Casagrande sounds off on Palin coverage

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Assemblywoman Carolina Casagrande is outraged at what she sees as sexist media coverage of Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. 

“I just think that a lot of the things surrounding the Governor’s personal family life have been highlighted by the mainstream media, and amplified in their importance in a way that you would not see if this was a male candidate,” said Casagrande, a new mother herself. 

While some pundits see the “us versus them,” small town mayor versus elitist media tact that Palin took in her speech last night as nothing more than a campaign tactic, Casagrande sees it as the vestiges of an old way of thinking.

“One of the things that female Republican candidates face is perhaps a greater challenge to be perceived as competent and in-line with traditional family values.  So I think it would be a poor campaign tactic,” she said. “I think when anything happens with a woman’s family, the coverage is amplified because the perception is that the female is the primary caretaker in the family. That’s not necessarily the case in 2008.  At this time in America, most every family is a two-income family by necessity, so there’s a huge shift in the old family model.”

Casagrande said that the evidence is in the difference between the coverage of Palin and the coverage of male candidates.

“Look at the John Edwards scandal. You don’t hear anything about the effect this will have on his children,” she said.