Strollerderby : hockey mom

Sarah Palin Speaks To Esquire About Kids And Things

Brett Singer — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:15:00 GMT

Sarah Palin is back. In truth, the Hockey Mom/Lipsticked Pitbull/former Vice-Presidential candidate never left. So before anyone hits me with a "Why don't you leave that nice woman alone!", remember that all of these quotes are from Palin herself, via an interview in Esquire Magazine. It's not like people put a camera in her house. We'll stick with the quotes that are about her kids. Here we go:

On Trig:
I'll tell you, yesterday the Anchorage Daily News, they called again to ask — double-, triple-, quadruple-check — who is Trig's real mom. And I said, Come on, are you kidding me? We're gonna answer this? Do you not believe me or my doctor? And they said, No, it's been quite cryptic the way that my son's birth has been discussed. And I thought, Okay, more indication of continued problems in the world of journalism.

Now, I don't want to feed the beast here. And there are certainly problems in the world of journalism. But in that paragraph, she doesn't say that she's Trig's mom. I understand what she means. But she doesn't actually say that she is Trig's biological mother. Just sayin'. (UPDATE: per the comments below, this was meant as a joke, not serious journalism.)

On Bristol's pending nuptials:
This is what I've been telling Bristol, before she gets married, is, Bristol, there are definitely gonna be tough parts in marriage. You have to look at those tough times and remember that you have essentially a business contract with this person. You've signed an agreement: You're going to be together. And you look at it that way as you work through the tough times, because I guarantee the better time is there on the other side. That's how we've looked at it.

To quote another song by Heart (who sang her theme tune, Barracuda), what about love? I kind of hope that there was more to this one because if that's how she feels about marriage, that's kind of a bummer. Not that I'm all flowers and puppy dog tails when it comes to marriage. But it's more than just a "contract." Isn't it?

On Bristol's name:
Two meanings in Bristol's name: I worked at the Bristol Inn, and Todd grew up in Bristol Bay. But also, Bristol, Connecticut, is the home of ESPN. And when I was in high school, my desire was to be a sportscaster. ESPN was just kicking off, just getting off the ground, and I thought that's what I was going to do in life, is be one of the first woman sportscasters. Until I learned that you'd have to move to Bristol, Connecticut. It was far away. So instead, I had a daughter and named her Bristol.

OK. Hang on. First, she says "two meanings" and then provides three. Second – ESPN? Does that mean that she considered naming the girl Boomer, after Chris Berman? This might seem like another opinion from a "pathetic blogger" (another quote of hers), but that's a strange choice. I mean, I like the Cartoon Network but I'm not naming my son Mojo Jojo. (I did suggest that the name Luke, so I could say, "Luke! I am your father!" But then my wife hit me really hard and I gave up.)

Lastly, a general comment on parenting and kids:
A courageous person is anyone who loses a child and can still get out of bed in the morning.

No disagreement there. I do wonder what prompted her to say that, but that's one thing she and I can agree on. (She was really worried about finding common ground with me, y'know.)

One thing that can't be said enough – when Palin says that she wants us to leave her kids alone, she has to realize that she puts them in the spotlight every time she does press like this. She doesn't have to do the interview. And if she does the interview, she doesn't have to mention her family all the time. I said it before and I'll say it again – if you don't want people to write about your kids, you should stop talking about them in the media.

There's a lot more, including the statement "Everything I've ever needed to know I learned through sports," a bit of "y'all" and "ya", and that she doesn't think of herself as "hot." Oh, and to make a good chili, you need mooseburger. The full interview is online at Esquire.com. G'wan. Read it. You know you want to. Y'all. Ya.

Source/Image: Esquire

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Sarah Palin Says Leave My Kids Alone

Brett Singer — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Remember Sarah Palin? Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, kind of overshadowed John McCain for a while, said the word "maverick" a lot? Tina Fey did an impression of her on Saturday Night Live? Ring any bells?

She's back. Well, to be fair, she never went away. But the Associated Press has published a story talking about how Palin "is going on the offensive against news organizations as well as bloggers she says are perpetuating malicious gossip about her and her children." They say she has, "personally reached out to media outlets such as People magazine and The Associated Press to complain about information she claimed is wrong."

What information? Well, that her daughter Bristol Palin and her fiancee, Levi Johnson, have dropped out of high school. She says that isn't true since they are taking correspondence courses. That sort of thing. Palin says that she is doing this to "set the record straight" and not because of political ambitions.

American University professor Leonard Steinhorn, described as "an expert on the presidency," isn't buying it. He says that Palin is positioning herself to run for Prez in 2012, and is "attacking the media as a way to generate support among a base she hopes will support her." (He's an expert, so he must be right.)

Here's the thing. I don't think it's fair to go after her kids. But someone needs to explain to the Governor of Alaska that if you don't want "the media" to talk about your family, you probably shouldn't invite them into your home, which she did with the Today Show in November after losing the election. No one forced her to do that. And if she wanted to do the interview, she could have done it alone. But she chose to do it in her kitchen while she cooked dinner. She clearly wants to have her family be part of her image, but she also wants to pick and choose what people write about them.

The problem is, it doesn't work that way. You can't have your cake and bake it on national television too. There are plenty of ways to keep your family out of the spotlight. One of them is very simple: keep them out of the spotlight.

Source: AP via HuffPo

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Matt Lauer Talks To Sarah Palin In The Kitchen

Brett Singer — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:35:00 GMT

Sarah Palin is off the campaign trail but not out of the spotlight. Now that she isn't running for anything, she's doing interviews left and right (that's not a political reference, by the way). This morning, NBC aired the first part of Matt Lauer's interview with the Alaska Governor; part two airs tomorrow, and there's even more coming on NBC Nightly News.

Sarah sat down with Matt in Alaska for a traditional interview (as morning news gigs go, I think Matt Lauer has it the worst – dude has to travel a LOT). He also spent some time at the Palin home, sharing a salmon and halibut casserole, which he said was quite tasty.

Some of the video is below (click here if the embed doesn't work).

Here are some highlights:

Matt says that the Palin family was, “down to Earth.” Palin herself is, “a working mom...making dinner for her family.”

As for Governor Palin, she was thrilled to be, “representing middle-class, hardworking American families” as part of the McCampaign. (I'm waiting for a candidate to say that they represent lazy people who don't care about money.) She “did not know” that the media scrutiny would be as intense as it turned out to be, and she was upset about the rumors that Trig was not her son. Still, it was all worth it because, “I knew we were on the right path...offering me and my family in service of my country.”

Todd weighs in, kind of. Asked about how the Palin family dealt with the crazy campaign schedule, the First Dude said, “our family is very adaptable.” As for the criticisms? It's just “part of the business.” It sounds like Sarah was more interested than Todd in tearing some of her critics a new one. Still, the Governor says that it's all, “part of this beast called politics in America.”

So what about all of the post-election mud that's been flying around our heads? And did the McCampaign keep her from doing interviews? Palin doesn't want to get into “inside baseball” with regard to “who was calling the shots in the campaign.” She makes it pretty clear that she, “loves doing interviews” because she wants to tell the American people what she plans to do to/for them. “You have to be able to speak through the media.” Lauer points out that she answered his question, “without answering it.”

Then we hear from Piper. She awkwardly answers Matt's questions about the campaign, saying that the hardest part was going to the rallies. She missed “a lot” of school, and its been hard to catch up now that she's home again. How would she feel about another campaign, like, say, in four years? “I don't know,” is the 7 year old's answer. Then mom jumps in and asks her daughter, “Would you want to do it again, sister?” Piper, without missing a beat, says, “Yes.” (UPDATE: apparently Piper was wearing high heels.)

I have several thoughts about this of course, but one thing comes to mind immediately. Governor Palin expressed frustration with what she calls a “double standard” regarding how the media covers her. “I don’t know if anybody’s asking Barack Obama, for intance, ‘Who did your makeup before you went on stage?’ But they’ve been asking me.” True. But when John McCain goes on Jay Leno tonight, I don't think he's going to be doing a cooking segment. Live by the mixing bowl, die by the mixing bowl, y'know?

Source/Image: NBC/MSNBC

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Sarah Palin: The Disney Movie

JeanneSager — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:49:00 GMT

The disclaimer at the beginning of the "preview" for the new Sarah Palin movie says it all: the preview "would be really lame as a real movie." I'm going to step out on a bridge (you know what kind) and bet it would be really lame in "real life" too.

Head of Skate follows a hockey mom (of course) who likes to whip up baked Alaska with little American flags propped on toothpicks to go with the lasagna she'll serve after picking up son Algebra from hockey practice. But when an old dude (who I dare to say looks much more alive than old Johnny Boy) knocks on her door and offers her the chance to be vice president, she tells the country, "I found my friend's skates this morning, how hard could it be to find Bin Laden?"

OK, all very funny in a Mighty Ducks kind of way, but when the president dies and "Betty Norendorfer" whispers her gleeful thanks over his dead body, I got Alaska-style chills. And it didn't help to see her kids whipping around the kitchen with their hockey sticks held high - what kind of movie mom doesn't tell them they'll play with those things in traffic if they scratch her floor.

Try not watching this one until they end - it's like the trainwreck where you just . . . can't . . . look . . . away. If it makes it better, they promise "It's a movie you just have to see even in cases of incest and rape."

Image: The Sarah Palin Blog

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Hockey Moms on Palin: She Refused to Carry the Juice

Madeline Holler — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:01:00 GMT

"Hockey Moms for Truth" have come out with a damning video of Sarah Palin, the VP candidate who described herself to the nation as "just your average hockey mom." According to these women, she was never a very good one (ice chest with no handles, indeed!).

[via Politico, via Salon]

Hockey Mom vs. Soccer Mom vs. Basketball Mom - A Unscientific Analysis

SunnyChanel — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:03:00 GMT

Are you a soccer mom, hockey mom, beach volleyball mom or maybe just a “I don’t believe in being pigeon holed by what sport my child happens to play” mom. Playing off of the stereotype of the “soccer mom”, Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin stated at the Republican convention "that the only difference between a Hockey Mom and a pit bull is a touch of lipstick.” But how about the Basketball, Baseball and Football moms? What about them?

Forbes.com offered up a “brief (and unscientific) analysis of the different kind of sports moms, here are some of the highlights:

Soccer Mom: “If the hockey mom wants war, the soccer mom wants amity--wrapped in a blanket of teamwork. Soccer in America is a lowest-common denominator sport: the one where everyone gets to play and no one (except the goalie) is singled out for blame.”

Hockey Mom: “Just as the "soccer mom" was used as demographic shorthand for wishy-washy female suburban voters in past elections, the fur-booted Madonna of the Rink is now being held up as a symbol of a more decisive voter: the pro-life, red meat Republican.

Basketball Mom: “Although she has never professed to be one, Michelle Obama has about her the air of a basketball mom….The basketball mom can attend games in heels, all the while congratulating herself for being a stylish force of life…. and the basketball mom's emotional engagement is mercifully brief: a mere hour of catharsis.:

The Baseball Mom and the Football Mom: “To be a football or baseball mom is to be caught up in the scrutiny and obligations of a community. A football mom is willing to take it one step further: She is a cog in the war machine--placing her son in harm's way in the service of communal victory.”

For all the analysis of these sports mom stereotypes check out the article in full here.

Cyber Mom Versus Hockey Mom: Dooce Sounds Off

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:03:00 GMT

A day after Gov. Sarah Palin made her case for the vice presidency, Heather Armstrong of Dooce, one of the most popular blogs in the world, just dropped an anvil not only on the Alaska governor's nomination but also on the notion that liberals are all about the free ride instead of helping fellow families.

It's a heartfelt piece that's worth a read.

While Palin made a case against community organizers, Dooce made a case for the community. Call it a square off between the country's most popular Hockey Mom and the country's most popular Cyber Mom.

I am angry. I am infuriated. And I don't think I would be if Sara Palin were a qualified or competent choice as McCain's running mate. But the fact, the reality is that she is not. And instead of demanding better from their party, instead of going, wait a minute, no, we deserve better than this, many Republicans are contorting themselves into a denial of reality.

Dooce for Veep.

Palin's Children: The Best Part of the RNC

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:00:00 GMT

There's nothing like adorable children to take the edge off of soul-crushing political events. By far the best part of the Republican National Convention came last night when Piper Palin gave her baby brother Trig a spit bath during their mother's speech.

Unfortunately, to watch this clip, you do have to withstand Sarah Palin bragging about her city council days in the great state of Alaska (because serving on city council is sort of like running the country….), but at least you don’t have to hear the part of her speech when she jokes that hockey moms are pit bulls in lipstick. What a champion for women!—I mean ladies. It’s astounding that someone is running for national office who actually makes Dubya sound like a policy expert.

But I digress. The point of this clip is to momentarily forget about Sarah Palin and focus on the important things in life: making sure babies have perfectly slicked back hair.

Photo: alaskareport.com

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