Seriously, at least ten people have asked me, with a certain glee in their voices : " well! what do you think of McCain picking Sarah Palin as his running mate ?"
Do I think people are interested in my opinion of this because as SUCH a huge HILLARY CLINTON supporter for so many years, would I be thrilled to have any woman on the ticket?
OR, was it, " Gosh, I so like to watch that vein in Kyle's forehead get all big, and lets see just how many shades of red we can get out of that mick face today!?" I am going for the later.
My thoughts on this most historic event in the history of the United States, only the second time that it has happened! History in the making:
It is an insult. The most vile attempt at separation politics , pure disgusting Carl Rove backed attempt to sway enough simple minded women in Ohio to swing the election for McCain. Two years ago Governor Palin was the mayor of a town, that at most, had 8000 citizens, with less than 100 city workers. She won the Governorship with 114,697 votes. Let that sink in. A little over 0ne hundred thousand people elected her, 48.3% of the vote. SO, it's PTA, mayor of a very small town and an election to a very small state by about the the number people than live in Macon, Georgia. Also, Alaska is a VERY different place politically . Its small, it has ALL that oil money, it is corrupt on a level that in unheard of in the lower forty eight..
The ability to gestate does not , on its on, lend itself to running the Free World.
Nor does it prohibit it! But, if one more story leads off with : "Palin mother of five" was chosen by McCain", I will just lose it. Does anyone think it would have been " Hillary Clinton, mother of one" ,or "Kay Bailey Hutchison , mother of four" or "Christine Todd Whitman, mother of two" ?? No, it would list their accomplishments, not their brood.
She is DANGEROUSLY FAR RIGHT. on every topic imaginable:
- Teaching Christian Creationism in public schools
- jailing doctors that provide abortions to rape or incest victims
- drilling in the Alaska wild life refuge and not having Polar Bears on the endangered animal list ( gosh! Hubby works for an oil company AND oil companies PAY every citizen of Alaska a check)
- she has less than zero knowledge of U.S. foreign policy , at a time when our country is at war on TWO fronts and RUSSIA is gearing up to do what Russia does every so often.. ( its all that vodka, makes you mean after a while.. you KNOW who I am talking about)
- McCain spoke with her TWO TIMES in his life before offering her the Vice Presidency!, reports are now coming out that she was vetted for FOUR DAYS. ( thus, ALL the rampant rumors all over the net...)
All this stuff is every where on the internets. Tons of facts a click away. I just can not understand this. I can not. It is beyond my reasoning to understand how any human, no matter how near brain death could EVER think this person is ready to be President of the United States in a heart beat.
And she just might win.
1 comment:
Sorry – just catching up. I kicked my addiction to your blog for the weekend.
There are so many things going on here – and I think it’s very important for us to separate the issues and think about them one at a time.
1. Shouldn’t our vote be decided first and foremost on policies? We don’t like Palin’s stand on many important issues. So we won’t vote for her. Neither, most likely, will many undecided voters, and certainly not those who were supporters of Hillary Clinton. On the other hand, her positions on religious-right litmus tests may motivate conservative voters to go to the polls instead of staying home. Score 1 for the McCain move if it works.
2. In the case of the presidency, it’s legitimate to question whether a candidate has the experience to be able to perform the duties of the office. Clearly, her resume does not indicate that she does. But score 2 for McCain’s gamble here. Any questions about experience immediately legitimize questions about Obama’s qualifications for the job. Clearly, his outweigh hers, but it does put the issue back into play.
3. Does being mother of 5 qualify Palin for POTUS? Of course not. Is it outrageous, though, for some people to identify with that role and to recognize the benefits it could bring to the office? You could make a case that motherhood is good training and great perspective for many things in life, work and politics. Should it outweigh No. 1 and 2 above? Of course not!
Then there’s the really interesting issue, the madonna v. political whore one. One of my very left friends made the unfortunate observation that, with 5 kids, Palin needs to decide if she’s a mother or a politician . . . if that’s true, it’s a shame. And shame on anybody who says it out loud.
I’d like to think there are some women out there who really can do it all and do it all well. Maybe Palin has fabulous powers of concentration, delegation and attitude and can handle it all. Maybe hubby schedules the doctor’s appointments and handles homework in the afternoons. Maybe she has good help.
She’s been mayor and governor, and I’ve looked but can’t find complaints that runny noses and teacher conferences get in the way. Like all women and mothers, she deserves the benefit of the doubt, until proven otherwise, that she can do the job. If she can, she’s a great role model for other women.
Because lord knows in the real world it doesn’t often work out that way – jobs and home life aren’t designed for women to succeed at both at once, so women often feel guilty about the kids or handicapped in their career climb. (One example: true or not, it must have crossed Palin’s conscience that maybe having a teenage daughter end up pregnant is an indication that we’re a little light on the mom side of the equation.)
I find the discussions this is raising very interesting. But I would beg us all to think about the questions in some isolation from one another, so that our view of whether a woman can be a mother and a leader is separated from how we feel about her positions on abortion and creationism and oil exploration.
Will Palin’s role in life attract some swing / independent voters? Maybe. It most likely depends on how the media circus goes – and how people react to the coverage, too. So this is the risk we can’t score yet.
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