Sarah Palin - an insult to the American people

I'm sure that Ms. Palin is a fine Christian woman and that she loves her husband and children, but none of that has anything to do with her qualifications to be vice president, or a heartbeat away from the big house. In fact, her selection as McCain's running mate is an insult to the American people!

McCain met Palin ONE time before inviting her to join the GOP ticket! Last February. Oh, he also talked to her on the phone. That's the extent of their relationship until this past week.

Palin was chosen, it would appear, for two reasons: 1) to appeal to women voters, especially those unhappy that Hillary is not the Democratic nominee, and 2) as a sop to the extremist religious right, those who McCain used to call "agents of intolerance."

Let's look at Palin a bit closer:

According to Andrew Sullivan, both Stevens and Young, two of Alaska's most ethically-challenged politicians, appeared at Palin fundraisers in 2006. On the environment, her record reeks of oil. She "vetoed wind power and clean coal projects, including a 50-megawatt wind arm on Fire Island and a clean coal facility in Healy..."

Firedoglake notes that Alaska TV news station KTUU reported Palin "was so determined to defeat a Clean Water ballot measure this summer that she broke the law to oppose it.

"'It is against the law for the governor to officially advocate for or against a ballot measure; however, Palin took what she calls "personal privilege" to discuss one of this year's most contentious initiatives ...' [Sounds like she also took a lesson from G.W. Bush!]

"Along with taking a position on the big mines' side, Palin's administration apparently used state Department of Natural Resources resources to lobby for defeat of the Clean Water Initiative under the pretense of creating a state run website to 'educate' citizens.'"

The Alaska Public Offices Commission order the website be abandoned as it was illegal.

Note that the Clean Water initiative "was opposed by mining interests" because it required that wild salmon runs be protected by any new mining operations."

"The initiative was defeated -- with the Governor's help -- on August 26 -- opening up Bristol Bay for the largest open pit mining operation in the world."

And to hell with the salmon.

How about the polar bears? Well, Joe Sudbay at Americablog reports that Palin is one of the oil company "cronies fighting the new rules designed to protect polar bears."

"The state of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday.

"She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state's northern and northwestern coasts.

"Palin argued there is not enough evidence to support a listing. [Again, she sounds like a clone of G.W. Bush!] Polar bears are well-managed and their population has dramatically increased over 30 years as a result of conservation, she said.

"Climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice, the main habitat of polar bears, druing summers is unreliable." [Yes, that's exactly like G. W. Bush. Totally ignore reality and truth!]

Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity responded by saying, "She's either grossly misinformed or intentionally misleading and both are unbecoming."

I think she sees the economic interests of the oil and gas industry as being of more value than the polar bears. Polar bears can die. Who cares?


Palin is also a member of Feminists for Life, a group founded in 1972, which "now focuses exclusively on practical alternatives to abortion for college-age women. The mantra of the group is that no woman should have to choose between having a career and having a child. The problem is that, for this group, choice means choosing to carry a fetus to term; it never refers to abortion. Ruth Posen says that its website carries "the slogan, 'refuse to choose' ... repeatedly."

"The real goal," writes Posen, "is to convince professionals to persuade young women to 'choose' to bear a baby."

"In the end," Posen says, "... Feminists for Life is neither about feminism nor about choice. It is a cunning attempt to convince young women that choice means giving up the right to 'choose.'"


Back to Andrew Sullilvan. Sullivan further notes that, "According to the Frontiersman newspaper, Wasilla's library director Mary Ellen Simmons said that 'Palin asked her outright if she could live with the censorship of library books.' Palin later dismissed the conversation as a 'rhetorical' exercise."

When Repugs start waxing "rhetorical," watch your back!


The Pensito Review reports that Karen Thurman, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, was quick to pounce on Palin's palid past and lack of experience.

In an email, Thurman said "Don't let your friends, family and co-workers be fooled: Alaskan Sarah Palin is a dangerous right-winger who lacks the judgment to lead.

"In 2000, Palin endorsed Pat Buchanan for President. Yes, that Pat Buchanan.

"She's no Hillary Clinton. She's Dan Quayle in a dress.

"Women who care about equal rights, choice, family and other issues, will not see a partner in Palin.

"She is in lockstep with Bush and McCain on issues important to women. Every one of them. That's scary.

"The corrupt trio of Ted Stevens, Don Young, and Lisa Murkowski all raised campaign money for Palin."


Penultimately, it should be noted that Palin doesn't have a clue as to what a vice president does. About a month ago, in an interview with Larry Kudlow of CNBC's "Kudlow & Co.", she was asked about her chances of being chosen as McCain's vice presidential running mate.

Palin said, "As for that VP talk all the time. I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers to me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I'm used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we're trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question."

Well, it looks like someone must have explained what the VP does every day, and she must have liked the answer, and isn't it nice she's decided that the VP position is potentially a good enough slot for a hard-working mama like herself, and that it is a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans?


Andrew Sullivan sums up McCain's choice of Palin this way: "Putting country first? This is a reckless act of egotism and politics. The more you think about it, and the more you consider how many charges he has leveled against Obama's alleged inexperience in a time of peril, the more outrageous it is that ... he picks an unknown politician he has only met once before to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

"Palin isn't the issue here. McCain's judgment is. It's completely off the wall. Is there something wrong with him?"

Yes.