What’s the deal with Sarah Palin?
There is a feeding frenzy regarding Sarah Palin out there. It’s intense and disorienting. It’s also disquieting.
Palin seems like a pleasant woman who would make a nice neighbor. But since when are people qualified to be Vice-President just because they are “nice”?
Tonight I started seeing many comments that extol Palin for having a baby (”Trig”) even though she allegedly had amniocentesis, which indicated that Trig had Down’s Syndrome. It struck me as odd that someone would have amnio when she was planning to have the baby no matter what. In fact, this puzzling point is but one of many strange stories adding up to an intriguing claim that Trig was not actually the child of Sarah Palin, but her grandchild, and that Sarah pretended (but not very well) to be pregnant to cover up for her Daughter Bristol, who was absent from high school for more than five months allegedly because she had mononucleosis. This story is burning up the Internet at Daily Kos. If you venture over there, you’ll need to weigh the evidence presented for yourself, and you can (if you’d like) add your comment to the 1,500 comments already added–a phenomenal amount of comments, given that the post went up only today.
As disputed as the story about Palin’s pregnancy is, there much more to concern cautious voters. Palin is demonstrably anti-science (disputing the human cause of global warming) and her church has tangible connections to dangerous right wing extremists. As P.Z. Myers writes, “The anti-intellectualism is overt. They’re actually proud of their contempt for learning.”
Here’s another concern. Palin has the appearance of a small town mayor, not someone sophisticated. She doesn’t show depth of thought or detailed knowledge of the world around her. Her comfort zone is simple and local. I would very much like to see Palin given as much time as she can fill, to tell us everything she knows about the culture, geography and politics of any country other than the United States. I suspect that she would be out of things to say in 30 minutes. Links are springing up by the dozens on Palin’s strange statements and behavior (Andrew Sullivan has a quickly growing collection). Palin’s story appears to be a facade that is being intensely worked over. She was actually FOR building the Bridge to No where, though she now claims to have opposed the project.
There is much more to be concerned about Palin. I suspect that it’s going to get intensely bad for her within a week. Her story just doesn’t add up.
What most concerns me most, however, is John McCain’s poor judgment. Aren’t there any job qualifications for the office of Vice President? All responsible businesses require special knowledge and experience for demanding jobs. Why wouldn’t McCain demand someone with the requisite knowledge and experience? Palin is a laughable choice for Vice President. Should we start allowing life guards to work as architects? Should we allow window washers to teach medical school? Add this to the list of questions the Press should ask McCain.
I suspect that McCain’s choice of Palin is possible in McCain’s mind because John McCain subscribes to the Grover Norquist school of “starve the beast” when it comes to government. He thinks we’re all better off without government. We’re better off on our own, and the country will somehow run itself. That’s the way it is with many free market fanatics. Therefore, it doesn’t matter who serves as President or Vice President.
Our country can’t run itself, of course. What McCain is revealing by choosing a running mate without meaningful qualifications is that he is actually a nihilist. Or maybe he’s trying to cleverly hand the election to Obama. Or maybe he is pandering to the religious right. Or maybe he is intellectually incoherent.
- What else Sarah Palin didn’t know and why I’m not forgiving John McCain
- McCain campaign: Real journalists will not have access to Sarah Palin
- The twelve lies of Sarah Palin
- “Thanks, but no thanks for that bridge to nowhere” Palin keeps saying.
- John McCain and Sarah Palin continue with their ongoing campaign of lies
Edgar: My poor phrasing. I want Palin to stand up and show that she thinks that scientists think that humans descended from chimpanzees, just as her pastor (and most other fundamentalists) claim.
Sarah Palins is not the issue, that her values differ from yours is the issue.
When will people be honest and state that values are behind their real concerns and stop trying to question peoples integrity or character by hiding behind the assumed truth of their own presuppositions?
People are the sum total of what they believe to be true. They act on what they believe to be true and unfortunately sometimes inappropriately oppose those who don’t believe what they believe. Activists of all kinds need to be moderated if there is to be sustained dialog over differing value systems.
The real issues of our day are not over what university scientists, the political pundits or the drive-by media say is true, its what values do you care enough about to wear them on your shoulder to allow others to either agree or disagree with you.
Freedom of speech is not about rallying people to your majority side of an issue. It’s about making sure everyone has the right to voice their opinion and values whether or not the values of anyone else agrees with them or not.
Free speech is the right to protest to the point of causing civil unrest when the values you hold central to your worldview and personal beliefs are being shot back at you like cannon fodder.
If the USA maintains only a one sided push towards liberalism in the supposed free open market place of ideas, everything will sound like heresy to the government that eventually claims to hold to nothing in general (values) but actually holds to everything in specifics (political correctness).
Fair enough, Karl. It is Sarah Palin’s position on the issues that concerns me. Like I wrote in the post, she seems as though she would make a nice neighbor, but she is abysmally ignorant of many aspects of the world around her. She is no more qualified to be Vice President than would be a randomly chosen person.
I want my leaders to be intelligent, self-critical, empathetic to the needs/wants of groups outside of her own comfort group, unbeholden to fundamentalist ways of thinking, curious, knowledgeable about the geography, culture and history of many countries other than her own, and able to converse with confidence on issues critical to national politics. She appears to flunk every one of these tests. I’m sure her family loves her, but, in terms of political leadership, she is nothing special at all.
According to Daily Kos, Palin is documented as stating, in 2006, that if the Pledge of Allegiance “was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me.”
This is truly Pathetic. Palin is a know-nothing and she’s proud of it. We’ve already had eight years of this idiocy. Time for the big hook. I have no more patience for fundamentalists. We need smart people, self-critical people who pay attention to evidence, who care about running the country in a way that will benefit most Americans. We don’t need any more dangerous people who are locked into fantasy worlds.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/1/13152/11620/160/581558
I agree with Karl, here. Whether she has a young son (or more likely grandson) with a common genetic defect is not important to her qualification to the office. Nor is whether she got someone fired for personal reasons.
My issue with Palin is that I disagree with her positions on certain vital issues, especially where her position is to ignore thoroughly corroborated studies in preference of short sighted economic ideals, much as does the current administration.
Also, I fear having someone even less qualified in national and international affairs than was Potus43 in that top seat, should her elderly predecessor wear out.
Dan, I disagree about the firing of the state trooper. Abuse of power is a serious issue.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-schmeltzer/palin-almost-recalled-as_b_122769.html
Daily Kos has been busy digging up more on Sarah Palin.
They have found that she has very few opinions.
They have also dug deep on her problematic religious affiliations.
Another point of view. I surfed various conservative religious websites tonight, and many of them are still holding on to Sarah Palin’s chances. Here’s an example:
Following Palin is like trying to get a drink out of a fire hydrant. Here’s yet another angle, from Huffpo:
And for a LOT more on McCain’s approach to sex and reproduction (caveat to conservatives: they need not be the same thing), see here.
I think we have to look at class angle of the Bristol Palin story, too. Having a teenage daughter turn up pregnant is a familiar situation to lots of working class, especially rural families. It’s not just a matter of access to factual sex education courses and contraceptives. A 17 year old facing the decision of where to go to college and what to major in has lots of motivation to avoid pregnancy. A teen contemplating whether to apply to the chicken processing plant or go to Iraq may not have the same motivation.
So I think that attacks that suggest that Palin is somehow a loser for having a pregnant teenage daughter may backfire by pointing up these class and status divisions. I think Barack’s warning to “back off” is good advice.
There’s plenty of other evidence that Palin is a poor choice to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
And now we find out that she had it out for the librarian (when Palin was Mayor) because Palin is a BOOK-BURNER! Must not have inappropriate books at the public library . . .
Here’s the story.
What’s the deal with Sarah Palin? She’s Caribou Barbie. She’ll appeal to other middle-aged and old-aged Republican men.
Roy Zimmerman “Sarah Pale In Comparison”
How much intelligence does it take to run a small city? Ask Sarah Palin. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palin-on-her-own-executiv_n_123380.html
From Sarah Palin’s pastor, we now know that God kills Jews because they don’t believe in Jesus. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13098.html
For an incredibly photo that substantiates an incredible lie regarding the bridge to nowhere, check out this post on Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/3/14837/94892/994/584792
Indeed, what does Palin know about *any* religion besides her own?
Is it true that they announced this week that her underage unmarried daughter is pregnant (again)?
Proj: She’s very much pregnant at the moment. I’d be curious how the German media is covering the story of Sarah Palin. What are you hearing about her over there?