Sarah Palin: the Least Qualified VP Nominee Ever

Okay, so here is a preview of the kind of judgment that a President McCain might exercise when he is contemplating the next Supreme Court Justice. The pundits like to say that a candidate's choice for Vice Presidential candidate is the first significant and telling judgment call of the nominee's candidacy. Well then, we have quite a window into the workings of the mind of McCain. What does this selection demonstrate to us as an insight into the mind of McSame? Is he thinking that by selecting a woman he might be able to coerce a few disgruntled Hill-bots (PUMAs) to his side by adding a woman to the ticket? If this is a part of McRage's consideration, then it assumes that the PUMAs would willing disregard the fact that that Mrs. Palin is strongly anti-choice, anti-science, and pro-drilling in ANWR. I think that McInsane's thinking was more along the lines that Sarah Palin is an evangelical Christian who is anti-choice, anti-science, and pro-drilling and in this way the selection of Mrs. Palin is a blatant plea to court the far religious right of the republican party.

Here are a few biographical facts about Palin:

--She was born in Idaho in 1964, and moved with her family a few months after her birth to Wasilla, Alaska.
--She was a beauty contestant (runner-up in the Miss Alaska 1984, although in all fairness, she was named Miss Congeniality).
--She is an evangelical Christian, strongly anti-choice (even in the case of rape or incest), is anti-science (supports the teaching of creationism in science classes), and is pro-drilling (even in ANWR).
--She is the mother of five children, ages 4 mos. (Trig) to 19 years old (Track) who is set to deploy to Iraq on Sept. 11, 2008.
--She is against same-sex marriage, and supports a constitutional amendment to declare marriage as the exclusive purview of one man and one woman.
--Her husband has Eskimo heritage and is a commercial fisherman (and not so well publicized by the McSame camp is the fact that he works for BP Oil).
--Palin is currently under investigation by her own legislature for abusing her gubernatorial power by firing a state employee who refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law.
--Palin's public service experience includes one term as mayor of Wasilla (population less than 9,000), and a mere 20 months as Governor of Alaska (population just under 700,000).
--Palin is a life-long member of the NRA and a strong supporter of everybody's right to arm themselves.
--Palin is a staunch support of abstinence education, however it was revealed on Monday, Sept. 1, 2008 that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant.
--When Palin was Mayor of Wasilla, she threatened to fire a librarian for not removing books from the shelf that Palin claimed had objectionable language - grrrrr :[
--In 2000, Palin voted for Pat Buchanan in the presidential election.
--Palin believes that human activity has no bearing on Global Warming and that Polar Bears should not be listed as an endangered species.
--Palin has no discernible foreign policy or international experience.

All of this must be considered in light of the fact that John McInsane is 72 years old and has a history of health problems (both disclosed and undisclosed) - one of the health issues of which we are aware includes recurring melanoma (skin cancer). The odds that McRage may not make it through one term in office are currently running about 20% - 40%, growing to 50% when the skin cancer factor is taken into account. This number doesn't consider the high likelihood that McSame might become disabled by Alzheimer's or some other age-related dementia.

All in all, I sure don't feel very sanguine about having a 44 year old hockey mom making decisions that could impact the global scene for generations to come, do you? Obama/Biden '08!

If this post failed to convince you that Palin is an awful choice, please see a thoughtful piece by a true patriot and Alaskan Native, Katrina Dolchuk Jacuk, Why I Do Not Support Sarah Palin.

A view from Mrs. Palin's hometown paper, Choice stuns state politicians.

And for those who are titillated by the purely salacious, check out this from the Daily Kos.