Written right after Sarah Palin was nominated.
Here’s my take on the nomination of Sarah Palin as McCain’s VP. Of course, I would never vote for McCain in any case, so his selection of Palin was immaterial to my vote. (I always vote Democratic.) I’m glad he selected a woman. That’s a big step forward for the Republican Party. However, I think she’s a terrible choice. Obviously, there’s the issue of her lack of experience. McCain is 72 yrs old, for God’s sake. He needs to have a VP nominee who’s going to be a competent president. Palin doesn’t show any sign of being ready to be president. She was the mayor of a tiny town in Alaska, and not for very long. Somehow she got elected as governor 2 years ago.
During those 2 years, she was pregnant and gave birth to a baby with Down’s Syndrome. That baby is now only 4-5 months old, so presumably she spent at least a couple of months on maternity leave (I hope so, anyway). So that’s almost a year of those 2 years spent pregnant and recovering from giving birth, with a disabled baby. If you’ve ever been pregnant, you know you’re not in a normal state of mind or body during or quite awhile after. I would almost discount that year she spent being pregnant and on maternity leave as “experience”. None of the news reports focus on that at all. I suppose it’s politically incorrect. But that’s just completely discounting human, lived experience. So basically, she’s been actively governor for maybe just over a year, of a state with very few people in it.
Furthermore, I just don’t think a woman with a baby 4-5 months old with Down’s Syndrome has any business running fulltime for national office. I think it’s almost negligent. I’m sure she isn’t breastfeeding either, how could she be? She apparently puts herself forth as a family values type, pro-life and all that. Is this pro-life behavior? OK, she gave birth to the baby despite his having Down’s Syndrome. But then she basically abandons him. I haven’t seen a single picture of her holding this baby, who should be with her at all times, in my opinion. (Not that I’ve been looking for such a picture, either, though, so, there could be one I haven’t seen.) I’m thoroughly disgusted.
And then there’s just the simple pandering aspect. Does McCain really think Hillary’s female supporters are going to run over and support him just because he nominated a woman for VP? Some quotes in the media from his spokespeople seem to say that. But why would supporters of Hillary, a liberal Democrat despite her centrist posturing, abandon the Democratic candidate to support a very conservative pro-life candidate? They aren’t, it’s ridiculous. (I never supported Hillary, so I’m not talking about myself. I’ve always supported Obama. I still can’t believe he won. My candidate never wins!)
And this morning we find out that Palin’s 17 year old daughter is 5 months pregnant! My God. Of course, she couldn’t be allowed to have an abortion, given Palin’s pro-life position. It’s too late for that anyway. I don’t know when Palin and her husband found out about this. The daughter may have just told them, for all we know. But it certainly is embarrassing to the McCain campaign, although they’re claiming they knew before announcing Palin’s selection. (Really? Hard to believe.) My partner and I just laughed out loud this morning when we saw the headline. It’s like a joke. It’s not consistent with family values for your daughter to become a teenage mother. It’s just stupid.
Background on me: I have a female partner and I’m a stay at home mom to an 8 yr old and a 3 yr old. I’m pretty crunchy granola about babies. (Not so much with older kids, as I let my kids eat a lot of crap and watch a lot of TV. Bad Mom.) I had a home birth and breastfed for 15 months. And left a lawyer job (not a big important one) to stay at home with my baby. So that’s where I’m coming from about Palin’s baby.
Here's an interesting Palin link:
www.veryshortlist.com/vsl/daily.cfm/review/593/Website/welcome-to-the-palindrome-sarah-palins-blog/
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