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Marjorie, as for whether Sarah Palin believed Africa was a country not a continent, no I don't have any concrete evidence. Since she was so new to the national scene in August, Google isn't exactly bursting with transcripts of her speaking about Africa. But the only "evidence" we have that she did think Africa was a country was an unnamed source who spoke out in the aftermath of a painful election loss, a loss about which the finger-pointing started before the votes were counted. And please don't pillory me for bringing up Elaine Lafferty again, but Lafferty in this interview says that Palin had an in-depth knowledge of Afghanistan and the Taliban, showing a level of thought that doesn't mesh well with thinking Africa is a country. Rich Lowry at the National Review quotes Steve Biegun, who briefed Palin on foreign policy and who was part of the conversation that led to the NAFTA crack, and Biegun sticks up for Palin.
As for the clothes, the first nasty leak we heard was that she was told to leave her clothing at home in Wasilla because it was unsuitable. Now, when the election is over and someone wants to make her look bad, we hear that she was instructed to buy three suits for the convention and nothing more and that she was a "hillbilly looting Neiman Marcus." Both can't be true, so which is it? If she was dressing herself like this before the campaign, how did she become such an expert on fashion overnight? And for her personal preferences, she came out of the voting booth last Tuesday wearing a jacket that I'd expect to find at Cabela's, not Nordstrom or Saks.
From the moment she was announced as the GOP veep candidate, critics were only too quick to believe everything negative about her, true or not, and cite it as gospel. As Palin herself said, someone accused her of trying to ban Harry Potter when the book wasn't written yet. The New York Times printed as fact that she charged victims for their rape kits when she was mayor of Wasilla, even though the city looked back through its records and found no evidence to the claim. So pardon me for not jumping to assume the worst in this instance, either.
I understand that she did not appeal to everyone, and I certainly understand why. And I'm sure there are many people who hope she's gone back to Alaska never to be heard from again. Personally, I'm still waiting to see what comes out of all the introspection and self-critiquing that conservatives have spent the last week engaging in before I start thinking about 2012, or even 2010. I don't know that having Palin on a national ticket in 2012 would be wise or helpful. But I don't want her to go away entirely. For whatever she lacks, she brings energy to a party that it is sorely lacking. She has moves, as Melinda put it, and I don't think we should underestimate her.
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There's something a little too poor-little-match-girlish about this image of Gov. Palin sorting through stacks of clothing for a family of seven figuring out what part of the inventory belongs to the RNC. If I were the returning governor, I'd be designating piles Be My Guest (watchout for the spitup); Stuff I'll Just Have To Replace (who doesn't get a good bra and new underwear before trying on a bunch of new clothes?); and (sigh) Maybe the Designer Would Sell Me Another Just Like It at Cost (that shantung silk jacket is practically a Palin icon).
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Just a year ago, the burning questions before us were whether we as a nation were ready to elect a black president, and whether we were ready for a woman in the White House. And in a sense, what we learned since then was yes and yes. Because even though Hillary Clinton didn't win the election, her supporters so clearly saw her gender as a plus that it would be hard to argue that she would have won had she been a man.
But in a larger sense, I think what we learned is that these weren't ever the right questions, because it's only when the right person shows up, at the right time, that we're ever ready to elect him or her. Just like that's when we're ready to marry. (And yes, I do see everything relationally; you were expecting maybe a sports analogy?) You know that guy you dated for 8 years who just wasn't ready to commit -- until three minutes after you broke up? On paper, Americans were never going to be ready for a Democrat without a hint of a southern accent whose middle name was Hussein. But then we met him, got to know him, and found to our own surprise that we felt differently; it was a go after all.
That's how it will happen with a woman, and an Indian-American, and any other person of hyphenated heritage. (Maybe someday, we will even fall for one of those Godless Americans Elizabeth Dole referred to in her final campaign ad.) We prefer to look at candidates as the sum of their policy priorities; to do otherwise would be to suggest that voters are what Rachel Maddow would call ‘post-rational.' But voting for president is a decision of the heart as much as the head - a reality that Republicans seized on long ago, and that Democrats - or one Democrat, anyway -- now seem to understand, too.
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In the spirit of post-election adventure, Slate is starting to work on a new Web magazine: Double X. A magazine by women but not just for women, Double X will spin off from our "XX Factor" blog, where we've started a conversation among women—about politics, sex, and culture—that both men and women enjoy listening in on. The new site will do all this and more. It will take the Slate and XX Factor sensibility and apply it to sexual politics, fashion, parenting, health, science, sex, friendship, work-life balance, and anything else you might talk about with your friends over coffee. We'll tackle subjects high and low with an approach that's unabashedly intellectual but not dry or condescending. The blog will be at the heart of the site, but we'll also publish essays, reporting, and other features.
We believe this is the right moment to launch a women's magazine that doesn't resemble any other in existence. The new site will tap into a crossroads moment in feminism, when the 1970s are firmly behind us but no one knows what's next. (Generational cross-fighting, post-feminist indifference, proof of biological sex differences?) We invite you to help us work out the new dispensation and to have fun doing it. At the moment, we're looking for ideas and writers and also for a managing editor. If you're interested, please send us a note at doublex.slate@gmail.com. And if you'd like to sign up to get e-mails about our launch this spring, please send a note to the same address.
We look forward to hearing from you.
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Juliet, Melinda, Lauren, and Rachael, I'm perplexed by your certainty that Sarah Palin did indeed know that Africa was a continent not a country. On what are you basing this assumption? Sarah Palin's denials? Forgive me if I find her credibility lacking. This is the same woman who said she never wanted all those expensive clothes purchased for her by the RNC and insisted she would gladly go back to wearing her own clothes. Now we learn that the price tag for those Neiman/Nordstrom's duds was even higher than the $150,000 originally reported and that the RNC had to dispatch someone to Alaska to retrieve the clothing from Palin.
We have no information to indicate or prove that Palin knew the difference between a country and a continent, but we have plenty of well-documented news stories and televisions interviews showing how little she knows about geography and how little interest she has about the rest of the world. Remember that she could not name a newspaper she reads and that she shamelessly revels in a "real America" type of anti-intellectualism. (And by the way, she's not the first person to make this mistake. I've heard other Americans refer to Africa as one country.) I also believe she really did not know the NAFTA signatory countries.
Melinda, you characterized my past criticisms of Palin's intellectual challenges as elitism, but as the New York Times' Judith Warner recently correctly noted, there are plenty of Americans "who respect intelligence and good grammar." They also believe their president and vice president should be smarter, better-informed, and more versed in international affairs than the average American. This does not make them elitists; it makes them pragmatists. I still believe that Palin was woefully unqualified for the job and apparently so did millions of other voters who rejected the McCain-Palin ticket because they were insulted that McCain tried to pass her off as his, and Obama's, intellectual equal. I'm pretty well-informed and well-educated—and I can even speak in full sentences—but I still don't believe I'm qualified to be vice president or president. Knowing one's limitations is a sign of intelligence. That's honesty, not elitism.
I, for one, am very glad to see Palin leave the national stage, at least for now, and heartened that the voting public saw through her fake heartland authenticity. Apparently, I'm not alone. Check out this ode to Sarah.
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I am…
Wondering why it takes a week to count fewer than 350,000 votes in Alaska.
Anticipating D.C. getting its party plans on for our own version of Grant Park on Jan. 20.
Witnessing spontaneous conversations in public places between white people and people of color. (See Chris B. and Chris W.’s hilarious instructions for white people in The Root.)
Reassured by the assembling and assessing of financial experts to FIX IT!
Enjoying the inside-baseball gossip, mentioning, and positioning for the plum assignments.
Picturing Malia and Sasha playing with their puppy in the White House and appreciating hope and change.
Weeping at the Civil Rights images every time I look at them.