Newsweak Squawk

Sarah Palin: Newsweek running shorts cover is sexist. Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential candidate, has denounced as "sexist " and "degrading" a Newsweek cover that depicts her in a coquettish pose in gym kit.

Mrs Palin, who is making front pages across the United States this week as she promotes her blockbuster memoir "Going Rogue", told more than one million supporters on Facebook that the image and the treatment of her were depressingly predictable.

David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network commented that the cover was "biased and sexist at the same time", contrasting Mrs Palin's treatment with the favourable Newsweek portrayal of Hillary Clinton when she was first lady. "Conservative women are portrayed as nuts and dopey," he concluded. "Liberal women are heroes for the next generation."

----- I really have to wonder about the mindset of those more concerned with image than substance. Michelle Obama has had a couple of not so flattering images on the front of Newsweek, as have many other folks. Who cares. But, when your reading audience is the checkout line at Wal-mart ...

Palin is so disappointing. She seems to be a 24/7 down-home folksy chirper who either cannot or does not know when to sound grownup. Is this Sarah or are her current advisers telling her to complain about the cover, and she thinks the complaint is a winner? Here's a clue Sarah - it's not about sexism - it's about sex. Sex sells everything, even pols, at least in the lower 48. You know you're sexy and trim on that cover (a MILF for those young republicans). You're like the pretty girl who laments how awful she looks, just so her friends will tell her how stunning she looks. High school.

All that energy, ability, and charisma and Palin can't come off as anything more than someone qualified to be a bubbly bright office receptionist, filing nails, chewing gum, checking the mirror. Here's another clue Sarah - don't pose in a coquettish gym kit, or make the cover contractually your choice.

Before the end of her short McCain campaign I had grown weary with her chirping chatter. She reminds me of a canary - tweet tweet tweet, even if she is squawking about serious subjects, she still tweets. Any good sense she has is lost in the tinnitus.

If we lived in an adults-in-charge world I'd say Palin has no political future but since we don't, the little coquette does.