I apologize for my silence this week. I have been following the Palin story very closely, and wanted to get my thoughts together before ranting.
Let me begin by saying that Palin is indeed very beautiful and down to earth. She adds a vibrancy to the Republican ticket that no old white man ever could--perhaps that is why she has upstaged her running mate so well. But, beauty and the "she's just like us" qualities aside, Palin is a big problem. To begin, she is an evangelical Christian who appears to be unable to set her literal Bible beliefs and proselytizing aside. It would be different if she were religious, but I think she is simply more of the standard Christian Right, focused on rhetoric and agenda rather than upholding the values of freedom and liberty. Palin wears her religion on her sleeve, not unlike Bush, and I'm not convinced that such frankness really equates with genuine spiritual discipline. Palin simultaneously defends the war in Iraq as necessary so that our freedom (in jeopardy due to those 'who hate us') is not lost, while being a staunch anti-choice advocate. Hum--the freedom to be born, but not the freedom to choose what is right for one's body and life.
She isn't for gay marriage either, another freedom one would assume would be allowed in a democracy. I'm not sure we really live in a democracy, considering the 2000 election debacle, but Palin apparently does and said as much in her interview with Charlie Gibson.
Palin is hazy on foreign policy, doesn't understand the Bush Doctrine (well, I didn't know that either, but I'm not running for VP), and appears to be willing to go to war with Russia. As if being in 2 wars and in the worst economic conditions in years aren’t problem enough for this nation. She reluctantly admits that man may have contributed to global warming, and supports drilling for oil in Alaska. She is also a big fan of "clean coal", a technology that my environmentalist husband insists is not so clean.
She is also a bit condescending--a quality that usually isn't appreciated by the low class, everyday folk like me. In her interview with Gibson, she repeatedly called him "Charlie", and refused to answer his questions directly. Several times, he tried to clarify her answer, in which she responded with more evasive rhetoric. When asked if she had ever met a head of state, Palin said "no", then pointed out that if other VP candidates had been asked the same, they'd probably say the same. In fact, as Keith Olbermann pointed out in Countdown last night, every VP candidate for the last 32 years has, in fact, met a head of state before entering the VP office.
Palin is also forgetful--she has repeatedly said that she told congress "thanks, but no thanks, for that bridge to nowhere". Well, that's not entirely true. Palin started out as a huge supporter of the bridge, and in fact wore a t-shirt at one point touting that she was from "Nowhere Alaska". And when she finally saw the light and ditched the project, she in fact still kept the money that congress had given. She claims to be against politics-as-usual, but is now in a scandal involving the firing of a staff member--she is alleged to have fired the individual because he would not fire her sister's ex-husband. Todd Palin, the unofficial governor of Alaska, as he receives all state emails and attends meetings that he has no business being at, has been subpoenaed before the court in the Palin case. She claims to be against pork barrel spending, and yet requested $2 million for pet projects last year. I don't have a problem with what she wanted the money for--it was mostly environmental and animal-related. However, it's the kind of stuff that McCain has said he's against. He isn't keen on drilling in Alaska, either, but Palin says she's working on that.
You can read all this for yourself, and watch it too. YouTube has several clips of the Palin/Gibson interview, and if you like (as the editors of "The Nation" boast) that famous liberal media bias, as I do, then watch Keith Olbermann's "Countdown", which airs nightly on MSNBC.
Finally, Palin still believes we went to Iraq because of 9/11. 5 years after we found out that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, she still believes it did.
Let me begin by saying that Palin is indeed very beautiful and down to earth. She adds a vibrancy to the Republican ticket that no old white man ever could--perhaps that is why she has upstaged her running mate so well. But, beauty and the "she's just like us" qualities aside, Palin is a big problem. To begin, she is an evangelical Christian who appears to be unable to set her literal Bible beliefs and proselytizing aside. It would be different if she were religious, but I think she is simply more of the standard Christian Right, focused on rhetoric and agenda rather than upholding the values of freedom and liberty. Palin wears her religion on her sleeve, not unlike Bush, and I'm not convinced that such frankness really equates with genuine spiritual discipline. Palin simultaneously defends the war in Iraq as necessary so that our freedom (in jeopardy due to those 'who hate us') is not lost, while being a staunch anti-choice advocate. Hum--the freedom to be born, but not the freedom to choose what is right for one's body and life.
She isn't for gay marriage either, another freedom one would assume would be allowed in a democracy. I'm not sure we really live in a democracy, considering the 2000 election debacle, but Palin apparently does and said as much in her interview with Charlie Gibson.
Palin is hazy on foreign policy, doesn't understand the Bush Doctrine (well, I didn't know that either, but I'm not running for VP), and appears to be willing to go to war with Russia. As if being in 2 wars and in the worst economic conditions in years aren’t problem enough for this nation. She reluctantly admits that man may have contributed to global warming, and supports drilling for oil in Alaska. She is also a big fan of "clean coal", a technology that my environmentalist husband insists is not so clean.
She is also a bit condescending--a quality that usually isn't appreciated by the low class, everyday folk like me. In her interview with Gibson, she repeatedly called him "Charlie", and refused to answer his questions directly. Several times, he tried to clarify her answer, in which she responded with more evasive rhetoric. When asked if she had ever met a head of state, Palin said "no", then pointed out that if other VP candidates had been asked the same, they'd probably say the same. In fact, as Keith Olbermann pointed out in Countdown last night, every VP candidate for the last 32 years has, in fact, met a head of state before entering the VP office.
Palin is also forgetful--she has repeatedly said that she told congress "thanks, but no thanks, for that bridge to nowhere". Well, that's not entirely true. Palin started out as a huge supporter of the bridge, and in fact wore a t-shirt at one point touting that she was from "Nowhere Alaska". And when she finally saw the light and ditched the project, she in fact still kept the money that congress had given. She claims to be against politics-as-usual, but is now in a scandal involving the firing of a staff member--she is alleged to have fired the individual because he would not fire her sister's ex-husband. Todd Palin, the unofficial governor of Alaska, as he receives all state emails and attends meetings that he has no business being at, has been subpoenaed before the court in the Palin case. She claims to be against pork barrel spending, and yet requested $2 million for pet projects last year. I don't have a problem with what she wanted the money for--it was mostly environmental and animal-related. However, it's the kind of stuff that McCain has said he's against. He isn't keen on drilling in Alaska, either, but Palin says she's working on that.
You can read all this for yourself, and watch it too. YouTube has several clips of the Palin/Gibson interview, and if you like (as the editors of "The Nation" boast) that famous liberal media bias, as I do, then watch Keith Olbermann's "Countdown", which airs nightly on MSNBC.
Finally, Palin still believes we went to Iraq because of 9/11. 5 years after we found out that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, she still believes it did.
1 comment:
Clean Coal is an oxymoron - it is only 'clean' in the fact that it pollutes a little less than regular coal, but still pollutes so much more than other forms of energy generation.
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