Aug/08©Chris Farley
The Case Against Sarah Palin
In my several years following politics, Sarah Palin is probably the worst candidate I’ve seen ascend to the vice presidential level. I’m going to present a very clear case against Sarah Palin in this post, but even if you don’t agree with any of those reasons, here’s one more: When voters choose a vice president, they realize that his or her Constitutional duties are to be ready to assume the presidency. When nominees choose a vice president, they realize that the most important factor is the vice president’s preparedness to assume the presidency. Sarah Palin is not ready to assume the presidency and she is therefore unfit to assume the vice presidency.
Her experience is limited to salmon fishing and moose hunting. Her foreign policy experience is non-existent. John McCain is 72 years old and he’s had several recurrences of cancer. The actuarial tables aren’t looking so good. McCain’s death is not imminent, but it is more likely with this particular president that he will expire before his term is done. Voters understand that, so they immediately look to the bottom half of the ticket. And who do we see there? Sarah Louise Palin.
So who is she? Palin is in the middle of her first term as governor of Alaska. Before that, she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Population: 5,469 in the 2000 census. How can people who say Obama is inexperienced say that Palin is even comparable? While Palin was mayor of a 5,500 person town, Barack Obama was a state legislator serving 12.5 million people. While Palin was governor of a state with a population of 650,00, Obama was in the United States Senate serving 300 million people.
Going further back, Palin attended the University of Idaho with no further education. Obama started at Occidental College, then transferred to Columbia University. He attended Harvard Law School and became president of the Harvard Law Review (I mention that because it is no minor accomplishment). I’m not against public or even community colleges, but do you think that Palin’s degree in journalism is going to be much help in anything but being nice to the press?
And now to the issues. Palin is pro-life, but also pro-capital punishment. In other words, everyone should have their babies because if they do something wrong, she’ll just advocate killing them later. This is not the woman I want to run the country. She supports drilling in ANWR, even though that will clearly not help anything. As for other issues, she’s such an unknown that nobody really knows where she stands on most important issues.
Given that her state is so important as it is her only experience, it’s worth it to think what some of her colleagues think about Palin’s appointment. Fellow Republican State Senate President Lyda Green from Palin’s own town said,”She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? Look at what she’s done to this state. What will she do to the nation?” In the article linked above, Green cites an oil tax increase Palin pushed through and a $500 million state subsidy Palin awarded to a Canadian firm to build a natural gas pipeline with an uncertain future.
To top it all off, Palin even said to a question about VP speculation, “I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day.”
Normally VP picks don’t matter so much, but in this particular case, McCain’s choice really matters. She is not ready to be vice president by her own statement. She’s not ready to be president. Her views are shrouded in mystery because she’s never had to address many national issues in Alaska. She has zero experience on the national scene, zero experience of the international scene. Sarah Palin is not a good choice. She’s a small time governor being brought out on to a big stage.
Please, please, somebody who has read this explain to me why they would still vote for Palin. In my opinion, even if someone were voting for McCain, the Palin choice would be enough to persuade someone to vote for someone else. If the VP has to assume office, Palin isn’t ready.
8:17 am on September 4th, 2008
I read that she attended FIVE universities in 6 years. Why? The universities refuse to release her grades due to laws of confidentiality. Is this true or just a rumor?
6:00 am on September 5th, 2008
I totally agree with the above, her lack of experience in any thing out side of Alaska is non existent. How could people support her? The comment with regard to prolife, yet death penalty never makes sense to me.
I know that her family life is to be off limits, but how can it? where are the morals for this family? Her daughter was 16/17 when she had sex with some one and is now pregnant. Why does that not upset any one?
Some thing is not adding up with this woman, it seems that no one cares that she has no experience.
2:29 am on September 8th, 2008
Um… excuse me. You guys have no idea what you are talking about. Half of all american kids have sex before they are 18. Being pro-life and pro-death penalty is not an oxy moron. Being pro-life means you think a baby should get a chance to enjoy life. It means not killing a baby and sucking, scraping, or dismembering it's body to remove it from an ungrateful mother. The killing of an unborn baby is a gross thing. There are only a few ways to do it. The most common ways always include cutting the baby apart or poisoning it. It is extremely painful!
Being pro Death Penalty means you are willing to kill someone who killed another person. There is a big difference between killing a murderer and an innocent baby. Get your priorities right and vote for Palin. Even if she is a little in-experienced she will learn. And she actually cares about life. She could have advised her daughter to have her baby "terminated" (slaughtered brutally), but she respects that baby's rights and she wants to let it live.
Chris, I subscribed to your RSS feed but it hasn't been updating all summer. You have been posting though. There is something wrong. I will try re-subscribing to see if that fixes it.
10:12 am on September 13th, 2008
This is a response to Ben Willis' comment above:
1. NO ONE enjoys abortions!!!! women dont just say alright i want an abortion because i dont want a baby. an abortion is done for the well being of the mother and the child. it is not fair to bring a child into the world that will not be given a good life. that is being selfish to bring a child into the world that will not be given a fair shot at success and prosperity. Sara Palin's daughter has the ability to have a baby. she has a strong and WEALTHY family to support her. when my dad was my age he worked in a dry cleaning store. back then abortions were illegal. one day he walked into the bathroom and there was blood all over the floor. a lady who worked there gave herself an abortion with a CLOTHING HANGER. abortions will happen no matter what. it would have been unfair to the child that she would of had if it had a mother that didn't have the financial ability to have it. on top of that she wasnt morally prepared to have a baby.
2. as i said earlier no one is PRO-ABORTION. people are pro CHOICE. who are you or anyone else to tell a woman what they can and cant do with their body.choosing to have an abortion is not an easy choice.
3.Palin doesn't even know what the bush doctrine is. i am not even 14 and i know what it is(some vp pick)
4.to all reublicans:
if one were to watch the republican convention after being in a coma for eight years they would think that the democrats had been in office and had run the country into the ground. u people spent your entire campaign talking about change meanwhile you are from the same party that has run the country into the ground. there was not a mention about what mccain was going to do as president except lower taxes more. by the way, in order to lower taxes more mccain would have to stop funding social security and medicare, the two major programs of the middle class. and yet he calls himself in touch with the middle class(obama plans to lower taxes for 95% of americans) . People say mccain is a maverick. the last time mccain time mccain acted as a maverick was 2000. no, i am sorry that is incorrect. he does go up against his own party in the senate. HE CURSES AT THEM ON THE SENATE FLOOR!
5.On the issue of Palin:
Palin says she has more experience than obama because she was a governor. yes a governor does have different responsibilities than a senator(i dontcare that her state is not very populated). however, obama has run a campaign for two years where his budget per month is 3x what palin's was as a mayor per year, and he has been in charge of a much larger amount of people than palin ever has been. Palin pro gun ownership. i have no problem with this.i do have problem that she saying obama will take away your guns. i believe and obama believes that you can allow people to own a gun without having someone own an assault riffle, ak47 or m16/m4. That brings up the issue of people needing a gun to hunt. 99% of people in the USA do not NEED to hunt. the right to bear arms was put in place when you need to hunt for food. Now, Palin supports fair hunting. i wouldnt consider shooting animals from helicopters fair hunting. she says she was against the bridge to no where. that was after she was for it. she then went on to build a highway to no where.
if everyone read all of the papers and all of the online articles, didnt pay attention to how many houses the candidates own, and focused on the issues, OBAMA would win hands down. sadly this is isnt the case and so it will be an extremely close election.
and by the way Biden is going to own palin in the upcoming vp debate
chris- its me brad from middle school, email me what you think about what i said
10:07 am on September 24th, 2008
Love this site – I thought you'd enjoy these e-cards I found on this hilarious greeting card site – some of the best anti-Palin stuff out there
http://ecards.cerebralitch.com/cards/politics
1:53 am on September 24th, 2008
I think the big problem isn't kids having sex before 18. It's the lack of education. If you left it in the republican's hands… (I say republican, but I mean the extreme right wing) we would learn that proper birth control is abstinence or a women counting the days in her menstrual cycle.
Yes, abstinence is the only 100% method, but it isn't practical. Young adults are going to experiment. Adults (like myself) need to remember what it was like growing up. I would like to ask the right wingers that preach abstinence when they lost their virginity. Are they speaking from experience, or trying to make things right later in life?
9:51 am on October 4th, 2008
Very cute and very NYC elitist. I'm going to have sooo much fun when Sarah is President. Sorry if those of us east of the Mississippi don't respect y'all because you paid more for your classes. You're learning crap and paying a wasteful amount of money for the privilege. All you're really learning is to hate real Americans.
9:53 am on October 4th, 2008
Woops…I'm a dork…those of us West of the Mississippi. I forgot where I live.
2:15 am on October 10th, 2008
I'm farrrr west of the Mississippi and I still think that Sarah Palin is the worst thing to hit politics since the Republician Party! I don't go to a private school, and I don't think that I qualify as elitist, and come to think of it, with your stay at home job, and all of your gadgets, etc, i am surprised you would be so hypocritical to bring up the elitist remark.
7:45 am on September 27th, 2009
i was obese a few years ago but now i have reduced my weight by diet and exercise.
8:35 am on November 23rd, 2009
Sarah Palin is a good leader. i can say that because she did some projects in alaska that helped lots of people .