Ms. Palin, if you're nasty.

I haven't posted much about politics lately, because I'm just so damn tired of it being all everybody talks about, no matter which side you're on. I feel like we've been listening to the political positioning for YEARS, and I'm bored with it.  This is dangerous I think, and I wish the politicians would realize this.  I wish they would realize that starting the campaigning earlier and earlier just burns out the American public, and by the time we actually go to the polls, for every person who's gotten more excited since their candidate crossed the convention stage, there's like two that don't care anymore and would rather just watch Wipeout. 

But last night I watched Governor Palin speak at the RNC, more out of queasy curiosity than anything else.  And I really like her, I have to say.  I'm not voting for her, of course, because I like my uterus being under my own control, thank you very much, and I can't stomach any of her positions on guns, the war, the economy, or really anything else, either. But she's spunky and invigorating, and a nice breath of fresh air in a party of old white men.  I feel like if we came across each other as working moms somewhere, despite our personal and political differences, that she'd be fun to sit down with and have a glass of wine.  I also think that in four years, when she's had a little more experience with navigating national politics, she could be a force to be reckoned with.

However.

I've been very bothered by all the conversations swinging around on the internet about her since her nomination to VP candidate.  I'm bothered by the attention on her family.  I'm appalled by the liberal attacks on her ability to mother her brood and navigate her job in politics.  And I'm just as annoyed by the conservatives using her family as an entity to be spun and twisted into what works for their platform. 

People, listen up.  If we continue to talk about whether and how this woman can manage her family and her job, we will set working women back 50 years, no matter which side you take.

I am not down with that.

It doesn't matter how old her youngest child is, or how soon she will become a grandmother. It doesn't matter that she's a parent of a special needs infant, or a pregnant teenager.  Or that she has a son going to Iraq, and two adorable little girls in the middle who need her. 

What matters is she chose to take this step, and she has a right to take that step. She has just as much right to do it as anyone else, regardless of their family situation.  It's her decision how she manages her family, and her job. We have no right to judge her for how she manages her family.  We have every right to judge her for how she performs her job.  And everyone expressing an opinion about that needs to get over it, and move on to the important topics.  Nobody is judging Obama for how little he's going to be available to father his two little girls as President.  It shouldn't be part of the conversation. 

We can chose to not like her for her politics.  We can even chose to personally not appreciate that she is indeed an ambitious, career-focused woman trying to raise a family.  It's our right as Americans, to create a self-imposed ceiling on our career so that it would not interfere with raising a family.  But I will not judge her out loud for the decision to do both. And I wish the rest of you wouldn't either.

PS - Stop objectifying her, too. Nobody photoshopped Joe Biden's head on Michael Phelp's body and sent it around the internet saying VPILF! Just stop it.