Courtesy of
Washington Secrets:
Here’s another reason why Sarah Palin failed as Sen. John McCain’s 2008 vice presidential running mate: The whole “hockey mom” thing that was supposed to win over soccer moms flopped.
A new report from the authoritative American Politics Research journal finds that her story of being a mom of five hockey playing kids held no appeal to the rest of parents. “Palin fared particularly poorly among married mothers,” it said, because her candidacy “did not hold any special appeal to mothers or fathers.”
And on Election Day, added the journal, “Mothers, like women overall, were a very solid Democratic voting block in 2008.”
You know during the 2008 campaign one of the tactics used to defend Palin from "attacks," were that they were coming from misogynist males on the Left, who simply could not stand the idea of a conservative woman being elected VP.
Of course first off I would have to say that if one were looking for examples of "misogyny" they would be FAR more successful looking over on the Conservative side of the aisle, but I would also say that the idea that Palin's major detractors were male is a false narrative.
As many of you know the Palin saga was unfolding, and of course falling apart at the seams, in real time all over the internet. Including here at IM.
And what I learned very early on was that the very FIRST people to call bullshit on Palin's narrative, were the women. The very first e-mail I received questioning Trig's birth story was from a female nurse, and from there it was pretty obvious that women were challenging virtually every detail of the Palin mythology from day one.
Women KNEW that she did not appear connected to her family on stage.
They KNEW her response to the news of Bristol's pregnancy seemed unnatural and uncaring.
They KNEW that the way she held her supposedly newborn son felt wrong to them.
They knew!
And of course, THEY were right!
We have since learned that Palin was NOT the involved "hockey mom" that she tried to portray herself as on television. In fact, according to Sherry Johnston, she rarely attended games, and when she did she was always on her Blackberry or flirting with the dads.
According to a rather large number of people who spoke to Joe McGinnis, Geoffrey Dunn, and myself, Palin was forever pawning her parental responsibilities off on just about anybody that she could. INCLUDING by the way the much maligned Mike Wooten, as he makes clear during his interview on Broomfield's excellent documentary "
Sarah Palin-You Betcha."
No I seriously doubt that there were too many women fooled by Palin's transparent masquerade as a heavily involved, adoring parent of a hockey playing family of loveable misfits.
Good on you ladies. Good on you.
