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[SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>]

bob ford wrote:
> I swear the venom from some women I have heard on tv, and on web, in print, makesm me think there might be some weird envy of a person unknown (not from you, Moon).  Palin has been gracious to a fault, and mistreated more by the press than anyone I've seen that didn't commit a disgusting type of felony.  
>   
Hey, Bob---remember Dan Quayle?  He was mistreated 'way worse, and 
before the internet; they could have done an even worse (better?) job on 
him if they'd just had the internet :-)           .   I don't even 
remember much about the guy except some of his inanelies and the way he 
was subsequently butchered.  So they've got a way to go on Palin.

The press openly laid in wait for him, and of course his political 
opponents had a heyday, too, even leading to the term/ /"Quaylism", 
which is sometimes heard even today/ .  / He, like George W, had a 
propensity to make inane, nonsensical statements (One I remember was "I 
have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the 
future."; those silly things lodge themselves in one's brain), and it 
makes them easy targets for pundits, then that gets out of hand, 
and.....there they go...

Any politician, or aspiring politician, in this country lays themselves 
wide open to such.  Palin's "accent"  set her up, so did her claim to 
clean Christian living after "having" to get married, mothers and 
medical people took issue (as did I) with her judgment as a mother (I 
can't think of having an "at risk" 5th pregnancy, water breaking, then 
getting on a multi-hour plane flight.) and so on.  Those things didn't 
bear up to being bragged on; they'd have been better left off the 'Look 
at me and my history' list......as would Quayle's claim to be an 
intellectual when the man couldn't spell (I know many very smart folks 
who can't spell worth a toot, but spelling skill is taken rightly or 
wrongly in our society as a measure of intelligence) or reliably form a 
sentence to mean what he really wanted to say.    All it takes is a 
start like that, and  ridicule is guaranteed to follow, no matter the 
person. 

People all make mistakes, but to make those kinds of mistakes, then hold 
yourself up as a positive example will bring derision, whether in a 
group around the pickle barrel or in front of a nation.  In politics, 
since a person aspires to be a leader, the situation is intensely 
exacerbated, and if possible used by opponent/s.  It's a given, best 
avoided, no matter the person.....

SusanJane, in Maine