A few thoughts on Palin

The local paper in Wasilla, Alaska, The Frontiersman is anything but a liberal, big city newspaper. You know the kind that attacks poor, innocent conservative candidates A brief glance at it’s website, at least in the first week of September 2008 and you find articles you would expect to see in a local paper: prep volleyball teams getting ready for the season, local concerts and events, an article by a local pastor on the evils of Contemporary Christian music (I kid you not, Michael W. Smith is leading us all to hell?). There is even a Op Ed talking about how wonderful it is to have a local on the ticket with McCain, as it has been a tough year for Alaska with all of the corruption scandals and all. But, look at some old print and you find a different story.

According to The Frontiersman’s articles and editorials during Sarah Palin’s administration, they were not really enthralled with this “experienced executive”. To quote a long, scathing editorial, “Palin promised to change the status quo, but at every turn we find hints of cronyism and political maneuvering. We see a woman who has long since surrendered her ideals to a political machine”. The piece continues “The Mayor’s [Palin] administration has been one of contradiction, controversy and discord. While she will blame everyone but herself, we mostly see Sarah at the center of the problem”. Finally, my favorite quote, “Mayor Palin fails to have a grasp of something very simple: the truth”.- Frontiersman editorial 2/7/97.

Think maybe they had a rough day with her, then read more “Wasilla is led by a woman who will tolerate no one who questions her actions or authority.” Further “Palin continues to lose public faith by sticking by her philosophy that we are either with her or against her.” Frontiersman editorial 3/7/97. Further the paper accused her of padding her resume to get the mayoral job in the first place. She claimed to have executive experience running a lodge. The problem is the lodge did not have a license nor pay taxes during the time she supposedly ran it. Frontiersman articles 1/22/97 & 2/5/97.

But, you know a mayor can run afoul of the local newspaper, even one of a similar ideology. So what did other papers say about this wonderful reformer, the woman cleaning up Alaska’s political mess? In 2002, she ran for Lt. Governor unsuccessfully, the Anchorage Daily News, the state’s high circulation newspaper (paper’s website confirmed by Wikipedia) ran a series of articles detailing her running of the campaign from Wasilla City Hall. Mayor Palin was found to have used city funds, resources and personnel to further this bid. She held meetings with vendors, used phones, faxes, computers and staff to further the campaign - Anchorage Daily News 7/14/06, 7/21/06, 7/28/06, 8/9/06, 8/18/06. Whoopsie, is using your government office to run your campaign not reform?

There are 46 Republican members of the United States Senate with more experience than Governor Palin, and 17 Republican Governors. Even take out McCain, his colleague from Arizona who can not constitutionally run on the same ticket as him, and Arnold who can not Consitutionally be president (and they're is surely a team working on that), that leaves almost 60 more qualified current Republican Governors and Senators (Electoral-Vote.com). Ah, but he wanted to make history, fine, that leaves 6 women governors in senators in that pool with more experience. Factor religious views and ideology, and you are still at 5. Factor in former or current members of congress, former governors, former senators, cabinent secretaries, people who have been to Ireland for more than refueling stops, etc. Well, you get the picture. When asked if this was the best the party had to offer, a Republican Member of Congress answer “Well, it’s Senator McCain’s choice”. Boy, I feel the confidence now.

Never mind the pregnant teenage daughter, I will not value judge, nor should anyone else according to my Christian beliefs. However, Oh my God can you imagine James Dobson or Rush Limbaugh if this was a liberal Democratic Governor, even if they were going to keep the child and get married? Or how about the specials needs newborn at home? Again, I don’t think we could restrain Dobson or Limbaugh if this were Obama’s running mate, but the Palin family should run the Palin family’s life, even if my decision would be different (ok, the wife says she would not just divorce me but borrow Palin's favorite hunting riffle and she's a paficist, my wife not Palin). Never mind “Trooper gate”, you know where she may have used her office to try to get her ex-brother in law fired during a custody battle and then fired his boss when he did not fire the ex-brother in law, and which will result in her facing criminal charges or not about October 31st, you know 4 days before election day (sorry, but run on sentence required here, as is the effort to stall this investigation until after November) . Never mind the lawsuits for discrimination, etc while she was mayor, even a great mayor could face those. Please, despite the fact that I snicker to no end about these, don’t even think about her brother in law on a reality dating show, her husband with the 22 year old DUI (but both parties have their spouse embarrassments), her saying that Alaska lacks culture and class on the way to see Ivanna Trump at the nearest Costco, the fact she smoked pot and liked it (like others running for or who got the job before) or the fact that she set up a marketing business whose fancy name means literally “red neck” (I love the Blue Collar Comedy tour and my ex brother in law is the best parts of a red neck).

No, focus on the serious, please. Her “executive experience of the past” is a joke. Small towns, contrary to what you may think of me as a liberal city boy (mind you the son of a small town, country boy), would say, are not backwards. Folks from the country, with accents that sound funny to some of you, are acutally smarter than a lot of you know. But this woman ran her town and it’s of more like 7,000 than 8,000, ineffectively. Also, this woman was in no way vetted, contrary to McCain’s statements. She met him personally once, 6 months ago for 15 minutes. She was interviewed briefly by his campaign staff on the day he picked her, without him present. This is the kind of rock solid judgment we get with John McCain? I agree with his former top aide who says that the worst thing about this is that it diminishes what John McCain has been about and is about cynical political gain.

Ask yourself, given that statistical tables say there is a 33% chance that John McCain will not make it through two terms (Metlife actuarial tables per Electoral-Vote.Com), due to the natural aging process, in fact he hits average male American life expectancy in term one. Also, he has had three bouts of the most serious, and often fatal form of skin cancer. So, feeling the love of the “Hockey Mom” now? The job of President is all about judgment. Some of our greatest Presidents, you know the ones on the mountain side and money, have had the lowest experience. So, guess it cuts both ways, but for my money, give me the guy running a 3,000 employee business, with the 4 years in the Senate, 8 years in the state senate, and years fighting poverty door to door (and sorry to my conservative, Christian friends but the button is right "Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor"), and the almost three decades in Washington running mate, versus the albeit decorated war vet with less experience than the running and the self-described “Pit bull with lipstick”.

Oh, by the way, think this is the guy’s view from Ohio, thousands of miles away, read the woman from her hometown’s view at http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/kilkenny.asp.