SNL Skit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdDqSvJ6aHc

-Yes, this SNL skit with “featuring” Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton is very funny; everybody laughs when they see it. But could this skit somehow send a poor message about female leaders? This is a question I have heard somebody ask, so I thought about it. I have seen this skit many times online and even on the news channels. When I first watched it, I just laughed and thought, “Wow that is pretty funny.” But then I thought about it and wondered. Could this make the idea of female leaders look bad? True, the goal of the skit was probably to make Sarah Palin look bad and stupid, but I think that both actors portrayed both their characters as sort of bad and stupid. Yes, it is a comedy, but it can still impact people in a poor way. Both potential leaders are on screen, giving stupid or sarcastic answers to issues. I think that though this is a comedy of Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton, it may be based off the true opinions of some. Even with all this analysis, I have decided that overall this skit does not truly hurt the idea of a female leader in the United States. I think people ask the question more because this is a big year for female candidates. But in all the presidential races, there are skits, comics, or ads that make fun of whoever is running. There are even these same things made against people who are in office. Overall, it does not affect people’s true views, it is just something to laugh at.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94412886

-This is just something interesting I found. When you click on it, it just looks like a short article, but you need to listen to interview in the top left corner.
I thought this interview was very interesting because it gives the view of two women from both the Republican and the Democrat side. It looks into if she was a good governer in Alaska and whether or not she is ready or even good for the position of Vice President or possibly President. I thought that both sides had good arguments. Next, I will be looking for what is said after the Vice Presidential debate.

Sarah Palin

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94663916

-I think Sarah Palin is a very central figure to my blog topic because not only is she running for a very high leadership position of Vice President in the United States government, but she is very controversial among women. I have included this web link to National Public Radio in my blog for this week because it shows the controversy among women on whether or not she has been a good leader as governor of Alaska and whether they think she would make a good Vice President. One of the main things I will be looking for at first is whether or not the female vote really changed drastically from Democrat to Republican with Hillary Clinton losing in the primaries to Barak Obama and Sarah Palin being appointed as running mate to John McCain. I am still doing research on this, but I keep running to sites that I cannot be certain are true and trustworthy.
I plan to focus on this aspect of my blog until Election Day in the beginning of November, following on how the female vote sways, and then start to look at female leaders worldwide and how they have succeeded. In the meantime, I will be doing a lot more research on the Clinton vs. Palin aspect and posting more frequently. I have found the National Public Radio (NPR) website has some great and trustworthy articles on Sarah Palin herself. Now I need to work on the possible change in votes since Clinton lost. I thought that I would get this up on Sarah Palin as a start to give a base on how women view her. When you read it, I think it would be a good idea to check out the other articles on this topic that NPR links to. Next will be articles on Hillary Clinton and the possible change in votes.

Introduction

This topic occurred to me because of some of the new things happening this election year. It was the closest that a woman came to being a primary candidate in the Presidential election, even though Hilary Clinton did not make it as the primary candidate for the Democrat Party. Also, the Republican Party has nominated Sarah Palin as their Vice President candidate. This got me thinking about female leaders, not just in the United States, but throughout the world. I want to look into their stories of becoming a leader, such as what it took to get there. I also want to research what other women have done in both the United States and the world, to see their fellow women in a leadership position. An example of this is that some women in the United States are changing their vote from Democrat to Republican. Could it be because of Sarah Palin? Is the getting the so called “female vote” just because she is a woman running for the second highest position in this country?
I also want to look at women leadership around the globe because my major is global government. I want to look at how often it happens, where it happens, and what it took for them to get there. I am very curious about how it is accepted in other cultures and regions. I hope to find a lot of information on this and to maybe link to other blogs that talk about the global aspect. I am looking forward to hearing from other people on this subject and doing some research to look into these things that I would have otherwise kept putting off. I am excited for this blog because it gives me a chance to research something that has been an interest to me for some time now.