More Palin... Unfit to Stand So Close to the Presidency
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/09/11/unfit_to_stand_so_close_to_presidency/
TODAY, on the anniversary of the horror of Sept. 11, 2001, we should recall what happens when an unqualified candidate captures the presidency. An incurious western governor, George W. Bush, arrived in Washington unprepared for the job. And it showed every day of his presidency.
JohnMcCain's health could kill us. It's conceivable that a 72-year-old hot head who has had four bouts of cancer might not make it through his first term as president, leaving the country in the hands of a person whom McCain (a former POW) met one time. One time! I've spent more time shopping for a car than he spent choosing a potential president. Yet Sarah Palin could be one heart attack, one stroke, one metastasized melanoma away from becoming president of the United States.
Sarah Palin is Clarence Thomas, completely unqualified but cynically chosen for being a member of a demographic group that usually votes Democratic. No wonder so many women are insulted by the choice.
Will Hillary voters buy Palin's extreme antiabortion stance that allows no exceptions, not even for incest or rape; her belief in "market- and business-driven healthcare"; her support for teaching creationism in public schools; her rejection of global warming as man-made?
Stopping the Russians. In a goofy attempt to give Palin foreign policy credentials, McCain (an ex-POW) said Alaska is near Russia. Come to think of it, there haven't been any Russian invasions since she's been governor.
The day she was picked, she called herself "commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard." This is so preposterous even Mitt Romney didn't try it. The head of the Alaska Guard told the Associated Press that he and Palin play no role in national defense.
God is in the pipeline! Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States invaded Iraq as a "task that is from God." While she was there, she urged them to pray for a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."
Palin's pipeline to pork. McCain (an ex-POW) has for years attacked the practice of earmarking, where powerful members of Congress deliver federal funds for pet projects back home. McCain even published "pork lists." The Los Angeles Times found that three times in recent years McCain's pork lists contained earmarks for Wasilla, Alaska. Its mayor, Palin, had hired the town's first lobbyist, who steered almost $27 million in federal earmarks to a place with 6,700 residents. This year, as governor, her pork list fattened up to $197.8 million.
Abramoff connection. The lobbyist our "reform" mayor hired was tied to disgraced lobbyist and convicted felon Jack Abramoff. The Washington Post reports that Steven Silver - a former chief of staff to now-indicted Alaska GOP Senator Ted Stevens - was hand-picked by Palin at a time when Silver included as a client the Abramoff lobbying firm.
Troopergate, the iceberg cometh. Dead ahead, Palin is facing a report from a special prosecutor chosen unanimously by the Alaska Legislature. The prosecutor is looking into charges that she fired the State Police chief in July because he failed to remove a trooper who had been married to Palin's sister. The brother-in-law went through a messy divorce with child-custody issues.
A month after she took office, Palin's husband met with the chief to complain about the trooper. The chief has saved e-mails from Palin where she demanded the dismissal. In one angry e-mail that's surfaced, she actually curses (!) over the lack of action.
The prosecutor's report is due out in October. McCain (an ex-POW) has his cronies in Alaska working feverishly to stall its release.
The weekend anchor. David Letterman said she looks like the weekend anchor on Channel 9. In fact, she's a hard-right, small-town operator who tapped into the corrupt Ted Stevens money pipeline in Washington. She knows how to use Alaska's gun-toting cowboy image to her advantage. She's got a Taliban-like tolerance for beliefs unlike her own.
To the extent he thought about it at all, McCain (an ex-POW) picked her to fix his problems with GOP evangelicals and juice the ticket. That's a lousy reason to let someone so completely unfit stand so close to the presidency.
Dan Payne is a Boston-area media consultant who has worked for Democratic candidates around the country. He does political analysis for WBUR radio.
TODAY, on the anniversary of the horror of Sept. 11, 2001, we should recall what happens when an unqualified candidate captures the presidency. An incurious western governor, George W. Bush, arrived in Washington unprepared for the job. And it showed every day of his presidency.
JohnMcCain's health could kill us. It's conceivable that a 72-year-old hot head who has had four bouts of cancer might not make it through his first term as president, leaving the country in the hands of a person whom McCain (a former POW) met one time. One time! I've spent more time shopping for a car than he spent choosing a potential president. Yet Sarah Palin could be one heart attack, one stroke, one metastasized melanoma away from becoming president of the United States.
Sarah Palin is Clarence Thomas, completely unqualified but cynically chosen for being a member of a demographic group that usually votes Democratic. No wonder so many women are insulted by the choice.
Will Hillary voters buy Palin's extreme antiabortion stance that allows no exceptions, not even for incest or rape; her belief in "market- and business-driven healthcare"; her support for teaching creationism in public schools; her rejection of global warming as man-made?
Stopping the Russians. In a goofy attempt to give Palin foreign policy credentials, McCain (an ex-POW) said Alaska is near Russia. Come to think of it, there haven't been any Russian invasions since she's been governor.
The day she was picked, she called herself "commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard." This is so preposterous even Mitt Romney didn't try it. The head of the Alaska Guard told the Associated Press that he and Palin play no role in national defense.
God is in the pipeline! Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States invaded Iraq as a "task that is from God." While she was there, she urged them to pray for a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."
Palin's pipeline to pork. McCain (an ex-POW) has for years attacked the practice of earmarking, where powerful members of Congress deliver federal funds for pet projects back home. McCain even published "pork lists." The Los Angeles Times found that three times in recent years McCain's pork lists contained earmarks for Wasilla, Alaska. Its mayor, Palin, had hired the town's first lobbyist, who steered almost $27 million in federal earmarks to a place with 6,700 residents. This year, as governor, her pork list fattened up to $197.8 million.
Abramoff connection. The lobbyist our "reform" mayor hired was tied to disgraced lobbyist and convicted felon Jack Abramoff. The Washington Post reports that Steven Silver - a former chief of staff to now-indicted Alaska GOP Senator Ted Stevens - was hand-picked by Palin at a time when Silver included as a client the Abramoff lobbying firm.
Troopergate, the iceberg cometh. Dead ahead, Palin is facing a report from a special prosecutor chosen unanimously by the Alaska Legislature. The prosecutor is looking into charges that she fired the State Police chief in July because he failed to remove a trooper who had been married to Palin's sister. The brother-in-law went through a messy divorce with child-custody issues.
A month after she took office, Palin's husband met with the chief to complain about the trooper. The chief has saved e-mails from Palin where she demanded the dismissal. In one angry e-mail that's surfaced, she actually curses (!) over the lack of action.
The prosecutor's report is due out in October. McCain (an ex-POW) has his cronies in Alaska working feverishly to stall its release.
The weekend anchor. David Letterman said she looks like the weekend anchor on Channel 9. In fact, she's a hard-right, small-town operator who tapped into the corrupt Ted Stevens money pipeline in Washington. She knows how to use Alaska's gun-toting cowboy image to her advantage. She's got a Taliban-like tolerance for beliefs unlike her own.
To the extent he thought about it at all, McCain (an ex-POW) picked her to fix his problems with GOP evangelicals and juice the ticket. That's a lousy reason to let someone so completely unfit stand so close to the presidency.
Dan Payne is a Boston-area media consultant who has worked for Democratic candidates around the country. He does political analysis for WBUR radio.