The Voice of the LC Dems: Veritas lux mea
By: Jonathan Grieder,
The issue that I want to discuss this week is experience. Throughout the primaries and into the general election there has been this constant drum beat of who’s more experienced who isn’t Blah, blah, blah. But Senator John McCain (R- Ariz.), the “experienced†candidate, has given up the high ground on this issue by choosing Governor Sarah Palin (R- AK) as his running mate.
Sarah Palin, who has no experience on a federal level, has been governor of the 47th largest state in terms of population for a brief 20 months. Before that, she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of 9,000 people.
This represents a dark day in American Presidential politics. She’s been tapped for the 2nd most powerful position on earth. She has no experience.
When she was mayor, she made women who were raped pay for their own examinations, which were upwards of thousands of dollars (most cities and states pay for these exams out of, I don’t know, COMMON HUMAN DECENCY).
She believes that the office of the Vice President straddles the legislative and executive branch. She can’t name a Supreme Court case she disagrees with other than Roe v. Wade (how about Brown vs. Board of Education or the Dred Scott case?) She had never left the United States until last year to visit Germany and Kuwait and didn’t meet a world leader until two weeks ago in New York.
The scariest thing about Sarah Palin isn’t what she has done or didn’t do. The scariest thing about Sarah Palin is what she says, or tries to say. Such gems as, “Well, Russia and Alaska share a common maritime border, and I believe that gives me some experience in that area,†or, “Well, when Putin rears his head where does he go? Alaska, that’s where. To get to the lower 48.†Or how she basically agreed with Barack Obama’s stance on Pakistan. Or how about the fact that she doesn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is, since it’s only the foreign policy we’ve been under for seven years. Sarah Palin is scary.
Sarah Palin represents everything wrong with pandering to a constituency. She’s ineffective. I’m only glad most people see her for what she is: a political ploy. A measly 37%, in three separate polls, think Sarah Palin is qualified to be President. Only 48% of the country has a favorable opinion of her as of last week. After her speech at the Republican National Convention it was 62%.
I’m not ready to hand my country over to a man who panders and a woman who isn’t ready. That’s why I’ll be voting for the qualified candidates, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
"She believes that the
"She believes that the office of the Vice President straddles the legislative and executive branch. She can’t name a Supreme Court case she disagrees with other than Roe v. Wade (how about Brown vs. Board of Education or the Dred Scott case?)"
It's been awhile since I was in AP Government, but I think I see some issues with the above statements. The Vice President serves as a great many capacities. Some important ones are executive (i.e. assumes presidency is the sitting pres. dies/retires). But also very important is his or her role as president of the Senate. Hmm.... Senate sounds legislative doesn't it? The VP can even cast a vote in the Senate in the event of a deadlock.
I really hope she doesn't disagree with Brown v. Board because that would mean she advocates segregation in schools. Dred Scott is an overturned (indirectly by the 13th ammendment) Supreme Court decision, so why bring it up when the question clearly targeted still-effective decisions?
I'm a Obama/Biden supporter and I agree that Palin's inexperience is a far more legitimate concern than Obama's. But you need to be clearer about how you are using your facts and you shouldn't fall into taking statements out of context.