By Pamela Moye

“What is it exactly that the Vice President does everyday?” - Sarah Palin

G.W. Bush, considered by some to be the most incompetent president in history, has left America with an important legacy: anyone can be taken seriously as a potential leader. As the Democratic party put their best minorities forward to distance themselves from the status quo and present options as superficially radically different and forward as possible, voters faced a Solomonian dilemma: the woman or the non-white. In the end, XY chromosomes plus not being white triumphed over a vagina and political experience. Hillary was too manly to beat a man. Anyway, what matters is the Democrats had the historical election factor in the bag... or did they?

Though the McCain camp mocked the rock tour aspects of the Obama 2008 campaign, their way to beat the Obama drama was to also be equally historic. Since the non-white guy thing had been done, the Republican VP candidate had to have ovaries - estrogen-spewing, hyper-feminine ovaries. According to the Republican plan, Hillary supporters would be oriented by estrogen fumes, and abandon their party to vote for the next best thing to having an influential woman politician elected President: a hockey mom vice president with no national political experience, Sarah Palin.

The choice of Palin as running mate puts McCain’s cognitive abilities into question. Americans should be asking themselves, “Would I ever consider choosing Palin to run the United States?” Granted, she is not running for President, but in reality the VP could at anytime find themselves in one of the most powerful political positions in the world. (Average life expectancy for white males in the U.S. is 75, McCain is 72, do the math.)

The main qualifiers of Palin for VP seem to be her political experience - being governor of a state with oil reserves, and her state of motherhood and soon to be grandmother-hood. First, her political experience is being mayor of a town of 7,000 and governor of a state that has the U.S’s 4th smallest population (670,000), as well as no experience in Washington D.C. She implies that being distanced from the political networks of the capital makes her ideal to come in and sweep away the corruption of the old guard. The reality is that politics is a networking game, and if you are not networked, you are not playing. Firing people who do not share her views will not be as easy in D.C. as it has been in Alaska.

There are two ironies concerning Palin and the war in Iraq. One is the U.S. is in a war she admits is about oil, and her state is in the middle of controversy concerning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which she supports. How convenient to have a VP from an oil-rich state waiting to be tapped. The second irony is her son has recently been deployed to Iraq. Is it a cynical assumption that “my child could die too” was a factor in Palin’s selection?

Palin naively espouses an “I’m just a hockey mom” attitude, the all-American Christian mother routine is  hypocritical. She claims that abstinence can be effectively taught, yet she has a pregnant 17-year-old daughter. She implies that motherhood is a sacred charge, yet her husband is the full-time parent. Not that mothers can’t be good politicians, but it seems improbable that the mother of a newborn with Down’s Syndrome will have adequate time to devote to the child and political responsibilities. Which one will lose out?

The bottom line on Palin is that she has come out of nowhere with questionable experience and a political record racked with controversy (Troopergate, Bridge to Nowhere, personal vendettas...). Her agenda is based on religious beliefs (no abortion even with rape and incest). And Alaska’s largest political rally in history was held to oppose her selection as VP candidate.

While Clinton, like all politicians, has foibles, she has the experience, tenacity, and intelligence necessary to run what is questionably the most powerful nation in the world. If the Republicans and Sarah Palin think she can fill the XX chromosome void of Hillary’s withdrawal, think again. Governor, you’re no Hillary Clinton.*

*”Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy” was a phrase spoken by U.S. Democratic VP candidate Senator Lloyd Benson to Republican VP candidate Dan Quayle during the 1988 VP debate.

Average user rating

   (0 vote)