(no subject)
I just don't get it.
last week, McCain announced that Sarah Palin, governor of the great state of Alaska, would be his running mate in the 2008 political election. At first, most of us said, "who?", since she's relatively unknown to those of us in the "lower 48". After looking at the pick, I couldn't be more stupified by a pick.
the campaign had many names on the short list. names of fine, upstanding republicans who would have been great as a counterpart to mccain. Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal, Tom Ridge; even Joe Liebermann (a democrat, and the one I think McCain most wanted to pick) were all mentioned in the weeks prior to the announcement. All of these are good choices (maybe not Liebermann, that's a little weird), men who I would not feel nervous about taking control of the country is anything happened to McCain. Monday roll around and instead he hear the name Sarah Palin.
This pick makes no sense for a number of reasons:
1) McCain spent ALL summer developing this idea that experience is one of the most important factors in the choice for president. Even if Obama could unite people and had good ideas, his naive political mind would not be able to be trusted to handle national security crises that could occur. Keep in mind that Obama is in the middle of his first term in the senate, spent four years in the Illinois state legislature prior to that, and taught law at the University of Chicago before that.
enter Sarah Palin, who accended to the office of Governor from first winning a mayoral election in 1996 (of a town with less than 10,000) people and then was a political appointee in 2003 to head Alaksa's energy commission (a job she would resign from 11 months later) working out of politics for several years, she wins the governor's office in 2006 and now, in 2008, is the GOP's vice presidental nominee.
You ask yourself if there's a diffrence between Obama's lack of experience and Palin's. Considering that, at this point, McCain's VP probably has almost as good of a shot at the oval as Obama does, I'm not comforted knowing that Palin would be a heartbeat away from taking command of our military.
2) Palin was BARELY vetted. Alaskan officials claimed they were only contacted days before Palin's nomination to look into Palin as a potential VP choice. Some weren't contacted at all. If they had, they may have discovered a few things, like that her daughter was 5 months pregnant and unmarried or that her husband had been arrested 22 years ago for driving drunk. Important political issues? No, of course not, but how can McCain possibly want MORE of an uphill battle for this thing? They might have also discovered a pending ethics committee investigation into the claim that Palin used her political power to have a state trooper fired after he and Palin's sister were divorced. She's now hired a lawyer and those on the right don't seem sure as to how that one's going to play out. NOW McCain's team says they have someone looking into Palin's past, but isn't what you're supposed to do BEFORE you nominate her? To make such a hasty and rushed pick enhance previously questions raised by democrats about McCain's judgment.
3) Palin is VERY conservative. Many see her nomination as an attempt to grab whatever disillusioned Hillary voters might still be floating around. And yet, when it comes to women's issues (abortion or equal pay for equal work) Palin is anything BUT appealing to women. In fact, many women responding to polls and writing in blogs are insulted by the idea that simply nominating a woman would draw their votes to the GOP side of things. McCain isn't going to win over any independent minded people with Palin, which wasn't a huge concern of his to begin with, but certainly doesn't help his appeal as much as Biden does for Obama.
And yet, conservatives are so pumped up about Palin, even saying that they have "stolen" the energy and excitement from the Obama campaign, it makes you wonder if there's another shoe about to drop. The vice presidential debate is in a little more than a month and if you're anything like me, you can't wait to see these two polar opposites of the political world go at it.
last week, McCain announced that Sarah Palin, governor of the great state of Alaska, would be his running mate in the 2008 political election. At first, most of us said, "who?", since she's relatively unknown to those of us in the "lower 48". After looking at the pick, I couldn't be more stupified by a pick.
the campaign had many names on the short list. names of fine, upstanding republicans who would have been great as a counterpart to mccain. Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal, Tom Ridge; even Joe Liebermann (a democrat, and the one I think McCain most wanted to pick) were all mentioned in the weeks prior to the announcement. All of these are good choices (maybe not Liebermann, that's a little weird), men who I would not feel nervous about taking control of the country is anything happened to McCain. Monday roll around and instead he hear the name Sarah Palin.
This pick makes no sense for a number of reasons:
1) McCain spent ALL summer developing this idea that experience is one of the most important factors in the choice for president. Even if Obama could unite people and had good ideas, his naive political mind would not be able to be trusted to handle national security crises that could occur. Keep in mind that Obama is in the middle of his first term in the senate, spent four years in the Illinois state legislature prior to that, and taught law at the University of Chicago before that.
enter Sarah Palin, who accended to the office of Governor from first winning a mayoral election in 1996 (of a town with less than 10,000) people and then was a political appointee in 2003 to head Alaksa's energy commission (a job she would resign from 11 months later) working out of politics for several years, she wins the governor's office in 2006 and now, in 2008, is the GOP's vice presidental nominee.
You ask yourself if there's a diffrence between Obama's lack of experience and Palin's. Considering that, at this point, McCain's VP probably has almost as good of a shot at the oval as Obama does, I'm not comforted knowing that Palin would be a heartbeat away from taking command of our military.
2) Palin was BARELY vetted. Alaskan officials claimed they were only contacted days before Palin's nomination to look into Palin as a potential VP choice. Some weren't contacted at all. If they had, they may have discovered a few things, like that her daughter was 5 months pregnant and unmarried or that her husband had been arrested 22 years ago for driving drunk. Important political issues? No, of course not, but how can McCain possibly want MORE of an uphill battle for this thing? They might have also discovered a pending ethics committee investigation into the claim that Palin used her political power to have a state trooper fired after he and Palin's sister were divorced. She's now hired a lawyer and those on the right don't seem sure as to how that one's going to play out. NOW McCain's team says they have someone looking into Palin's past, but isn't what you're supposed to do BEFORE you nominate her? To make such a hasty and rushed pick enhance previously questions raised by democrats about McCain's judgment.
3) Palin is VERY conservative. Many see her nomination as an attempt to grab whatever disillusioned Hillary voters might still be floating around. And yet, when it comes to women's issues (abortion or equal pay for equal work) Palin is anything BUT appealing to women. In fact, many women responding to polls and writing in blogs are insulted by the idea that simply nominating a woman would draw their votes to the GOP side of things. McCain isn't going to win over any independent minded people with Palin, which wasn't a huge concern of his to begin with, but certainly doesn't help his appeal as much as Biden does for Obama.
And yet, conservatives are so pumped up about Palin, even saying that they have "stolen" the energy and excitement from the Obama campaign, it makes you wonder if there's another shoe about to drop. The vice presidential debate is in a little more than a month and if you're anything like me, you can't wait to see these two polar opposites of the political world go at it.