Joy Behar: "Why does everyone have to hold that baby?"

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 4:58pm

Amid the sea of Palin observations, this one jumped out at me on THE VIEW. Joy couldn't get over how all of the grinning kids passed little Trig from one to another, then even to Cindy, in her 300 grand outfit (you know she's got Purell in a little Marc Jacobs bag), then back to the mother-to-be and her randy groom to be, indifferently gripping her freshly tattooed hand.

Why, it was a game of hot potato.

And then the baby was dragged on stage, under the theatrical lights, and passed among them all again.

So suddenly, a child with Down's Syndrome is the new RNC talisman? Is it to be new "Life" mascot -- "see what we KEPT!"

As a parent who well recalls the early days with an infant ... I remembered an early admonition from my no-nonsense pediatrician: don't let everyone hold your child. It's not good for the baby to be handled unduly, and its not good for you to worry about it.

We've been freshly admonished by the new right wing protectors of American womanhood -- told that it's SEXIST to even question parenting decisions, because we'd never ask a MAN those things (uh, yeah, we do actually judge men by what kind of daddy they make -- they have to be a daddy -- or you wouldn't have to have kids to run for office. Seen any great bachelor presidents in the last 100 years).

A special needs baby has not so special needs: rest and care, not being treated like a prop.

Updated On: 9/4/08 at 04:58 PM

[cubanpab]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 5:02pm

the woman accepted the VP spot knowing her teen daughter was knocked up and that the media would turn it, and her daughters life, into a circus...

does she seem like the caring type to you?

Posted: 9/4/08 at 5:04pm

It is extremely sexist to question anything Sarah Palin does. You east coast media elitist!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 5:06pm

"the woman accepted the VP spot knowing her teen daughter was knocked up and that the media would turn it, and her daughters life, into a circus...

does she seem like the caring type to you?"

Joe Biden took the oath of office from his son's hospital room after a car crash claimed the lives of his wife and child. Does he seem like the caring type to you?

[cubanpab]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 5:08pm

sorry Joe... she's wonderful!!!!! she turned me onto Moose Burgers!!!!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 5:11pm

So let me get this straight .. Joe Biden should've turned down his elected position after his wife's death? As the sole provider for his children? He lost a wife and one child, and his boys were hospitalized for an indefinite period ... and you're questioning HIS parental concerns? You're really pulling that up as an example of Biden's indifference?

[blueroses]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 5:14pm

What bothers me isn't the pregnancy. It was the REASON Sarah and the campaign aides gave themselves for making it...to rebuke the Internet rumors that Trig was actually Bristol's. Hey, my kid's knocked up with another baby! See? It's not true! I proves Trig was mine! Does that not strike anyone else as incredibly selfish? Why couldn't Palin have produced a birth certificate or something else if she felt it was necessary to squelch the rumors? Instead she chose to thrust her daughter and her boyfriend onto a world stage for her own f-cking benefit. Bristol and Levi are teenagers, and I feel they had a right to privacy. Since Sarah decided to use Bristol and put her out there to cover her own ass and hammer home the "life happens!" narrative, she, in part, bears responsibility when she comes under fire. It's her job to protect her daughter, not ours.


Updated On: 9/4/08 at 05:14 PM

[cubanpab]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 5:17pm

Joe - i love her - I spent all night trying to master that beautiful Alaskan-Minnesota-ish accent she has. So far this is all I've got:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg4VsPnQ3kk&feature=related

i think i'm getting close

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 5:30pm

Blueroses:

I think you've landed on something I've wondered: Is the Bristol pregnancy the equivalent of the secreet "race card" -- a private ick factor -- for Republicans? Something that will weigh on the minds of some people even though they SAY they approve of how it's been handled? I cannot believe it isn't an issue behind closed doors, because no matter how its spun, it's still 180% from the right wing party mindset. To many of these Evangelicals, sexuality is still the ultimate sin, the one that leaves the lasting stain.

I was in Penn Station yesterday, and seeing Palin's face on at least 4 magazines with the lurid innuendo either directly or indirectly evoked, I thought this might be a subliminal issue for the crowd at Walmart (or will Walmart REMOVE THOSE MAGAZINES?! Separate topic).

People don't want to say "I won't vote for a black man," and right wing women don't want to say "I have a real problem with her letting that girl get pregnant."

And still more people, the more reasonable ones, say "I think it's terrible to force 17 year old to marry."

[DBillyP]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 5:35pm

I was curious until last night why everyone seemed to hold the baby BUT Sarah Palin.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 5:52pm

Blue-that's what I figured right away. Making her daughter's pregnancy public and doing the math as for months old....etc., proves that the new baby is Sara's.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 6:18pm

They could have at least put the kid in a stroller.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 6:35pm

"Joe Biden took the oath of office from his son's hospital room after a car crash claimed the lives of his wife and child. Does he seem like the caring type to you?"

You're right Goth, he should have taken the oath in the hospital lobby...it was way to crowded in the room. WHAT WAS HE THINKING?

Updated On: 9/4/08 at 06:35 PM

[blueroses]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 6:46pm

Goth, do you even have the ability to think critically? Your analogy makes no sense at all.

[misschung]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 6:58pm

cuban, I love your first statement.

What about her younger daughter manhandling the poor thing through her mother's entire speech? That poor baby is a Wolfowitz in the making...

[sparkleplenty]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 7:09pm

Actually, yes, Biden does seem like a caring Dad. He didn't make a decision that would expose and humiliate a child (Palin knew her knocked up daughter would be tabloid fuel). Was Biden supposed to not go to work again?

[roquat]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 10:14pm

And what a coincidence that Palin's oldest son is being deployed to Iraq on September 11. What a perfect manufactured lump-in-the-throat moment, and so transparently cynical. And this is the woman who "puts her family first."

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 10:23pm

roquat, when I heard that I thought it was somehow Rudy Guiliani's idea.

[mc1227]

Posted: 9/4/08 at 10:47pm

What does her husband do? Is he a stay at home dad who takes care of the family? Just curious.