On Friday’s Joy Behar Show on CNN Headline News, host Behar interviewed actress Valerie Harper, and, as the discussion turned to women in politics, the HLN host brought up Sarah Palin’s run for Vice President, prompting Harper to complain that Palin was "playing to that which is the worst in us, the divisive stuff," and to charge that "there’s a snide thing there that I don’t appreciate."
After dismissing her by comparing her to men who "make fools of themselves," and asserting that Palin is popular with some because she is "cute," Harper went on to theorize that the former Alaska governor is "smarter than she’s letting on." To Harper’s agreement, Behar suggested that Palin is "sly."
Below is a transcript of the relevant portions of the Friday, February 26, Joy Behar Show on HLN:
JOY BEHAR: Do you think we’ve made enough progress? And is Sarah Palin – I want to talk to you about Sarah Palin because – is she, is she a good representative of the women’s movement in the fact that she did run for Vice President?
VALERIE HARPER: In that, she’s just out there doing what she does, and there’s plenty of men that make fools of themselves as, you know, politicians or, or get people to love them because they’re cute. I mean, I mean-
BEHAR: Dan Quayle, remember him?
HARPER: Exactly. So, maybe that, in that, there’s sort of a level paying field. But I don’t see Sarah as a big feminist. No, I do not, because of her policies, or the policy she espouses. And I’m not sure, but people love her – she’s cute as can be, but I feel she’s smarter than she’s letting on.
BEHAR: You do?
HARPER: I do.
BEHAR: Well, what’s the big secret?
HARPER: Well, I mean, playing to the, that which is the worst in us, the divisive stuff.
BEHAR: Oh, you mean she’s sly?
HARPER: Yes, and there’s a snide thing there that I don’t appreciate. That’s just me. But listen, you know, she’s out there doing her stuff, and I don’t necessarily – maybe it’s that a woman can, can, you know, run for office fine.
BEHAR: But there’s a misunderstanding, I think, about feminism in the sense that they think she’s a feminist because she has children and a husband and a career. That is just the surface of it.
HARPER: Exactly.
BEHAR: It’s really your value system-
HARPER: Exactly, yeah.
BEHAR: -that has a lot to do with it also.
