From the " You don't get it" file

Look below to see excerpts from a column in the WaPo today by Dana Milbank. Check out the link above to read about some real life conversations going on among women.

Apparently Steve Schmidt, senior advisor to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain, doesn't know too many mothers.

You must really think women are awfully stupid, Mr. Schmidt.

You, and the scores of pundits who think that arguing that a guy would never get a question about how Governor Palin will balance work and kids means that it isn't a fair question. The mothers of America happen to know how hard it is to get out of the house in the morning and the office in the afternoon. Lots of us also have long ago put aside our aspirations to take one for the team and act like Superwoman.

So no, we aren't insulted-this is a conversation we've been having for a long time. It's nice that you are finally tuning in.

If we held men to the same high standards of parenting that we do mothers, they would be asked if they can be effective parents and govern a city, or a state, or the United States.

That's why we have parental leave and ongoing demand for respite care-because being faithful to your job and your family is really hard sometime.


And to pretend it isn't, or that the choices are not sometimes agonizing-well, Mr. Schmidt, that's insulting. It's particularly insulting to women. But it's not particularly flattering to men.

"Schmidt, ambushed as he strolled through the media area, got progressively angrier as the mob around him grew. Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times asked about the feasibility of Palin being a vice president with "a new baby herself, and now she's about to be a new grandmother trying to support a daughter giving birth to her own child."
Schmidt replied: "Frankly, I can't imagine that question being asked of a man. A lot of women will find it offensive."
Jackie Calmes, also of the Times, asked Schmidt whether he worried about "turning off some of the women you wanted to appeal to, who will question the judgment of Senator McCain and Governor Palin that they would subject a 17-year-old's pregnancy out of wedlock to international attention."
"They have asked for privacy," said Schmidt, whose colleagues had just sent out the news release announcing the pregnancy."