About us Login Get email updates
County Fair
Print

Nice job on the Stimulus, Madame Speaker.  But shouldn't you be changing some diapers?

February 21, 2009 9:21 am ET by Jamison Foser

US News & World Report's Washington Whispers page currently features a poll asking readers who they would prefer to run a daycare center for their kids: First Lady Michelle Obama, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, or Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

And no, the poll doesn't offer the obvious fifth choice: "Why the hell would anyone ask this question?"

UPDATE: Fixed headline, which originally referred to "Madame Secretary."

Expand All Expand 1st Level Collapse All Add Comment
    • Author by DAWUSS (February 21, 2009 9:46 am ET)
         

      "Why the hell would anyone ask this question?"

       

      QFE

      Report Abuse
      • Author by harley (February 21, 2009 1:27 pm ET)
          1
        OSarah bin Palin, the staunch radical abstinence supporter, cannot even keep her unwed teenage daughter from getting knocked up....why would anyone want a monster like that running a daycare? 
        Report Abuse
        • Author by viagraspamhere5591 (February 21, 2009 1:45 pm ET)
             
          How is it Palin's job to "keep her daughter from getting knocked up?" What was she supposed to do? Lock her up in a tower?
          Report Abuse
          • Author by harley (February 21, 2009 1:52 pm ET)
               
            The radical right has been screeching that "family values", and "attending church", and abstinence "education" is the cure to all our problems.   If this was a Lefty with an unwed pregnant daughter, the librul media and the am hate radio crowd would be claiming this is proof that the Left are terrible parents....that Lefty parenting results in unwed pregnant teenagers.  Speaking of which, just imagine the fake outrage from the radical conservative movement if Obama had an unwed teenage daughter.  If would had been the topic of every debate, every pressure, every interviewer.  Librul media.....yeah, right.      
            Report Abuse
            • Author by viagraspamhere5591 (February 21, 2009 4:29 pm ET)
                 
              Yeah I know abstinence-only sex ed is counterintuitive and that there are a lot of political double-standards. What does that have to do with four powerful political figures, three of whom are democrats, being subjected to a retrograde stereotype just because they happen to be female?
              Report Abuse
              • Author by LuvLuLu (February 23, 2009 12:29 am ET)
                  1

                Abstinence only sex ed is not 'counter-intuitive'.

                It's a failure. It doesn't work as well as regular sex ed which includes encouragement to delay sexual intercourse.

                The idea that exposing kids to information about sex will make them more sexually active is ridiculous and outdated and a sham.

                About 50% of Pilgrim women were pregnant when they were married. My  grandmother was pregnant when she got married. My mom was pregant when she got married. Both stayed relatively happily married for all their lives, and they were not promiscuous.

                Report Abuse
    • Author by MickD (February 21, 2009 10:27 am ET)
         
      I hope the poll taker got a number of phone slams in his ear.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by tcall20043320 (February 21, 2009 10:36 am ET)
         

      Kinder, Küche, Kirche

      The right wing to a "t".  US News and World Report was always a right wing rag.  Every month during the 1980s they had Ronnie RayGun's photo on the cover.  They thought the old b*stard was god.  

       

      Report Abuse
    • Author by steve expat (February 21, 2009 10:58 am ET)
         
      I think this is a roundabout way of asking which one you would rather do.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by mechanosm (February 21, 2009 11:23 am ET)
        1

      Write-in candidate: Newt Gingrich

       

       

      Report Abuse
    • Author by pbg (February 21, 2009 11:23 am ET)
         
      Eddie Murphy. He's so cute when he makes that face.

      Besides, he can talk to animals.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Midwest Meg (February 21, 2009 11:34 am ET)
         

       

      Jeez, you can only imagine mindset of the people who came up with this "poll."  And it wasn't some lone person---there's a bunch of layers---the artists, the writer, the editors---and no one questioned it?!?!?

      If a high school newspaper tried to run something like this, some teenager would have spoken up and canned it. And these are the so-called professional journalists?

      Time for another ethics panel about bloggers!

      Report Abuse
    • Author by avedon (February 21, 2009 12:00 pm ET)
         
      I couldn't help but look at how the poll was running so far when I saw this.  Sarah Palin way out ahead.  I must chalk this up to the fact that readers know that the others are too busy, while Palin may be needing a new career soon.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by miriamsong (February 21, 2009 12:10 pm ET)
         

      c'mon, let's be all positive and helpful, not just shrill and critical.  let's say you want to have a poll about women's roles and role models.  how about 'if you had a daughter, which one of these 4 would you want her to grow up to be most like?'

      ... and i believe michelle obama is a good bit darker than she is portrayed. i guess if you become first lady you become an honorary off-white person!

      Report Abuse
    • Author by Dem02020 (February 21, 2009 2:41 pm ET)
         

      It seems like the question is just a thinly veiled invitation to insult each or all of the four women mentioned (you choose which if any of the four you hate the most), insult them in a manner that cuts as close to the bone as possible: "I wouldn't trust my children to her care"

      I have two additions to the multiple choices: ann coulter and bill o'reilly...

      Unlike the four women mentioned in the question, who are all targets of hatred and ridicule for political reasons, both ann coulter and especially bill o'reilly seem like twisted inhuman perverts, who truly really and in fact you would never trust to be alone with your children (bill o'reilly especially)...

      As a matter of fact, never mind the daycare angle to the stupid question: if your young children have been subjected to the broadcast faces and words of bill o'reilly and ann coulter, then I say you're a bad parent: those two are far worse and much more disgusting an influence on your children, than the imagined influence of the four women in the question, who are such objects of political hatred that their detractors cross the line, and vent their hatred at those women in the form of the insult "I wouldn't trust my children with them"...

      An insult that is only the truth, when directed at skanks and perverts like ann coulter and bill o'reilly.

      Report Abuse
    • Author by thomast (February 21, 2009 3:27 pm ET)
         

      Media Matters should do sidebar polls! First up (I also posted this as a comment over at Washington Whispers):

      Who would you be most likely to hire as a housekeeper (paid under the table, natch)?

       

      a. George Will
      b. Bill O'Reilly
      c. Rush Limbaugh
      d. David Gregory

       

      Report Abuse
    • Author by liliaeth (February 21, 2009 5:19 pm ET)
         
      Honestly, I can't understand why Sarah Palin gets so many votes. Sure, I'd rather see Pelosi and Clinton stay in politics, since they'd do more good there. But what sane person would allow Sarah Palin anywhere near their children?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by wookie (February 22, 2009 9:21 am ET)
        1  
        I think you're supposed to think that Palin is the traditional family values mother figure and the rest are radical child hating feminists.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by M. Bouffant (February 21, 2009 7:04 pm ET)
         
      Speaking of which, just imagine the fake outrage from the radical conservative movement if Obama had an unwed teenage daughter.

      Huh? Isn't the older Obama daughter 12? Are we going to be hearing outrage because she's a teenage daughter who isn't married yet?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by DrBB (February 22, 2009 8:23 am ET)
         
      Well, I for one agree with the majority of US Snooze readers who think Palin is the best choice for running a daycare center. The other women have skills and brains that would be wasted in such a position.

      And yes, it is a profoundly stupid question.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Physics01 (February 22, 2009 1:14 pm ET)
         
      My wife has only recently realized that the democratic party rejected a more qualified woman for a less qualified man in the last primary. I refuse to argue the point with here.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by fairliberal (February 22, 2009 5:15 pm ET)
         
      Well since M Obama,  Pelosi and Palin are apparently good parents, they should merit some consideration for this post. Clinton on the other hand after she travels to Bosnia with her daughter, lies about having to duck sniper fire, providing a terrible example to her daughter. So she should be eliminated from consideration. She just reinforced the "lies are acceptable" policy that father Bill had already instilled in Chelsea.
      Report Abuse

my.MediaMatters.org

Login  Sign Up

About the Blog

Feed Icon
  • County Fair is a media blog featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the Web as well as original commentary, breaking news and rapid response updates to major media events from Media Matters senior fellows and other staff.