Originally posted by eljefejesus
Women though, seem to rarely be as savagely attacked through their family in full media glare as frequently, often, and universally as was done to Palin and her family.
Can anyone name another candidate running for high office whose family presented such a tabloid goldmine?
From my memory of watching the steady roll of new candidates on the block being paraded as suitable options, if there was one constant, then all succesful candidate families tended to conform to a certain manifestation of American Wholesomeness, a certain American Dream perfection, realised.
Whatever the election campaign equivalent of central casting is, then surely a type of Norman Rockwell filter sits firmly in place that helps deselect any candidates that fails to meet certain basic criteria of being *Presidential*. Being an inexact science though, (knowing what the people will resonate with) those criteria do change and evolve over time, but all else being equal the first family usually tends to conform to a pretty squeeky clean image of American virtue and goodness. For sure cracks will and do appear but however they are stacked up, once the people have you, the prospective first family in their sights, the media spotlight is turned up to stun. At that point the collective subconscious either says "you may pass through" or " you've got to be kidding, right!?"
Now who knows how that happens, but once allowd through, did Bush's daughters get an easy time in the media. Did 'W' blink? If he did it never made the news over here. Same applied to Ronnie when his daughters troubles hit the channels. I dont remeber Ronnie 'going there' and giving the stories any more oxygen.
In terms of affability and 'one of us likeability' the difference between "W" and "SP" is that whereas "W" was a monied elite playing a sophisticated version of charming folksy cute, thats all there is to "SP". She's not playing, thats who she is. At the end of the day no matter how she polled the American public imho shuddered and heaved a collective sigh of relief when her ticket was defeated.
You can argue that she was chosen ( or slipped by the Norman Rockwell filter) to ensure that Obama was elected, but thats the conspiracist meanderings possibly best left for another thread.