After a week long celebration called the Democratic National Convention, the McCain campaign, scrambling to regain any sliver of attention they can, announced his VP pick – none other than Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, shocking some and leaving many saying “Who????”
So who is Sarah Palin? Here’s a short bio…
Sarah was born in Idaho and moved to Alaska with her parents during infancy. She won the Miss Wasilla beauty contest in 1984, and won second place in the Miss Alaska pageant that same year – winning a college scholarship. She used the scholarship to obtain her bachelor’s degree in Journalism, with a minor in Political Science. She then worked briefly as a sports reporter for a local television station, and then worked as a commercial fisherman with her husband. After joining the PTA, she decided to run for City Council in ‘92 as a supporter of a controversial new sales tax. After narrowly winning and serving two terms, she then ran for Mayor in ‘96.
She served as Mayor for two terms, during which she was almost recalled by a group of “concerned citizens” who accused her of firing the Chief of Police for “political purposes”. In 2002, she made an unsuccessful bid for Lt. Governor, losing to Frank Murkowski. After his resignation, he appointed his daughter to the position – Lisa Murkowski. Gov. (Lisa) Murkowski appointed Sarah Palin to the position of Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, eventually resigning due to what she called a “lack of ethics” on the part of her fellow Alaskan Republican leaders.
So where does she stand? She supports oil resource development in the currently protected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She does not believe Global Warming was man-made. In May 2008, she objected to the decision of the United States Secretary of the Interior to put Polar Bears on the endangered species list, and threatened a lawsuit to “stop the listing amid fears that it would hurt oil and gas development in the bears’ habitat”. She is Pro-Life, and a prominent member of “Feminists For Life”. She opposes gay marriage, although she was forced to sign, under Alaska court order, into law an implementation of the same-sex benefits plan, after throngs of protests in her home-state. She also supported a non-binding referendum for a constitutional amendment to deny those same benefits to a homosexual couple. She has previously stated that she fully supports the 1998 contstitutional amendment to ban gay-marriage.
In June 2007, she signed into law a $6.6 billion operating budget – largest in Alaskan history. After intense criticism of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens over federal waste and pork barrel projects, Palin canceled the Bridge to Nowhere because the federal government would not pay for all of it. On July 11, 2008, Palin dismissed Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan for not adequately filling state trooper vacancies, and because he “did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues.” Her power to fire him is not in dispute, but Monegan alleged that his dismissal may have been an abuse of power tied to his reluctance to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten, who had been involved in a divorce and child custody battle with Palin’s sister, Molly McCann. Palin replaced Monegan with Chuck Kopp, dismissing as false allegations that Kopp had sexually harassed a subordinate. She also took disciplinary action against one member of her staff who had mentioned her and Wooten’s family connection to Monegan’s staff.
Palin’s husband, Todd Palin, works for the energy corporation BP at an oil field on Alaska’s North Slope and works as a fisherman in his hometown in the summers.Palin holds a lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association. She admits that she used marijuana at a time when the state had legalized possession of small amounts (though possession was still illegal under federal law). She says that she did not like it and does not smoke it now, and she does not support legalizing marijuana, worrying about the message it would send to her kids. In December 2007, Palin posed for a photo spread in Vogue.
So how does this stack up against the Obama-Biden ticket? Well, in a nutshell…it doesn’t. Trying to woo ex-Hillary voters with a pro-life, anti-universal-healthcare, anti-gay-marriage, anti-equal-pay-for-women politician seems like a joke to many of those who were flirting with the idea of voting Republican. Basically, the McCain campaign wants to appear pro-women by nominating an anti-women-woman, while trying to steal the thunder from Hillary’s 18 million “cracks”. When it comes to experience, one of McCain’s few talking points on Obama, Palin has little herself, and altough she currently has an 80% approval rating, many Alaskan’s have only begun to question her capabilities as Govenor with an investigation pending on an alleged discriminatory firing scandal. Her list of experience is short, with less than 20 monthsin office, and this is pretty much a wash on the issue – not good for McCain.
With a drowning economy, energy crisis, 2 wars, the Russia-Georgia tensions, oil-gas-food-housing prices out of control, unemployment jumping, and millions of Americans without healthcare, many are now curious as to why Sen. McCain chose a Jr. Govenor with more experience as a beauty queen than a Vice President. And as the first example of an impotant decision to the American public, he chooses to pander to women ( as if their dumb enough to fall for Palin ), essentially failing in the opportunity to nominate someone with more experience, more appeal, more intelligence, and more knowledge than a degree in Journalism can provide. As a women, I think I’ll say “Thanks, but no thanks!” to McCain-Palin.
