Obama Campaign National Finance Committee Member Criticizes Palin's Parenting

Mark: Who CARES? What does any of that have to do with anything? Gutman's views about Palin's parenting don't matter. Your views about Palin's parenting don't matter. None of it MATTERS.

Stop being all caught up in the soap-opera intrigue of this stuff. Not just this specific Palin side issue -- ALL of it. It's not important. It's dumbing down the whole thing. You're contributing to the degeneration of politics.

What's with all of the people that are projecting their own feelings and thoughts onto the Palins?

As a divorced Dad, I know that a man can raise his children just fine. But nobody wants to give Todd that credit. And Todd hasn't totally lost the support of his wife as I have.

Gutman says: "If you take a daughter who's got this emotional strife and subject her to the most intense scrutiny of the world at this time in her life, I think you've put your career above your family."

Is that your official psychological evaluation Mr. Gutman? Are you sure of that? Because maybe she doesn't have all this emotional strife, because she has a faith and a family that is supportive of her. Maybe she's got this tremendous joy of being a mother and having a baby, and maybe, despite the fact that she's young and it may be unplanned, she's looking forward to being married and making a good start with her new family.

Just so I understand. All of the positive aspects of her family are ok to put out there and address and talk about. All of the negative aspects of her family are their own private business.

I mean, is that how it works now?

Do any of you folks have any interest in IDEAS? Any interest in actual ISSUES? I don't mean an interest in the concept of issues -- I mean in the substance of issues themselves.

Reading the comments below just reinforces what the Internet has increasingly made clear: Many of you -- most, even -- engage with politics as a soap opera. You're all bound up in the personalities and stories. These people are all CHARACTERS to you. The campaigns are storylines. And you're infatuated with it all, breathlessly caught up in the latest twists, excited about where the plot will take us next.

None of it seems to be about actual policy. Yes, you reference ideology, but only in a contextual sense -- the way a "Sopranos" fan might reference the backdrop of personality traits that makes such-and-such character be such-and-such way. That's it.

You're ruining politics. You're ruining American governance. For God's sake, you're too caught up in PEOPLE. Try arguing about IDEAS and PREMISES for a while, and quit being so enraptured with the surface drama of all this stuff.

I know Howard Gutman well. He is a good man working for his beliefs. I am at odds politically with him, and have often told him so, but have no doubt as to the quality of his character. In addition, he is devoted to his family and has made great sacrifices on their behalf. There is no need to pile on this man, who says what he believes and puts family first.

Gov. Palin kept her pregnancy secret largely due to the knowledge she was carrying a Down's Syndrome child. Why else was the test done. She made a choice to have the child which has been applauded by the right wingers.

Gov. Palin exposed her daughter's pregnancy to stop rumors that the last child was an attempted cover-up of her daughter's pregnancy and was really her grandchild. Those rumors existed before she was selected. Her daughter chose to keep the child and marry the father sometime in the future. Mr. Palin apparently does not own a shotgun. She has been applauded by right wingers for her choice.

How convenient that they had a choice. A choice which the Gov. would deny to all other women.

I think she is a set up for the press. I hit Google and in 20 minutes I knew she was under investsigation for influence peddling, that she was a bookburner, Clues pointed to a cover up about her last child (not looking pregnant and a weird story about flying home for the birth, she was tight with Sen. Stevens, she was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it. She set all records for pork as mayor of the small town and left the town $20 million in debt.

McCain's committee did as fine a job on this selection as Brownie did with Katrina.

Palin has made it family issue and that's why it seems hypocritcal to many. I am surprised the read that Democratic women would vote for McCain-Palin. If Democratic women vote for McCain then we've just handed the country over the Religious Right once again. Palin is against sex ed, she believes in teaching creationism is schools, she does not believe in global warming, drilling is her only solution to the energy crisis and lastly, has a very limited understanding of foreign relations. This is not the right woman for us and frankly, I was really turned off by her speech. Diplomacy does not seem to be her forte. Dems please stick to your core beliefs!!!

This whole campaign season has set the women's movement back 30 years at least. Hillary supporters saying they're voting out of spite simply reinforce the image that woman are too emotional to hold high office. This whole BS that because she's a woman she's a mother rather than a parent simply reinforces the whole stereotype of women must be caregivers exclusively.

Palin is a parent who happens to be a mother. Bayh is a parent who happens to be a father. They both should be viewed EXACTLY the same when they enter the same arena and that means accepting the SAME criticisms ALL parents get when they make a move that so highly affects their children.

Disagree with those criticisms, fine. But stop using the fact that she's a woman to tell everyone to stop the criticisms.

Women fought for years to be considered EQUAL....not to get special treatment.

Howard Gutman has given us a chance to judge the truthfulness of Obama's claim that he will fire anyone on his campaign that makes comments involving Sarah Palin's family. Besides the fact that I think Gutman is a complete loser-of-a-human-being for making those statements, it is clear to me that he is representing Obama and that his comments are a direct attack on the family. Senator Obama, keep your word and make Gutman an example by firing him! How is Obama going to lead the country, when he can’t even get the democrats to stop picking on a little seventeen-year-old girl? That doesn’t seem like very effective leadership to me. He claimed he is in charge of his campaign and that shows his “executive” ability, but it doesn’t seem like anyone that works for him is actually listening. Gutman is a test for the Obama camp. Either Obama sanctions these attacks on the Palin family, or he will keep his word and fire Gutman.

Incidentally, I love the part where Mr. Gutman says: "If my daughter had just come home at 17 years old and said, 'Mom, Dad, I'm pregnant, we have a family problem..." He would probably take his daughter down to the local Planned Parenthood clinic and have his daughter abort her child.

hmmm...Gutman...I guess the Armani suit was cutting off the blood to his brain.
What a schmuck.......

A woman is no more than an amoeba to him and his kind!!!!!

The man is a sexist and fool.

"Just practice what you preach"

Tell that to the Fundies.

Obama is too scared to attack Sarah. He has his clowns do the dirty work, and he sits back and denies everything. Well, it ain't working democrats.

Just about everything that comes out of this woman's mouth is a lie, just like everything McCain and the self-righteous right said about Obama was a fabrication or at a bare minimum truth stretched to the snapping point. McCain's campaign may have actually at this point become more vulgar and vile than either of Bush's.

P.S. guys, when did Fox become so hated...after all, there is ABC,CBS,NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Newsweek, Time, LATimes, NY Times, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal to name just a very, very few that are all agaga about Obama and never think to ask real deep questions. We should also not forgot that "tingle up my leg" business with Chris Mathews(?).....Even if Fox went totally gaga too, there are still a large portion of this country that sees the clothes don't have a person in them.

All those that are critical of Palin and the choice they've made!!! Get off your high horse. It's amazing that all are such experts on what she should or shouldn't do. Just practice what you preach and don't draw to your self righteous conclusion. I'm just thankful that there are those that can do what they do to support the effort and cause of this nation. Many children everyday are faced with far greater challenges and they have no choice. This one is at least a selfless act of service. Give it a chance with out your hypocracy!

Well, so much for reasonably decent, honest, caring, compassionate, fair, non
judgmental, intelligent discourse. But, in all fairness, from what little I've seen of the DailyKos, MyDD, Atrios, Huffpo, MoveOn.org, et.al. this is pretty tame. All of this back and forth may do some good. Even if it is only to allow for stress release.

"I agree 100% with Gutman. Palin has been exploiting her family and using their for photo ops. Geeze, she brought her 4-month old special needs child to the convention!! Who brings an infant to a loud, rowdy political convention?"

And everyone else disagrees with Gutman- even Gutman, who apologized.

You guys would be screaming cover-up if she did not bring all this out.

Obama's kids have been on magazine covers. They have been used repeatedly, so please........

For all you know-it-alls who think Sarah Palin is against birth control conduct a bit of research first. Sarah Palin believes that abstinence is the best way to prevent pregnancy (duh) but she also supports birth control as well. Google it and you'll find she does support contraception.

As to her daughter becoming pregnant, we don't know if she was using birth control or not. It's possible she was and still got pregnant- that happens.

We don't know and we shouldn't make assumptions.

Sexist drivel. So a woman needs to stay home and be a mom rather than a working mom? No way! She's not a single mother folks. Her husband will be the primary caretaker. Why does it have to be the mom not the dad who takes care of the children? Isn't the father an acceptable choice as well?

No one complains about Obama's weekend parenting (as he was physically away from the family most of the time during his Washington Senate tenure) and Michelle works fulltime. Their girls are cared for by Michelle's mother. Is that a problem for any of you who complain that only Sarah Palin can raise her children?

At least Sarah Palin's children will have a parent looking after them- not a grandmother as in the Obama household.

It's a double standard. It's why women will come out in droves to vote for Palin just to put a woman through that glass ceiling. Keep talking people, you're only pushing more of us towards protecting Sarah Palin not away from.