Some thoughts on Palin coverage from the Washington Post:
The top comparison, of course, is to Hillary Clinton. It’s far too easy to reach out to the last woman to run for the office, but Palin was chosen by McCain to join the ticket with little work of her own, while Clinton may have at first gained the spotlight through her famous husband, but busted her own butt on the campaign trail for months.
The other comparison I found, as Palin’s image went down, was to Harriet Miers, Bush’s failed appointee to the Supreme Court, who was challenged by the Right as well as the Left and withdrew her name from consideration. The Right complained that she was unqualified, and several op-ed writers noted that Palin, similarly unqualified, was embraced by those same people. They note that it’s a matter of ideology, not qualifications, that the Right really cares about.
Fewer mentions of the beauty pageant than I thought I’d see, though definite implication, again by op-ed writers, that McCain was besotted with Palin and chose her because of her looks and charm.
Others pointed out, as Campbell Brown did, the sexism of keeping Palin away from reporters and in the perception that Obama and Biden had to be nicer to Palin than she did to them. True equality, one noted, would come when they could call a woman out for being a bully without fear of being called one themselves.
Charisma and charm and the difference between them were noted as well–as charming people “get invited to parties,” and charismatic people “get invited to boardrooms.”
Everyone’s favorite characterization of Palin, in straight news stories as well as op-eds, was “hockey mom.” I bet hockey was discussed more in relation to Sarah Palin than it ever has been before in this country. I’ll get an actual tally of the “hockey mom” references, but my thoughts on “hockey mom,” in no particular order:
- Hockey is the whitest sport in America. While the “soccer mom” conceit implied suburban whiteness, hockey implies an even greater whiteness.
- Hockey also implies violence not inherent in soccer or little league.
- it’s still an unpopular sport in the U.S.–but this played to Palin’s advantage. Hockey mom, like “lipstick,” she was able to claim for herself. When you hear that term, you now think of Palin.
Op-ed writers also love to mock other op-ed writers who liked Palin. I didn’t end up with any rabidly pro-Palin op-eds, just some rather catty anti-Palin ones.
Her ambition, much like Hillary Clinton’s, was constantly mentioned, but with Palin it was often coupled with criticisms of her abilities. Ambitious women are still something to be feared, but the implied contrast with Clinton says, “At least that woman deserved to be ambitious.”
From the beginning to the end, almost every writer noted that Palin was chosen to try to peel off disaffected Clinton voters, and many pointed out that the attempt failed and that Palin polled better among men than among women.
I’m not comparing coverage of Palin to coverage of similar candidates, so I can’t compare how often she was quoted, but I can note that when she is quoted it’s often in an attempt to make her look bad. Her quotes are rarely used to illustrate her knowledge or issue positions, and instead to show her on the campaign trail or her defenses of herself when she’s screwed up (whether it’s Troopergate, interviews or the debate).
Questions about her kids faded into the background as questions about her competence took center stage.
It may have simply been the size of my sample, but I found few articles about the clothing scandal. Maybe when I collect my Salon.com articles, I’ll find more.
Comments?
The 150k in clothing continues to be an issue I believe in part because she keeps bringing it up.
She is the female version of W. Nothing else needs to be said. “Burning” her in effigy is the closest we’ll get to taking him down, so we, and the media do it gladly and willingly.
Massachusetts residents quickly thought of Jane Swift, when the whole Palin situation went down. I don’t like to compare them because Jane tried to rise above the attacks by actually displaying competency, while Sarah just went the W road. It hurt seeing Jane defend Sarah.
I wish nothing else needed to be said about Palin, but I’m writing my term paper for a course on her, so I have to read the coverage. At least, the pre-election coverage. I am trying to ignore the continuing coverage.
“Hockey mom” — I think Palin herself promoted that epithet precisely because of hockey’s connotations as listed in the original post above, especially whiteness + violence, i.e., the protection of white supremacy. I think about 15 to 20 years ago, even Saturday Night Live made a joke that sardonically claimed that blacks didn’t play professional hockey because of its implication of white supremacist violence (SNL joked that blacks “don’t want to be around white men with sticks” and “don’t want to be around white men wearing masks”). But at any rate, it was Palin herself who relentlessly promoted her image as a “hockey mom” who represented the “Real America” (i.e., conservative white America).
The clothing issue: Palin brings it up only because Republicans, probably GOP staff working for Romney/Huckabee/Crist, keeping pushing the issue post-election. No one other than Palin’s GOP competitors for 2012 find the clothing issue compelling.
On coverage of Palin post-election: Coverage of Palin post-election might be distasteful, but it’s not irrelevant. Candidates like Palin and Huckabee might represent the real-life future of what remains of the GOP. Now that the Democrats have reclaimed the political center, the GOP has nowhere else to go except further and further right, until it becomes truly a fringe party like the British National Party. For BNP-style Republicans, Palin is the ideal candidate both because she’s telegenic and because in their eyes she is the least compromised ideologically. So coverage of Palin will remain relevant until she’s finally rendered nonviable in 2012.
It may be relevant, but it’s not my paper topic.