Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

Michael Palin would have been so much better...

I wanted to take a moment to pass along some information on John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin. Beyond my initial commentary - in the interests of full disclosure and of not coming across as a plagiarist - the information is via MoveOn.org, which in the minds of some puts me in bed with terrorists.

I haven't spent much time on the Palin decision - I had work Friday, and then more than enough of my own affairs to attend to. Still, I'll start with what I casually shot off to a friend when the topic arose in email Friday evening, mainly stating what's obvious and in some cases what the packaged message is as reporters initially ran with the info packets they were handed.

I've had to absorb my intro to her on the fly today, though it became clear from early on that she was chosen because she's:

• Female -- I'm sure she'll be touring Pennsylvania several times between now and late November as they attempt to capture some of the Hillary voters for whom the gender issue outweighs all other issues. I noted with some amusement how her acceptance speech included a tribute to Hillary Clinton's accomplishments, essentially anointing herself as the one who's picked up the fallen torch and is running with it.
• She's an anti-abortion religious and social Conservative, and is intended to help McCain balance out the campaign in the eyes of the extremists in whose glazed eyes McCain himself is seen as too Liberal.
• Has a reputation (or at least it's how they're packaging her) as a corruption-fighting reformer. One of the latest tags I saw was ::choke:: "maverick."
• She's presented as being largely immune from the charge of inexperience since the Obama camp is constantly under fire for that.
• The excitement that comes from having a fresh, young, photogenic face introduced this late in the campaign, especially since she comes from such a vastly underpopulated state and is apparently thought highly of there.
• She has five children, the youngest (I believe) has Down's Syndrome, and one son who's in the army and about to be deployed to Iraq. The latter, they hope, will give her some weight with some voters concerning the Iraq war/occupation issue.
• Both a beauty contest winner/runner up (Miss Wasilla/Miss Alaska) and earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" as a basketball player and was head of her school's Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
• She's played both sides of the game with respect to oil companies/drilling development, pushing for additional drilling including the opening of ANWR while pushing for increased taxes on oil companies and planned to create some sub-cabinet group of advisors to address climate change/greenhouse gas emissions in Alaska.
  

Of course, there's the ongoing flap and investigation over the firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

The remainder is the info MoveOn sent me today, the details of which are being picked at on almost innumerable sites and shows. That in their first footnoted info link they had to resort to Wikipedia demonstrates how beneath notice Governor Palin has been until now:

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.

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.

Sources:

1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008

2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008

3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008

4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006

5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008

6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008

"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008

"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008

7 "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008