally Posted by laynes

Please...

This wouldn't even be an issue if she were a man. This is exactly what the media needs to continue doing if they want to get the female sympathy vote for Palin.

Would a man be considered "neglectful" if he was in the same situation? No..he wouldn't.

She's not qualified.. but it's not b/c of her kids.

It does matter if she is breastfeeding her infant as she claims. If the father was the one doing the child-rearing and feeding I'd say the same thing. Women do go back to work after having a baby of course, she should also. But I don't think any new, new parent of an infant be it man or women should take on such a stressful position this early in a babies life.

[*DIVA!]

Questioning her parenting skill because she is a working mom is wrong, her husband being a possible stay at home dad is none of my concern. But, it doesn't make me want to put her anywhere near the White House. Everything else is up for grabs!!

[A*O]

Well she's not the baby's mother so the question is moot. LOL

[tkdgirl]

Todd Palin left his job with BP a while ago.

[ya-ya_sister]

Originally Posted by SSDiva

Questioning her parenting skill because she is a working mom is wrong, her husband being a possible stay at home dad is none of my concern. But, it doesn't make me want to put her anywhere near the White House. Everything else is up for grabs!!

Thank you for saying that. Even if you don't think she is qualified to be VP (And I am not sure she is); saying she is a bad mom because she is a working mom is backward and unfair. Saying she stay at home because she has a special needs child is offensive to me. I have always worked. My special needs child gets the extra things he needs because we are a two income home. What could she do for that child if she stayed home that she isn't already doing?

[nana55]

Then who is taking care of this child? If it is her husband, fine, I've no problem with that. But someone needs to be taking care of them. Maybe her eldest daughter is.

[HWBL]

Originally Posted by ya-ya_sister

Thank you for saying that. Even if you don't think she is qualified to be VP (And I am not sure she is); saying she is a bad mom because she is a working mom is backward and unfair. Saying she stay at home because she has a special needs child is offensive to me. I have always worked. My special needs child gets the extra things he needs because we are a two income home. What could she do for that child if she stayed home that she isn't already doing?

That's not what's being said, not by me anyway. This is what I DID say:

I am a bit troubled that a mother with a special needs child,
who already has a responsible job as governor, would take on
such a hectic and even heavier job only four months after the
child's birth!