Women say NO - Part 1

Sarah Palin’s mocking, sarcastic speech at the Republican National Convention made me very nervous about having her at a table with world leaders. The thought of her representing our country among sophisticated, diplomatic, global thinkers scares me. Not to mention that on every issue that is close to my heart—education and choice for girls and women, the environment, guns, censorship and religious freedom—she is a polar opposite. Do the Republicans think that American women are so stupid that we will support any woman on the ticket just because she is a woman? I feel belittled by her selection and appalled by the candidate.
—Sophie O., 42, Burlingame, CA

I cannot believe that Palin is running for the second highest office in the country. As a woman I could never vote for her. I need the right to choose what I do with my body and how can we ignore the fuel crisis. It is this sort of ignorance and greed that has gotten us where we are today. Woe is me, if she and McCain get elected. How much more can we rape this planet before the earth dies. How much more can we let big business keep making higher and higher profits while the middle class and the poor get poorer?
We as women fought for the freedom to vote and to be treated as equals-Palin would take that from us including banning books in schools and libaries. Palin cannot replace Hillary. Palin is a woman I would never vote for. As women we must stand together to keep what we've won.
—Sally S., 52, Birmingham, AL

As a woman living in the United States, I believe that Sarah Palin may be a "pit bull in lipstick" as one reporter stated but it will take more than that for her to carry out her duties as VP. She will have to do more as a VP than sling personal attacks on people who she views as a threat to her or to her party. As a mother, I wonder how she would feel about her children throwing personal jabs against their peers to the extent that she does. Her professed beliefs regarding woman's rights leave a lot to be desired. Her acceptance speech was fine in the controlled arena of the RNC but she will have her work cut out for her trying to be a mom and a VP because her priorities will be to her family first. She definitely does not represent all women and to think she can sway all of her American female counterparts is a stretch. Her tone so far has been a turn off and I definitely do not support her as second -in- command for our nation.
—Therese J., 57, Lansing, MI

Sarah Palin’s political policies, core beliefs, and past actions are truly horrifying in terms of progress and women’s rights.
—Chelsea J., 27, Los Angeles, CA

As a woman, I am outraged that Senator McCain and the GOP have nominated Sarah Palin, a woman with no qualifications, as their first female Vice-presidential candidate. Are there no qualified women in the GOP? I don't think that is the case. I am even more motivated to elect Sen. Obama in the face of McCain's choice of a vice-presidential candidate who stands in opposition to most - if not all - of the issues that most concern women like me. How can Sen. McCain believe that Gov. Palin will attract those who supported Senator Clinton, since Palin stands exactly on the opposite side as Clinton on all the issues! This is the GOP's cynical version of "affirmative action" - choose a minority as long as said person supports policies that harm others like them. What is more, they are cynically using gender as a screen to shut off any legitimate questions regarding her fitness for the job, her questionable actions as Mayor and Senator, and her shifting positions on the issues. There are major questions about Governor Palin's record including possible ethics violations, ties to corrupt lobbyists, extremist separatist positions, a disregard for the Constitution (freedom of speech!) and probably more as the press carries out the vetting that clearly the McCain team failed to complete. As someone with a family member with Down's Syndrome, I am deeply offended by the ways in which she has politicized her son's disability. There is a big difference between politician's introducing their immediate family as Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama and any other candidate would have done, and using your family as "poster children" for political ends.
—Dr. Miriam B., Brooklyn, NY

First let me say that I agree wholeheartedly on this statement I received. I too believe this stunt is a stunt and an insult to all of us. Foolish in this case too. What if McCain dies, are they really going to let this inexperienced woman led the country? Not on her life. As the DNC was here in Denver recently I had the opportunity to go to some events. I attended the women's caucus. I could go on for a long time, but I will share two things that stood out for me. First, Planned Parenthood is only for the second time in it's history endorsing a presidential candidate. They feel that strongly that the McCain ticket is not for women and children or their health. Second, the statement one speaker made says it all. “Women voting for McCain is like chickens voting for Col Sanders. I think it was Donna Brazil who said it.
—Lisa J., Denver, CO

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for his vice-presidential running mate feels completely surreal and impossibly reckless. I oppose her nomination for not only because my position on critical issues, such as reproductive rights, separation of church and state, global warming, the development of alternative sources of energy, and war are diametrically opposed to hers, but because she is utterly inexperienced and unqualified to hold the any position close in magnitude to the one she has been offered. john mccain's selection of sarah palin is all the more misguided and ludicrous, as it is a skewed and delusional attempt to garner votes from the very women who have worked for so long and so hard to accomplish the very rights that sarah palin seeks to take away. that she supports abstinence education and has a pregnant teen daughter is mind-numbingly absurd. that the media is spinning this fact into something that she should be commended for is a thousand times more so. there is nothing "un-feminist" about being a mother...that she is zealously willing to step into the second most powerful executive position in the united states with out experience, and having only visited four foreign countries (iraq, kuwait, germany, and canada) in her entire life, in addition to having 5 children, two of which are urgently in need of special attention, does no service to the women OR men, citizens of this country and the world, whom she may be called upon to serve.
—Alyce S., 35, Marfa, TX