lethargicperfectionist

GOOD TO BE HERE!!! Or at least, its not crappy. This is my first blog, and I want it to be interesting, or at least thought provoking. So what better way to start things off then by taking a look at the Republican nominee for Vice-President, Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin has a rather clear-cut resume. She’s been a mayor of Wasilla for some 6 years, a member of the city council for Wasilla for four years, served on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for 1 year. Oh, and she’s been the Governor of Alaska for two years. This may not strike the average person as Vice-presidential material, but then again, sometimes the most experienced people don’t always win, do they (I’m looking at you Al Gore). I did this little tidbit of research after finding out that she would be McCain’s running mate. I thought this was both a stroke of genius and cynical move all at the same time. It was genius because McCain was truly going with an outsider for his running mate, and a relative nobody in the political scene. Yes, she may have her skeletons (many of them it seems), but she will not be bringing the baggage that say someone like Mitt Romney would have brought as a Vice-President. Picking Palin would also put Obama and Biden on the defensive, and in some ways, the Democrats have not been able to find an effective means of attacking Palin, weeks after the announcement of her nomination. Which has left the media to do the job of dredging up whatever they can find on the woman, which has not exactly helped the Democrats because the news stories and public vetting have only made Palin appear to be the victim of a leftist media attack, creating sympathy for her amongst many potential voters.

The pick was also cynical because the Republicans are hoping to catch some of the disgruntled Clinton voters, still frustrated that they cannot vote for their candidate. The belief is that these particular voters are looking for a woman to vote for, so McCain and company have found them their candidate. However, many former Clinton backers come from the opposite side of the political spectrum, and therefore wouldn’t vote for just any woman, and not for someone like Palin. No, McCain’s strategist are trying to target the more conservative of democrats and independents who are probably soccer moms, live in small towns in strategic states, and lean towards the hunting, “NRA member,” Drill, Baby Drill mentality.

The media onslaught that I had mentioned previously has not really focused on Palin and what she stands for, or even what she plans to do as Vice President (though one can only imagine). While it maybe entertaining to learn about Palin’s vindictiveness towards her ex brother in law, and while it may be informative to learn unnecessary details about Palin’s daughter, and it could be interesting to examine Palin’s beauty queen secrets- the focus should be on the issues and where Palin stands on them. So, I decided to join the 40 million other Americans to see what Palin was all about during the Republican National Convention. And I was very surprised by what I saw, as well as distressed. Palin is a great speaker; she’s warm, funny, speaks to the audience in a manner that instantly connects with them, and is able to poke fun at Obama without looking to much like a vindictive conservative attack dog (which is exactly how she describes herself, cept with lip stick, hmm). So, she is definitely a major threat to the Democratic ticket. However, with that being said, I found that there are major problems with Palin. In many ways, she reminds me of George W. Bush, and that is not a compliment. Like Bush, Palin can be sarcastic and has the appearance of undeserved confidence. At times during her speech, she came across as aggressive and unnecessarily hurtful (I know that the Republicans have lost millions of votes with Palin’s mockery of community organizers). And nowhere in her speech does she mention what a McCain-Palin ticket will do. All she did was to talk about her accomplishments in Alaska, attack Obama and his credentials, and present herself as an agent of change for Washington.

I think that we can safely say that Palin is probably a little bias when it comes to Obama. And we can probably all agree that she is not quite a Belt-way insider (though as a conservative, she has the connections). So, we must take a look at what Palin has done in Alaska to figure out what she will do as Vice-president. Well, she’s an expert at raising earmarks, good at firing folks who don’t agree politically with her projects, made good friends with disgraced senator Ted Stevens, and back-stabbed her mother-in-law by endorsing said mother-in-law’s opponent to replace Palin has mayor. All of this happened before her becoming Governor of Alaska. It is true that as Chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission she disagreed with the ethics of her fellow Republican commissioners, forcing them to resign their posts. Of course, she resigned in the process, so I am guessing that commission has a high turnover rate.

So as Governor it seems as though she has done five big things: advocated her mantra of “Drill, baby Drill,” fired most of the previous governor’s appointments, personally made it her mission to save a state-owned dairy business, that went under anyway, dismissed the Public Safety Commissioner (for not firing Palin’s ex-brother in law) and replaced him with a man who quit less then a month later for a prior incident of sexual harassment, and, um, sold that jet on E-Bay. Palin really set the world on fire, eh? But in all fairness, she did manage to pass the largest budget in Alaskan history- some 6 billion dollars…which is good because it demonstrates her seriousness in her role as governor, though not necessarily in economic feasibility. More often then not, Palin has used the courts to fight the foes who were not related to her at one time or another ; Polar Bears (how dare those pesky critters stop the pipeline of glorious crude!), Native Americans (Sovereignty? Pish-posh and malarky- those ndn’s & eskimos will do as their told!), and books she doesn’t agree with (books bad- books burn!).

Palin’s foreign policy experience clearly demonstrates her winning appeal. She believes that the Iraq War is some mission from God, believes that Alaska’s proximity to Russia makes her a wiz at foreign relations (by that logic, some toll-booth operator in Sault Ste. Marie should be our ambassador to Canada!), and no doubt agrees with the Republicans that Al Qaeda and Iran are in co-hoots together (that’s SUNNI and SHIA, Senator McCain…their different groups, look it up.). And since parts of Alaska are closer to Russian then it is to the lower 48, I suppose the logic would mean that Palin is less of an expert on domestic, homegrown issues. Her positions, politically speaking, leave a lot to be desired; absolutely pro-gun, anti-choice in all cases, doesn’t believe that humans can impact the environment in a negative fashion (i.e. global warming), and is dogmatically aligned with the neo-conservatives who have controlled Washington for 8 years- oh- the same folks she wants to kick out, right? She doesn’t sound like someone who is ready to negotiate, compromise, or work collaboratively with Democrats. No, she sounds like the female version of George W. Bush.

Again, I mention this because the relative lack of Democratic attack ads demands it. Palin is absolutely susceptible to critiques, and her record that she tauts so highly should be analyzed and debunked for all to see. Yes, she is a woman, but so is Hillary, and I think that the Obama folks were able to put up a pretty good fight against her. Palin says she brings change, but what kind of change? Nothing from her record, nor from her political positions, nor from anything she has said in public indicates that her vision of America would be any different from the current administration. No, what we the American public can expect from the third Republican administration in a row is; continued and exasperated fuel prices (this will happen in a democratic administration, but the effects will be prolonged in the McCain presidency, since they are relying so much on off-shore drilling, the effects of which will not come online for another decade), economic stagnation, foreign policy errors and misjudgments (let the VP handle Russia, since she is such an expert), more conservative judges on the supreme court (goodbye roe v wade and miranda rights- hello police state), and general maintenance of the status quo…that is what you get if you vote for Palin and McCain.

And Hello again to everyone…haagounee

LP

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