September 12th / 14th, 2008
"Palin Criticized for the Wrong Reasons"
John McCain’s running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, purports some
pretty scary views. She believes that a woman who has an abortion is a criminal.
She believes that certain books should be banned from the public library.
She sees nothing wrong with civilians owning AK47 assault rifles. She thinks
creationism should be taught in schools, rejecting the dictates of our
founding fathers who believed that matters of church and state should be separate.
She is OK with staying in Iraq for 100 years, and for the United States to
keep murdering innocent Iraqi civilians, all because the war is part of “God’
s plan”.
She rejects overwhelming scientific evidence about the global warming
crisis. And, speaking of protecting the environment, Palin wants to drill for oil
in a wildlife refuge. Even the man at the top of her ticket is against that.
Clearly, Governor Palin gives us plenty of things to criticize, and lots of
reasons not to vote for her in November. Instead, the media has focused on
four issues, none of which have merit or relevance.
- Issue #1: Palin opposed sex education in schools, saying that parents
should teach abstinence. Yet, the Governor’s 17 year old daughter Bristol is
five months pregnant and unwed.
- Issue #2: Palin’s husband Todd was arrested for drunk driving.
Let’s address these first two issues together. As Barack Obama said, “We don
’t go after a candidate’s family”. Translation: even if Palin’s daughter
and husband had gone on a shooting spree in a shopping mall, that doesn’t
have anything to do with Sarah’s ability to govern. Moreover, Todd’s DUI
occurred when he was 22 years old, a fact that US Weekly omitted in its recent
inflammatory cover story. And, the broadcast media in particular was shameful
in its dogged coverage of Todd’s daughter, who committed no crime, and who
had made plans months earlier to marry the father of her unborn child.
Also, the media kept harping on how Palin couldn’t possibly be a good mother
and be Vice President at the same time. Those same journalists never once
asked Bill Clinton or Barack Obama if they could be a good father and be
President at the same time.
- Issue#3: Palin’s staff complained to the Alaska Commissioner of Public
Safety about threats from the Governor’s ex-brother-in-law (an Alaska State
Trooper). The Commissioner ignored the complaints, and soon found himself out of
a job. CNN reporters and anchors fell all over themselves in an effort to get
the scoop on this so-called scandal. In the process, they botched nearly
every report, including a morning anchor saying that Palin had fired the Trooper,
and Larry King saying that Palin had fired a “sheriff”. CNN also was the
first to attach the moniker “troopergate” to this non-story.
The truth is that the trooper and Palin’s sister had been engaged in a
bitter custody battle in which it was revealed that he had tasered his own son
(Palin’s nephew),and allegedly threatened to kill the Governor’s father.
At no time did Palin call the Commissioner and ask that her ex-brother-in-law
be fired. And there has never been any hint that Palin herself did anything
wrong. All we have is a legislative investigation launched by partisan
politicians. Yet In spite of these facts, one CNN pundit joked, “we won’t have
to worry about her being Vice President if she’s in jail”. Well, Palin is
a better person than I am. If someone were threatening my family, I would
borrow the Governor’s AK47 and get revenge. And if the news media were smearing
me over something I didn’t do, I would hire a team of powerful attorneys to
sue them for malicious defamation.
- Issue#4: Sarah Palin can’t possibly be qualified to run for Vice President
( or ascend to the Presidency in the event of McCain’s death), because she is
just the Governor of Alaska.
Having worked closely with five governors, and on special projects with nineteen others, I can tell you that the
least among those on his or her worst day, had more experience than McCain,
Biden, and Obama put together. Governors can deploy the National Guard to quell
riots or protect borders. Governors are on the front line in dealing with
natural disasters. Governors set budgets and levy taxes. Governors oversee
maximum security prisons and can order stays of execution. Governors can be
directly involved in negotiating trade pacts with other nations. Governors
direct state policy for public education. And, governors administer health and
human services.
Meanwhile, United States Senators attend hearings and take trips overseas.
Pretty pale in comparison to Sarah Palin’s duties and responsibilities.
And Palin is more adept with energy policies and problems that any other
national candidate, evidenced by the gas pipeline project which she initiated
after a 30 year gridlock.
Democrats and the democrat-leaning news media need to cease and desist,
especially CNN’s obnoxious Campbell Brown, who was repeatedly belligerent with a
number of Palin defenders. The Alaska Governor is, in fact, qualified to be
Vice President or President, as much as Lincoln, Carter, and Clinton, and
more than Obama or Biden.
So here’s my advice to the news media, and to Democrat pundits: if you want
to oppose or criticize Sarah Palin, there’s plenty of fodder for your cannon.
Just be sure to stick to her actual views, which are reason enough to vote
for Obama or Nader this Fall. If not, you run the risk of alienating and
mobilizing millions of women who, regardless of their politics, might pull the
lever for Palin if they continue to be bombarded by sexist reporting on the
part of the mainstream media.
Women just don’t like to be patronized by men. I know this because my wife
explains it to me everyday in words that I can understand.
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