And all can say about my dear friends on any side of the aisle who want to unload about Palin's lack of experience...is...are you kidding me? You want to criticize Palin for VP? What about Barak for President? Why is it that an governor with even modest executive experience for the second role is a "dangerous choice" because she is only a heartbeat away from the Oval Office but we can put someone with even less experience in the Office and anoint him as the Messiah?
...So let me get this straight...the Dems can scream from the rooftops about "change" for 20 months and then the Reps come up with a "change" VP candidate who has more decision-making common-sense experience than Obama (and just happens to be a woman) and the Dems criticize this? And the Presidential candidate of "hope and change" selects one of the most senior white males in American politics (Teddy is sick, so he was off the list, I suppose), and then criticizes the opposing candidate's lack of experience? And that is not hypocritcal? Or "dangerous" because it subverts the "message of change" and "audacity of hope?" One of the guys at the heart of three decades of Washington stupidity from both political parties is now on the "A Team" and this is OK and not incrongruent with what the Dems are demanding? What?
The bottom line on all of this is that the Dems are upset that they got blown off the 'A' list of media on Friday morning and all weekend has now been talking about the choice of Palin and also the possibility of a hurricane hitting the Gulf again...and Barak got displaced off the pulpit for the moment...
Look, I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed...in fact I am not...but I have done OK for myself in this world...starting from just about nothing after my time in the military...and let me tell you that I have much more regard for the sensibilities of the person running the corner store or teaching the class or the single mom raising her kids or the guy running the railroad or painting the house than the vast majority of politicians of any stripe with "experience" or an Ivy league resume...
Ok...take a breath...and I am not convinced that Hillary should not have been selected as Veep for the Dems...they would have had a "slam dunk" and Barak appears to be certainly smart enough to have figured out a way to keep Bill on a leash...and at one moment he could have had a candidate of experience and remained true to his message of "hope and change"...and it just seems very hypocritical to have appeared to sold out to conventional political wisdom rather than remain true to what he says he is...and shattered the door saying "white dudes only" on the Oval Office once and for all...
Enjoy the MoveOn.org info below!
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Dear MoveOn member,
Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.
Huh?
Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:
She was elected Alaska 's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1
Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.5
She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7
This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.
We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here's a sample:
She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK
She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She's a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK
As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK
Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK
She's vehemently anti-choice and doesn't care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK
I think she's far too inexperienced to be in this position. I'm all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn't done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain's part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he'll get our vote by putting "A Woman" in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK
So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She's a global warming denier who shares John McCain's commitment to Big Oil. And she's dramatically inexperienced.
In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he's made a very dangerous decision for our country.
In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain's vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.
Thanks for all you do.
–Ilyse, Noah, Justin, Karin and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin
2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-3133338-6ImjiSx&t=1
3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-3133338-6ImjiSx&t=2
4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-3133338-6ImjiSx&t=3
5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-3133338-6ImjiSx&t=4
6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-3133338-6ImjiSx&t=5
"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-3133338-6ImjiSx&t=6
"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-3133338-6ImjiSx&t=7
7 "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-3133338-6ImjiSx&t=8
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1 comment:
Can you tell I have more time on my hands at work these days? :D
I have to say, it sure seems to me that even though a lot of people got excited over Obama, the vast majority of Democrats have never had the "messiah complex" that is so often talked about by news commentators. Speaking for myself, I have never had ANY confidence that ANYBODY is capable of making a significant change to the way our government works, be it Obama or Hillary or McCain or Huckabee or whoever (well, maybe Ron Paul could have, but I don't know if it would have been particularly constructive change). Whoever is the next president is going to to be working so hard to undo the havoc wreaked over the last eight years that I sincerely doubt anything resembling progress can be expected. And frankly, after Obama's stunning collapse regarding the FISA bill, I--and many other Democrats--knew that for all of Obama's lofty, inspiring rhetoric early on in the primary race, this was Washington business as usual, albeit in a different package than we've ever been presented before.
As for Palin, I have nothing against her personally. And once we got past the stunningly blatant play by McCain for the Hillary, the other major reason for her selection becomes obvious: her rather extreme conservative ideology, which actually worries me more than any lack of experience. But I have to say, I'm all for "everyday experience," and I think Palin's a great success story in a lot of ways (the kind of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington story we all love) but I do think her lack of experience in foreign policy or even politics on the national level is a bit worrying, if not troubling...
And I'm not exactly sure where you're getting that Obama has less experience though: I suppose technically she has a year or two on him working in the government, but it's as a city council member and mayor of a city less than half the size of Kingsburg (Leland Bergstrom, 2012?) and in one of the most isolated areas of the US. I don't know, that claim just doesn't hold water with me.
As for the MoveOn letter, I've got to say I found it surprisingly tame--you can hear more incendiary things on talk radio every single day. I should post some of Jerry Fallwell's mass emails about John Kerry from back in the day as a comparison (and to clarify, I still have never figured out how I got on that mailing list in the first place). Those would provide some food for thought, or least a good laugh...
-jesse
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