Political Opinion Blog: The Sarah Palin Newsweek Cover and How Her Spin Team SUCKS

So, Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin is on the cover of Newsweek. If you’ve been following Palin’s road to the White House, you’ll know it’s been bumpy. Her ability to govern has been called into question, her knowledge of the Federal Government has been poked at and her family has come under the same kind of scruntiny that any candidates has…and has turned up a few skeletons.

But through it all, Sarah Palin has held her head high and maintained that she’s a “Maverick.” That she’s not a Washington insider, that she’s just like your average “Joe Six-pack.” Which is utterly untrue, the woman is hardly middle class, but her speil has pulled people in. And so, she’s on the cover of Newsweek.

And now her publicity team is throwing a massive fit.

Why? Because the Newsweek cover is unairbrushed. Because you can see flaws in Sarah’s face, because you can see the human imperfection in it. And this is apparently insulting.

I don’t know how Govenor Palin actually feels about this cover, since it’s been her publicity team handling everything I’ve seen. But the fact is, her people are spinning this HORRIBLY WRONG. They’re saying the cover doesn’t make her look pretty, is meant to highlight her flaws.

I’m sorry, isn’t this the face of the woman who has basically said she’s not going to be “pretty” with the American people? During the Vice Presidential debate, she looked straight at the camera and said “I may not answer these questions the way you want to hear, or the moderator wants to hear, but I’m going to talk straight to the American people.”

So you know what you could have done with this cover? You could have said THIS is what Sarah Palin wants. To take off the make-up, to get rid of the flash and the filters of the trail and say “Hey, I’m human. I’m like everyone else out there. That’s why I deserve this. This is why you should vote for me.”

Instead, her spin team is basically re-enforcing the sort of thing that Amy Poehler said, in jest, during the infamous “I can see Russia from my house!” skit on Saturday Night Live.

And you know what? You’re the people complaining about sexism on the campaign trail. You know what I find sexist? Prettying a woman up on a magazine cover because there’s a belief people won’t vote for an “unattractive” woman. And before you go into “They airbrush Obama!” keep in mind a few things:

• Jezebel.com has a retrospective of Obama’s covers…all of which have unflattering features shown
• Palin and McCain want to claim THEY understand the American people better than Barack Obama. So coming off as unairbrushed, unfiltered, unfixed? Would have HELPED their cause. They could have spun it into “Barack Obama is a pretty face…but we don’t feel the need to airbrush ourselves like he does.”

I feel like anyone who would vote for or against Sarah Palin based on her looks (or her taste in glasses…I’m looking at you here, MOM) isn’t getting the point. We’re supposed to be voting based on the woman’s politics, her views on issues and what she can do for our country, not whether she’s a MILF or she’s got some age lines and wrinkles.

WHICH IS WHY I WILL NOT BE VOTING FOR THE WOMAN.

Sarah Palin, in another universe I would be all about you as the first female Vice President. You are a woman who has balanced a career and a family, someone who hunts, fishes, governs and mothers. In another universe, I could have felt like you saying things like “I’m going to talk straight to the American people” gave you more cajones than many of your male counterparts.

It’s just a shame your politics are anti-woman, you don’t believe in evolution, you don’t seem to understand we’re in the middle of an economic crisis and that your debate tactics boil down to this: