Sarah Palin…Yes Really
Gabriel Rom
The lady hasn’t been out in the political landscape for more than 24 hours and already, she’s being attacked from all sides, this site included. That of course is expected, she’s a 44 year gun-toting, anti abortion hockey mom from Alaska, but even so, the women is more dimensional than many are giving her credit for
Sarah Palin has an 80% approval rating in her home state, but like many Alaskian republicans has not been able to escape some of the corruption investigations that plagues the state’s party. Ironically, this is in part due to Palin’s relentless anti corruption crusades, taking on bigwhigs in the democratic party as well as her own.
You’re absolutely right on the cleansing that’s needed in our party, in the Republican Party.
- Sarah Palin [1]
The woman isn’t all talk though, she cannot and should not be written off just get as an empty dress (see bimbo) that was chosen just to court the evangelical and woman votes. Sarah Palin has taken on one of the most corrupt state parties in the country, she has made bitter enemies, and had to deal with (as of now) unsubstantiated corruption allegations, primarily propagated by the very people she has been trying to convict and/or oust. [2] She had to beat the incumbent republican to achieve her position, running on a moderate ticket for govenor that alienated many republicans, and additionally convinced the Lt.Gov. of Alaska Sean Parnell to jump into the GOP party to beat the incumbent.
Palin has also threatened to support democrats if GOP members wouldn’t support her tax and spend policies. Shes a shrewd, political, no-nonsense type of woman, and not the “beauty queen airhead” many have quickly pigeonholed her as.
That all being said, McCain’s VP choice is a risk, and a huge one at that. Palin does have blaringly obvious political purposes – Women, evangelicals (social conservatives), and McCain needs these votes. Barack Obama is winning this election, in the poll sna din the media, and McCain had to take a risk with his VP. But possibly unforseen by the McCain camp Palin’s pro-life anti-abortion sentiments pose a pandora’s box with voters. She may be able to bring in some hardline conservatives who were having doubts about McCain, but in the meantime she’ll also be losing a swath of liberal Hillary supporters who would have an incredibly hard time voting for a candidate who has a pro-life vp on the ticket.
What all this means for McCain, we will see in the upcoming weeks. I look forward to a Biden-Palin debate. I, and I think a good many others, have a feeling she’ll hold her own much better than the naysayers on left would wish to admit.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:26 am
This just in, Sarah Palin’s 17 year old daughter is pregnant to one of John McCain’s Senior Aides. She’s also getting married (Well if she isn’t getting an abortion what choice does she have?). So much for Palin’s anti- sex-ed and pro abstinence education ideals.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:14 pm
oh give me a break, quit reading US weekly, its a political rumor without an ounce of evidence or truth.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:09 am
who cares about these hogwash rumors the real issue is this woman can’t point to iraq on a world map and said she didn’t know what a VP does on a daily basis, while this might be a good political move, it’s horrifying to those of us who have to live with the possibility of ms. alaska becoming commander in chief.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Jon, an otherwise thoughtful contributor to the site, adopts a snarky tone here that skates dangerously close to misogyny. Furthermore, by ignoring the lack of experience of his presumed preferred candidate, he treats a major issue facing voters in a simplistic and unfair manner. Clearly it’s his prerogative to join the chorus of Palin bashing, but then he must expect to be held accountable. For another perspective on this issue I refer him to my comment to the “Why Obama Can’t Close the Deal” post.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I’m not saying Obama’s the most experienced candidate, he’s not. Experience isn’t everything. But he’s at least been in Washington longer than 4 years and rebuilt a city before that. This wouldn’t be an issue for me if she hadn’t been governor of one of the least populated states for just two years. What experience is this? It is an insult to women voters if McCain really thinks that because his running mate lacks a Y chromosome that they will automatically fall in line even though she is the polar opposite of Hilary Clinton.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
And what city might that be? And “being in Washington” as an attribute of experience is pretty flimsy. You want to give this guy the nuclear football? Wouldn’t it be more important to see how much legislation he sponsored; how many battles he took on and how many he prevailed in? As far as the rest of us know, there are precious few. As for SP, the population density of Alaska seems to be a flimsy criterion to evaluate the skills required to manage it. Surely it is more relevant to look at the $11 billion budget and tens of thousands of state employees she is responsible for? The fact that you ignore all of this as well the specific challenges she has taken on and the skill with which she has dealt with them suggests a certain lack of objectivity.
Finally I’d like to see substantiation that JM selected her primarily as a gender play. There are several other, equally plausible narratives, so again, why jump to the conclusion that the most cynical is the most likely?
September 4th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
excellent points durbanlad, the ignorance of the obamatrons is astounding.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
It’s funny that you’re candidates speech has been based purely on story and personality rather than policy when Obama was criticized for months for doing that. His speech was a blue print. real facts. real figures. real numbers. McCain is an old windpipe of empty promises and dreams. Just as Bush was. “Addicted to oil” speech two January’s ago? what ever happened to that? How are we giving the worst governing party of the last 8 years another shot at the white house?
September 4th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I was trying to engage you in specifics, but that didn’t seem to work out. Let’s just agree to disagree. Look forward to seeing you around the site in the future.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Missing from all the comments about Sarah Pailin, but, I believe, now reflected in today’s polls that she is more popular than Obama and McCain, is the simple fact that she displays the power of the normal. This is a lady in a good mood. She is not the grim, stentorian, Hillary who was born to politics and its connivances. Nor is she the often-dazed Nancy Pelosi, another mother of five. She is the antidote to snarky Maureen Dowds, precious Gail Collins’s and didactic Gloria Steinems. America is reacting to their perception that “We’ve met this person before and we like her.” That she broke through in a new way, as a character vividly herself, and vividly genuine. She seems wholly different from, and in fact seemed a refutation to, all the men of Washington at their great desks who make rules others have to live by but they don’t have to live by themselves, who mandate work rules from which they exempt Congress, for instance. They don’t live by the rules they espouse. She has lived her expressed values.