Gloves came off when column came out by Susan Reimer

Gloves came off when column came out by Susan Reimer

Susan Reimer baltimoresun.com September 5, 2008

On Monday, I wrote a column criticizing the McCain campaign for what I saw as a cynical attempt to gather in unhappy women voters by naming Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin his vice presidential candidate and for exploiting the poignant story of her youngest child to appease the Republican Party's pro-life base.

And then the storm began.

More than 8,200 comments were posted to the column on The Baltimore Sun's Web site. I received more than 700 personal e-mails and about 50 phone calls.

The column was mentioned by Rush Limbaugh and Brit Hume. Matt Drudge's hugely popular Web site, Drudge Report, posted a link to it. Fox News and every shock jock from here to San Francisco called and asked me to appear on the air to defend myself.

[…]

Many criticized me for writing that by choosing Palin, who gave birth this spring to a child she knew to have Down syndrome, the Republican Party was exploiting her decision to keep her child - that the party was trading on her story.

In no way did I suggest that she should not have carried her child to term. Or that she did not love him and count him as a blessing to her family. Or that she made the decision out of anything but her own strong beliefs, a strength that was clearly on display during her speech Wednesday night.

[…]

Among the first to respond was my 30-year-old nephew, Bill, a Republican as conservative as his father and so politically aware that he was predicting Palin would be McCain's choice before it happened.

Bill made the excellent point that the Republican Party was not reaching out to me with the Palin pick. It was reaching out to him.

"I don't want to vote for old white guys, either," Bill said. "With this pick, a woman and young, the party is letting me know that there is a place in it for me."

Others wrote to say that if I was going to question the depth of Palin's professional resume, Obama's experience deserved the same scrutiny. That is more than a fair point.

[…]

Read her entire column here: Gloves came off when column came out

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20080905 Gloves came off when column came out by Susan Reimer