Politics And Motherhood

The New York Times front-pages how Palin went from hiding her most recent pregnancy to showcasing the child at the GOP convention. “No one has ever tried to combine presidential politics and motherhood in quite the way Ms. Palin is doing, and it is no simple task. In the last week, the criticism she feared in Alaska has exploded into a national debate. On blogs and at PTA meetings, voters alternately cheer and fault her balancing act, and although many are thrilled to see a child with special needs in the spotlight, some accuse her of exploiting Trig for political gain.”

The Washington Post, meanwhile, writes how the Palin pick has energized GOP voters in Virginia (although the article suggests that the state GOP doesn’t seem to be all that well organized).

The New York Times’ Bill Kristol with not the greatest defense of the Palin pick: “Should voters be alarmed by a relatively young or inexperienced vice-presidential candidate? No. Since 1900, five vice presidents have succeeded to the presidency during their term in office: Teddy Roosevelt in 1901, Calvin Coolidge in 1923, Harry Truman in 1945, Lyndon Johnson in 1963, and Gerald Ford in 1974. Teddy Roosevelt took over at age 42, becoming our youngest president, and he’s generally thought to have proved up to the job. Truman was V.P. for less than three months and had been kept in the dark by Franklin Roosevelt about such matters as the atom bomb — and he’s generally thought to have risen to the occasion. Character, judgment and the ability to learn seem to matter more to success as president than the number of years one’s been in Washington.”

More: “Did McCain think Palin his very best possible successor? Perhaps not. Did Barack Obama think Biden the absolute cream of the Democratic crop? Perhaps not. They undoubtedly thought highly enough of their running mates to have confidence in their ability to take over their administration in case of incapacity or death. I think most voters will accept that basic judgment. But — shocking to say! — both Obama and McCain also took political considerations into account in making their selections.”

Bloomberg takes a look at her academic career. “Interviews with classmates paint a similar picture of Palin as an anonymous, though motivated and hard-working, student who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from the University of Idaho in 1987. She later told a campus publication that one of her best semesters was spent learning about broadcasting at a student-run Idaho television studio. ‘My sense from people is that she was an average student,’ said Kaylene Johnson, author of a biography, ‘Sarah’ (Epicenter Press, 2008). ‘I don’t know that she distinguished herself in college in any particular way.’”

“Palin, 44, made an impression on one college friend, Stacia Hagerty, who credits her conversion to Catholicism in part to discussions the two had as dorm mates at the University of Idaho’s Neely Hall. As a teenager, Palin had attended the Assembly of God Church in Wasilla, Alaska, and she encouraged her friend to commit time to church. ”

“Gov. Sarah Palin’s church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer. ‘You’ll be encouraged by the power of God’s love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality,’ according to the insert in the bulletin of the Wasilla Bible Church, where Palin has prayed for about six years. … Focus on the Family, a national Christian fundamentalist organization, is conducting the ‘Love Won Out’ Conference in Anchorage, about 30 miles from Wasilla.

“Palin has not publicly expressed a view on the so-called ‘pray away the gay’ movement. Larry Kroon, senior pastor at Palin’s church, was not available to discuss the matter, said a church worker who declined to give her name. Gay activists in Alaska said Palin has not worked actively against their interests, but early in her administration she supported a bill to overrule a court decision to block state benefits for gay partners of public employees.”

Lots of profiles this weekend, here’s what you need to know out of Newsweek. “Little of her experience will help Palin with the questions she’s sure to face in the days and weeks to come. The media (and presumably voters) will aim to find out what Palin believes, what her expertise is and whether she’s really prepared to be next in line for the most powerful job on the planet. At last week’s Republican convention, the former sportscaster proved she can deliver a terrific speech (written by Matthew Scully, who wrote some of George W. Bush’s more memorable lines). But journalists are clamoring for a chance to question her directly. She’ll need to have cogent views on Iraq, to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites (which McCain himself has occasionally confused) and the distinctions between Hizbullah and Al Qaeda. She’ll be asked about Iran’s nuclear program and China’s growing power, about the national debt, the subprime mortgage crisis, America’s trade imbalance and the value of the dollar against foreign currencies.”

”Palin started intense tutorials last week in a suite of the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Stephen Biegun, a longtime foreign-policy hand who last worked on George W. Bush’s National Security Council, ran what one participant called a ‘boot camp on McCain world.’ Biegun and others briefed her on international issues. McCain’s top domestic-policy adviser, economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, led other sessions. Before Holtz-Eakin even got started, Palin let him know that she likes to get her study points on large index cards. ‘What we have to do is take all our accumulated policy and John McCain’s entire Senate history and get her comfortable with the campaign,’ Holtz-Eakin told NEWSWEEK.”

”Others involved in the process say Palin has a long way to go, and they are watching closely to make sure she doesn’t get overwhelmed. Over the weekend before the convention, campaign aides made the uncomfortable decision to urge her to go public with her unmarried 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy in order to rebut salacious Internet rumors that the teen was actually the mother of Palin’s own newborn child. An aide, speaking anonymously because the matter is sensitive, says that Palin and her husband grew angry about the allegations. “Do I have to show them my stretch marks?” she asked one campaign official. In the midst of the drama, Palin had little time to interact with her family because she was shuffling from one briefing or prep session to another. (In St. Louis, a campaign aide took Todd shopping at a Saks Fifth Avenue, where he bought a new suit to wear to the convention.) At one point McCain, himself tied up in campaign duties, asked an adviser, ‘Can you make sure she’s OK?’”

The Seattle Times digs through Palin’s record as mayor of Wasilla. “As much of Palin’s hometown rallies with pride around her, 1,400 miles away — in a National Archives warehouse in Seattle — three boxes of documents help capture the quality of her mayoral experience. These records, from a federal wrongful-termination lawsuit, include the minutiae of municipal governance, with memos to administrators and personnel records stamped ‘confidential.’ The documents, combined with accounts from her hometown newspaper, show how Palin’s first year as mayor could easily have been her last. She became embroiled in personnel challenges, a thwarted attempt to pack the City Council and a standoff with her local newspaper. Her first months were so contentious and polarizing that critics started talking recall.”

“Gov. Sarah Palin used state funds in June when she traveled from Juneau to Wasilla to speak to graduating evangelical students and urge them to fan out through Alaska ‘to make sure God’s will be done here,’” the Alaska Daily News writes. “State records show that Palin submitted a travel authorization for a quick round-trip visit to attend the June 8 graduation of the Master’s Commission program at the Wasilla Assembly of God, the church where she was baptized at age 12. The only other item on the agenda for that trip was a ‘One Lord Sunday’ service involving a network of Mat-Su Christian churches earlier that morning at the Wasilla sports complex.”