Sarah Palin
Aug. 29th, 2008 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsSo, the more I look at Sarah Palin, the angrier I get. Really. Here's what Sarah Palin's nomination as John McCain's vice presidential candidate says to me.
First, John McCain is a hypocrite. After months of telling us that Barack Obama isn't ready to be president, he picks someone "one heartbeat away" who isn't ready to be president. She's been governor of Alaska for less than two years; before that, she was mayor of a town of 8,000. She has no foreign policy experience. "You know all those terrible things about Barack Obama I told you? Put them down the memory hole."
Second, John McCain is unserious about governing. His own press is coming out that he's met with Palin exactly once, that he's spoken with her a few times on the phone. He has no idea if she'd be compatible with his governing style; he has no idea what will happen when they get into the cabinet. This is not a woman who has the authority to back him up when he makes a decision that is opposed by members of his cabinet.
Third, John McCain has seriously misread America. He thinks he's going to pull in the PUMAs and independent women, but they're all going to think one thing: this would never have happened if Palin were a man. Hillary has qualifications. Despite all the media from the broadcast MSM, there was little actual pro-Hillary, anti-Obama movement at the convention itself. I can't speak of protests outside the convention; the press were unfortunately skilled at keeping that out of the American eye. But McCain is going for pure tokenism.
The more I read this, more I think that John McCain just wanted to piss off the Obama camp, throw them off guard. Well, he succeeded. His problem is that there are seven weeks left, seven weeks in which both Palin's record and her working relationship with John McCain will be held up to the most intense scrutiny.
Meanwhile, the women of America will look at her and, I hate to say this, most of them will wonder how a woman with five children, one of them a Downs baby, will be able to attend to duties she herself admits she doesn't understand.
First, John McCain is a hypocrite. After months of telling us that Barack Obama isn't ready to be president, he picks someone "one heartbeat away" who isn't ready to be president. She's been governor of Alaska for less than two years; before that, she was mayor of a town of 8,000. She has no foreign policy experience. "You know all those terrible things about Barack Obama I told you? Put them down the memory hole."
Second, John McCain is unserious about governing. His own press is coming out that he's met with Palin exactly once, that he's spoken with her a few times on the phone. He has no idea if she'd be compatible with his governing style; he has no idea what will happen when they get into the cabinet. This is not a woman who has the authority to back him up when he makes a decision that is opposed by members of his cabinet.
Third, John McCain has seriously misread America. He thinks he's going to pull in the PUMAs and independent women, but they're all going to think one thing: this would never have happened if Palin were a man. Hillary has qualifications. Despite all the media from the broadcast MSM, there was little actual pro-Hillary, anti-Obama movement at the convention itself. I can't speak of protests outside the convention; the press were unfortunately skilled at keeping that out of the American eye. But McCain is going for pure tokenism.
The more I read this, more I think that John McCain just wanted to piss off the Obama camp, throw them off guard. Well, he succeeded. His problem is that there are seven weeks left, seven weeks in which both Palin's record and her working relationship with John McCain will be held up to the most intense scrutiny.
Meanwhile, the women of America will look at her and, I hate to say this, most of them will wonder how a woman with five children, one of them a Downs baby, will be able to attend to duties she herself admits she doesn't understand.
