Sarah Palin found an unlikely voice defending her from constant vicious attacks on the left, "View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg. On the October 15 edition, in sharing her experience meeting John McCain and Sarah Palin, Elisabeth Hasselbeck expressed regret about all of the hate the Alaska governor recieved and added, "she’s a good woman and regardless of what you think, she is."
Whoopi Goldberg surprisingly concurred noting past attacks on Hillary Clinton, decried such attacks on Sarah Palin observing a pattern of vitriol towards strong women. When Joy Behar attempted to play the equivocation game, holding Governor Palin responsible for words from one random supporter, Whoopi replied "that doesn’t justify crappy behavior from anybody."Whoopi continued noting "everybody when you meet them as something redeeming." Joy then retracted with a weak, "I’ll accept that."
If "The View" moderator did not surprise enough, she countered Joy when Joy blamed the "mess" on Bush and Republicans. Whoopi declared "all of Washington has a hand on this," reminding Joy that Democrats controlled Congress for the last two years and neither party has "been able to get jack booty done."
The relevant transcript follows.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: You know what’s interesting, for all the attacks that she’s under, when you actually talk to the person, she is incredibly nice, down to earth. And it makes- I said to her I really feel bad that there are all these attacks out there on her, "abort Palin" signs being painted on the sidewalks. You know, she’s a- she’s a good woman and regardless of you think, she is.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Yeah, it’s horrible that she has gotten this much and- gotten this much rage in such a short amount of time. And I guess people don’t remember that when Hillary was running because maybe she ran- she had been out there longer and it was easier to take those same kind of ugly pot shots. You know, there’s something about strong women or women running that brings out the worst in people whether it’s on the Democratic side or the, or the Republican side, the point of the fact is, it’s crappy.
JOY BEHAR: But she says things that are inflammatory on the stump also. And somebody yelled out the other day when she was speaking "kill Obama." And she should be the one to say "do not speak that way about a senator of the United States." [applause] And she doesn’t. She does not!
GOLDBERG: No she does not, but you know what Joy? That does not justify- I’m sorry- that does not justify crappy behavior from anybody. Yes that’s what she should have done. [applause] But it doesn’t make the- I’m sorry- it doesn’t make the shirt wearing on our side or their side or anybody else’s side, or the ugly things that have been saying- said about not them as candidates, but them as women. This has been going on now for over a year with female candidates and quite honestly I’m sick of the "abort this" and "abort that" and "this one’s a pig" and "that one’s a pig." Everybody, when you meet them one on one has something redeeming.
[applause]
BEHAR: Yeah, yeah, fine.
GOLDBERG: Everybody.
BEHAR: I’ll accept that. I’ll accept that.
[...]
BEHAR: Obama is ahead in the polls and he’s already starting to say "listen, if I win, remember this is going to be a tough job. People are going to have to make certain sacrifices." They’ve screwed the country up for the past eight years and now he’s going to have to clean it up.
GOLDBERG: Why-
BEHAR: So be in reality.
HASSELBECK: He was part of the mess.
BEHAR: Be in reality.
[applause]
HASSELBECK: He was part of the mess.
GOLDBERG: You know what? All of Washington, all of Washington-
BEHAR: No, McCain was part of the mess.
GOLDBERG: All of Washington has a hand in this. Every senator, every congressman, every one in the House, every president [applause] vice president, has a hand in what has gone on in the last eight years. People said they fought against stuff. They didn’t fight hard enough. People said they were in it. You know, there was six years for the Republicans and two years for the Democrats and nobody’s been able to get jack booty done. You know?
BEHAR: Alright, but, you know, if you blame everybody, you blame nobody, so you’ve got to start to say-
GOLDBERG: No, we blame everybody. It’s like the, it’s like the-
BEHAR: You can’t throw them all out.
GOLDBERG: No it’s not. It’s like you pointed out the other day. People have to take responsibility. We were talking about the economy. You said at some point we also are responsible. It’s the same way there. It’s not enough to point at one party or the other party and say "you did it," "you did it."
BEHAR: Oh, I’m not doing that.
GOLDBERG: But I’m saying, look they’re all culpable for this and we have to check it out.
