Andrew,

Do not underestimate the role of Obama’s speech today on the market. Seriously. The Times Lede spent a good number of inches this morning on the concept of confidence. I believe that the only person in the U.S. who can currently inspire confidence is Obama. I spent the weekend wondering how Paulson was communicating with Obama on this issue. Paulson may be many things, but I don’t believe stupid is among them.

Paulson cannot have failed to observe the negative impact Bush’s statements have had on the markets. It must have occurred to him (if it occurred to me) that the foreign markets are looking to Obama and McCain, not Bush, for assurances about the future of the U.S. Yes, the foreign markets were already closed for the day by the time Obama spoke, but I believe word of Obama’s plan was already circulating. And the Dow rose another 400 points after Obama’s speech.

This is no way suggests that Obama’s role in the restabilization is greater than the Herculean work that was done over the weekend; it is not. Just do not allow the McCain campaign to act as if the crisis is now passed, so we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming about a scary black man who hates America. Obama gave us details today. Details. McCain gave us nothing. The market went up. Not necessarily causal, but does that mean there’s no relation whatsoever? If the past month has taught us anything, it’s that economic behavior is profoundly *human.* Therefore, it displays all the irrationality that distinguishes our species.

Prematurely Grey
Austin, TX

*If you’re not reading The Daily Dish, well, you should be. Smartest take on things, from my new gay British Catholic conservative boyfriend. Politics does make strange bedfellows.

I just wrote Andrew Sullivan an email with the subject “My Response to Obama’s Response on Bristol Palin.”

Andrew,

I could not agree more that Sarah Palin’s family deserves privacy and respect. Bristol Palin is a private citizen; using her as some sort of punching bag, while very tempting, is completely inappropriate (see the endless streams of comment on Daily Kos).

I also agree with Obama that today’s news about Bristol has no bearing on Palin’s performance as governor or as a potential vice president.

However, I am concerned that in issuing this statement, the Obama campaign has asked supporters to stop questioning the details of Governor Palin’s most recent delivery.  The Obama statement seems to imply that we should stop talking about Governor Palin’s family altogether. While I am more than willing to stop wondering if Bristol Palin is the mother of Trig Palin, I am not willing to stop thinking about or discussing Sarah Palin’s behavior leading up to Trig’s delivery.

Extreme risk taking is extreme risk taking, no matter where it happens.

The reason I cannot completely comply with Obama’s wishes in this matter are professional as well as personal. You see, when I am asked my profession by the countless people who call and ask for donations, my answer often catches them off guard.

I am a mother.

That’s what the Obama campaign has me down as. That’s what the DNC has me down as. The DNCC. The Texas Democratic Party. Rick Noriega for Senate. When you get money from me, you’re getting it from a mother.

Professionals have ethical codes. Doctors. Lawyers. Librarians. They all have standards of practice that they agree to uphold as members of the profession.

Now, how you raise your children is not the business of other mothers when you are upholding the standards of the profession. And the standards are relatively few and straightforward. Safety is the paramount standard. Children’s safety is the highest good of mothers. It is the greatest sadness when a mother cannot ensure her children’s safety. And it is up to others to step in when these situations arise.

The story of the day of Trig Palin’s birth is beyond belief. It is shocking. It demonstrates a recklessness so outside normal mores that many of us jumped to the far safer fable that perhaps this woman was not really pregnant rather than contemplate it. Perhaps she didn’t really give the speech and get on the plane and get in the car and then finally give birth, all the while risking infection and an airplane birth. The story that Governor Palin might be “covering” for a teenage daughter makes “sense” compared to getting on a plane and going back to the homeland. For your fifth birth. When women give birth more and more quickly with each successive birth.

I don’t doubt that Sarah Palin believed that she was doing the right thing when she got on that plane. But just because she believed it (and nothing truly terrible seems to have happened) doesn’t mean it was.  She was reckless. As a mother, I cannot be silent. There are reasons airlines require doctors’ letters for women who travel late in pregnancy. There are serious risks involved.

I believe that Sarah Palin’s behavior on April 18th should remain on the table.

The aim of the women’s movement was not to take bad mothers off the hook. It was to keep motherhood from being the only option for women, and the only role in which they could be evaluated. Just because we can evaluate Sarah Palin as a governor and a mayor does not mean that we cannot also evaluate her as a mother. I do not believe that the purpose of second wave feminism was to erase the value and importance of motherhood or “private life.” It was simply to say that that was not the only field on which women can play.

Andrew, do not back down. Keep calling for the documents. It’s more important now than it was this morning.

Lize Burr
Austin, TX

Frankly, as I’ve debated the resurrection of Prematurely Grey over the past two months (and don’t think that I’ve been thinking about anything else while upstairs “reading” all those history books I’ve been claiming to be interested in this summer), the don’t do it column kept tipping the scales. Going to the state convention didn’t do it. Going to Netroots Nation? Just made me glad to be in retirement. Brass ring trip to Denver? Well, maybe.

Even when Tech Support Guy offered up this gorgeous redesign, complete with the babelicious avatar, I still couldn’t bring myself to open up the editing window and compose a post. I hope all of you like the newly mod Prematurely Grey 2.0. I sure do. Makes me want to be as pretty as the site. Bought a crisp white shirt just to match the place.

But in the world of superheroes, white shirts are just what we wear under the scarves that transform into capes.

For the past five days, this beautiful site has been sitting unused, waiting patiently for me to suck it up and become just another Self-Loathing Austin Democratic Mommy Blogger with a Major Thing for Shoes. You know, one of those. My superpowers are no longer needed, it seems, in a world now safe for liberals. (OK, maybe it’s still not quite safe for us to drop the whole “progressive” beard. Let’s see what happens on 11/4.)

Just when I thought I could be a normal woman with a normal blog, he’s back.

Tom DeLay is back.

Here’s the headline from the Statesman website (which has now disappeared from the home page):

DeLay might be cleared of charges

Holy shit! Bottom line: Tom DeLay might weasel out of this thing yet because the money that was laundered wasn’t cash–it was checks. Wah? Money laundering of checks used to be OK (until the genius Lege of the nation decided it wasn’t in 2005).

I didn’t see this until this morning. But I opened a newly purchased hairdryer yesterday morning and made a pathetic attempt at blow drying my hair. (The George Washington look was wearing thin…) Yesterday morning I attempted to change my hair. Long time readers will know that this was the reawakening of my Spidey senses.

Tom DeLay, look out. Prematurely Grey is back.