NPR Host: Palin Morphed From Superwoman to 'Just Another Mean Girl' Attacking Obama

On Monday's Tell Me More, NPR talk show host Michel Martin offered a few supportive thoughts about Sarah Palin: she "was somebody you wanted to see in the game" as a working mother, and "She seemed practical, honest, unfazed and down-to-earth, exactly the qualities people hope newcomers in general and hopefully women will bring to public life." Apparently, though, these warm feelings evaporated within days. When she "trashed" Barack Obama at the Republican convention, she became "just another Mean Girl" on a rampage:

But then for some reason, maybe it was the glare of the national spotlight, maybe she was that way all along, Palin seemed to morph pretty quickly out of Superwoman into just another Mean Girl — ridiculing people who don't make the same choices she does, and then crying about it when the rest of the world bit her back.

It started at the Republican National Convention, where she trashed Barack Obama and community organizers in general, saying that as a small-town mayor she was just like them except she had actual responsibilities. Now she's decided to chuck those responsibilities, but she still wants to, as she said in her farewell announcement, have an impact on public debate. So what does that make her? A community organizer? She complained about the unwelcome attention she has received since she joined the national ticket, while conveniently forgetting that much attention has been provoked by her own choices and behavior.

Now I'll be interested to see how conservatives react to Palin's decision. Her philosophical bedfellows are quick to accuse racial and ethnic minorities of whining when they complain that institutional barriers, long-standing social networks and long-held prejudices about what they can do still play too big a role in their life chances...witness the gloating about the recent Supreme Court case involving that New Haven firefighter's promotional exam.

So what now do they say to Palin's complaints about how she was treated by the Republican establishment, the national media, as well as the overall nastiness of the political environment? Conservatives have little patience for feminists who argue that the deck is stacked against women of childbearing age, that our assumptions about how work and family life should be organized make it very difficult for women — especially those with kids still at home — to have the kinds of careers ambitious men take for granted. What, then, do they say about the questions Palin was pressured to answer that none of her male competitors are ever asked, about how she'd balance her public duties with her private ones?

Like your average NPR personality, Martin thinks racial and gender quotas are essential for the "life chances" of people in an America still weighed down by "long-standing social networks and long-held prejudices." Martin concluded:

Like everybody else interested in politics, I am dying to know what Palin does next. But I particularly want to know if her time in the hot seat has left her with any more compassion than she has demonstrated to this point about how hard it can be for so many other people to put a life together. And even more important, I'd like to know what ideas she has about how to make things better for the next Sarah Palin.