I just can’t believe anyone is taking Sarah Palin seriously any more.
In picking Palin for his running mate, it looks like John McCain was trying to appeal to women voters and “just plain folks.” And initially, his strategy appeared to work. It gave him a good boost in the polls.
A young, vibrant woman – a former beauty contestant and now governor of Alaska at the tender age of 44, she’s certainly a rising star – “Sarah Barracuda” – what a great nickname. And topping it off, she’s very, very conservative. Basically, she was a dream candidate for the republicans. The perfect foil to attract the disgruntled Hillaryites.
However, if you take a close look at Palin, things start to fall apart.
First, there was the interview with Katie Couric, where Palin stumbled badly. Question: How does being governor of Alaska prepare you for foreign affairs? Answer: because Alaska sits right next to Russia. Here’s the clip, and then another clip here. The whole interview was pretty much a disaster.
Holy Christ! How profound.
It’s interesting to note that since the Katie Couric interview, Palin has had almost no one-on-one contacts with the media – unless you count an interview with Entertainment Tonight, where the biggest question was probably what color tie should go with a red suit
They’ve severely limited her contact with the media, and at the events she attends, she’s always paired off with McCain. It’s as though the McCain campaign is afraid to let her loose. As well they might be.
And then her performance in the debate. Everyone seemed to think she’d won against Biden simply because she didn’t melt down – the outcome everyone seemed to expect. But the fact of the matter is that she didn’t really answer any of the questions put to her. Instead, when asked a question, she launched off on her own, pre-arranged speaking points (which is exactly what the teach you to do in classes on how to deal with the media, when you get a question you don’t want to answer [or can’t answer]).
Then there’s Troopergate – where as governor, she abused the power of her office in trying to have her ex-brother-in-law fired from his job as a state trooper. And where she did fire the state police chief because he refused to fire the ex-brother-in-law.
And what about the fact that it’s been reported that while Governor, her husband routinely attended her staff meetings? Is that weird or what? How many of us have our spouses attend our meetings at work? If she was vice president and had meetings with foreign diplomats, would her husband also attend there? How about meetings with the National Security Council? With the president? This is just too weird.
And then more recently, she was quoted as saying she was going to love having her new job running the senate – which as it turns out, is not the job of the vice president. Ooops! Somebody needs to do some more homework!
How about the fact she never had a passport until last year?
She appears as folksy and common, appealing as she says, to “Joe Six-Pack.” Well that’s really neat.
But the job of the vice president is to take over as president if needed. And take over immediately if necessary, with no preparation time, and no chance to study for the role
No chance to do more homework.
So what have we got here?
You’ve got a person whose foreign policy experience limited to that which she gained by being Governor of Alaska (I can see Russia from my window!). Someone who has proved to be petty and who has abused the power of her office in personal matters. Someone who until two years ago, had no political experience at all outside of being the mayor of a small town in rural Alaska.
With John McCain at 72 years old and not in real great health, Palin having to take over is a real possibility.
But if she was suddenly thrust into the role of president –– Palin wouldn’t even have a clue what to do.
As president, if she were suddenly confronted with a situation she didn’t understand or didn’t want to deal with, answering with a prepared speech on some other, unrelated subject just wouldn’t cut it.
Sarah Palin is smart, good looking and is a rising star in the Republican Party. But she doesn’t have a clue about the job of vice president – any more than any other “Joe Six-Pack” off the street.
Sarah Palin is not currently qualified to run as vice president. Maybe in 10-15 years if she can stop taking her husband to meetings and stop abusing the power of her office – but most certainly not now.