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.

My range of emotions needs to be stretched for me to show outward happiness. I smirk, but I don’t often smile. I chuckle, but I don’t usually laugh. Political satire, however, can usually put me over the edge. I was in the Berkshires last weekend and, for the fourth or fifth time, I saw The Capitol Steps. Their satire is spot-on and takes quite a while to get old.

Their humor is dry and the product is musical! When political satire and music collide, the result is funnier than just political satire on its own. They post weekly audio clips of their songs at their website, www.capitolsteps.com, but it’s really a shame to miss the visual aspect.

I’m not sure how the justices would feel about that, but President George H. W. Bush said of them, “The Capitol Steps make it easier to leave public life.” The group is a mix of former congressional staffers (both Republican and Democrat) and professional musicians. It’s a combination so dangerous that no one is safe. The TSA gets butchered in this next clip.

Mike Huckabee is the target of this next one. The Beatles’ “Let it Be” has been turned into “Huckabee.”

The Capitol Steps perform live at the Ronald Reagan Building and Internation Trade Center in Washington every Friday and Saturday. If you’re in Massachusetts, they’re at the Cranwell Restort, Golf Club, & Spa in Lenox, Massachusetts every night except Tuesday, through August. I strongly suggest seeing them live. They’re constantly on tour so they may be coming to a town near you. I promise you that you’ll laugh if you’re even vaguely aware of current events. Failing a live show, buy their new album, “Campaign and Suffering.” I’m sure you can find more of their work if you crawl around YouTube, as well.

UPDATE: Thanks to Max Murphy from Mac News Weekly for the new image.

Perhaps I didn’t choose the best title.  ”Enfranchising and Empowering Younger People” sounds more like something for an inspirational speaker than myself, but the title was the best one I could think of.This post was inspired by a New York Times article that my wonderful sister, Kate sent me.  The reason that I like this article is that it provides a pretty stable rationale for allowing 16 year olds to vote.  It even solves some of the problems.

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Turns out that I’m not above singling people out to make a point.  I hadn’t really intended to make my first real post out of the gate one that might incur the wrath of Neal Campbell, but I’ll take my chances.  First of all, this post requires a little back story.  Anyone following Neal Campbell and myself on Twitter will know that a few weeks back we had an exchange about politics.  It was actually that exchange that inspired me to start my own blog.  I wanted to talk about things that interested me, so today’s topic is people’s lack of faith in politics.

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