The Two Faces of Sarah Palin Is She A Patriot, an Idiot or a Traitor To The United States of America!!??

HOME | RICHARD M. SCAIFE | DICK ARMEY | DAN BURTON
PAT ROBERTSON | ADOLPH COORS | JAMES DOBSON | TOM DELAY | CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTIONISTS
GEORGE W. BUSH UNOFFICIAL PAGE

Presented by the Religious Freedom Coalition of the Southeast

All who donate will receive a 23 page professional Horoscope! To Donate by Credit Card click on the Button Below Thank You for Whatever you can do.

 

UPDATE: SEE SARAH PALINS  BABY GATE AND TROOPERGATE SCANDALS!!!

 

---

EXTREMIST CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS ARE THE ENEMY AND TRAITORS TO AMERICA by R. Blackbird

Extremist Conservative Republicans are selfish, power hungry, hateful of the poor, disloyal to the nation and its people, dishonest, avaricious, scornful of the nation's history, the dignity of its institutions, its standards of political morality, and its vision of advancement for all the people. These Republicans love war as long as they and theirs do not have to put on helmets and carry guns into the fighting. They use lies to start wars that kill hundreds of thousands of innocents and thousands of our own military service people. They love massive war-time profits, unavailable to their rich masters if war is absent.

Those Extremist Conservative Republicans hate the rest of us, which they must, in order to pass away from themselves and onto us, the financial burdens and losses their crimes, schemes and thefts cause. They are prolific, incessant, and destructive liars. They are blasphemers for they insist that their hateful and destructive deeds are the work of God. They are apostates for they gleefully attack the poor, the immigrants, the old and the sick, of whom God has commanded all of us to be mindful.

There is no reasoning with them, for all their logic is built on false premises. There is no appealing to them for honor's sake for they have lost all sense of shame and have no honor, there is no appealing to them for the nation's sake for that it what they hate the most.

Extremist Conservative Republicans are the enemy.

---

I've been scratching my head about two things lately. One, how can someone who isn't a multimillionaire vote Republican? Every platform they support is contrary to the average working class citizen's needs. Two, how can a woman profess to be a Christian when She is obviously a hypocrite and Liar? But when I listen to people like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell speak, it becomes clear how these things exist and why they are glorified.   Intelligence is awareness of ignorance.   Stupidity is ignorance of ignorance.   Now it all makes sense.   "It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Variously attributed to Lincoln, Elbert Hubbard, Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin and Socrates.  Marine Corps Sgt. Ron Geste - Iraq

---

Sarah Palin has always supported a extreme Conservative Christian position especially when it comes to Church and State issues.  It is apparent from the data collected, that the first amendment has been in danger from her past and will be in danger from her future actions.

Upon calling her office we find that Islam, Judaism, Shintoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or Wicca "..aren't "Real" religions."  What is a real religion, Mrs Palin?  What you have been practicing?  Read the following and remember: "By their Works may they be known."  Sarah will reside in Dante's ninth level of Hell!

(Remember it is best to investigate on your own when looking at allegations about anyone.    Don't believe us, think for yourself and investigate for yourself!  And remember, the Freedom of Religion Coalition does not represent any political party nor do we recommend any political candidate, nor are we involving ourselves in the political process. 

"Sarah Palin is one of the great pulsars of our times: a collapsed gravity well of unblinking stare.  People innocently walking down the street, are drawn into her orbit, helplessly drawn in by how utterly dense she is.  They cannot escape the completely impenetrable mass of darkness surrounding her mind and become totally crushed & moronized by her."  By a Friend of Religious Freedom

---

Sarah Palin

Sarah Louise Heath Palin (born February 11, 1964) was the governor of Alaska until she quit.  She is the former Republican vice presidential candidate, a compulsive breeder, and a major neo-conservative player.

The only thing Sarah Palin seems to enjoy more than having children is giving those children ridiculous names and inadequate sex education.

Palin served as both a city councilor and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a nightmare of suburban sprawl located in the armpit of the state’s two major highways. Somehow, she was elected governor of Alaska in 2006, becoming the first woman ever to hold the office.

On August 29, 2008, Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain performed perhaps the greatest political blunder in American history by announcing that he had chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin celebrated by ovulating.

Sarah Palin was helped inordinately by the fact that no one knew anything about her or Alaska, and probably never really will.

 

---

Sarah Palin Doesn't Know Cold War History

Excerpts from articles posted on crooksandliars.com and huffingtonpost.com Jun 11, 2011

Sarah Palin has issued yet another ghost-written Facebook page note-cum-press release, predictably bashing Obama for his inability to live up to the great St. Ronnie Reagan, entitled with the statesman-like "Another 'WTF' Obama Foreign Policy Moment".

President Obama wants to give Russia our missile defense secrets because he believes that we can buy their friendship and cooperation with this taxpayer-funded gift. But giving military secrets and technologies to a rival or competitor like Russia is just plain dumb. You can’t buy off Russia. And giving them advanced military technology will not create stability. What happens if Russia gives this technology (or sells it!) to other countries like Iran or China? After all, as Woolsey points out, Russia helped Iran with its missile and nuclear programs. Or what happens if an even more hardline leader comes to power in the Kremlin?

We tried buying off the Kremlin with technologies in the 1970s. That policy was a component of “detente,” and the hope was that if we would share our technologies with them, they would become more peaceful. Things, of course, didn’t work out that way. The Kremlin took western technologies and embarked on a massive military building program. History teaches that peace comes from American military strength. And a central component of that has always been technological superiority. Why would President Obama even dream of giving this away?

I've said before that I'm not convinced that Sarah Palin knows where or how a sentence she is speaking will end until she gets there. It appears that same trait is true of her writing too. Of course, it's hard to craft sensible arguments when one doesn't know what the hell one is talking about.

From her recounting of history, Palin appears to be arguing that the United States and the West gave “technologies” during this period, and that “the Kremlin took Western technologies and embarked on a massive military building program.”

Palin’s language struck us a garbled version of this period written by her new foreign policy adviser, Peter Schweizer of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
[..]
In fact, technology imports from the United States were heavily restricted during this period.

“All sorts of restrictions remained in force on what technical equipment could be provided to [East Bloc] countries, and while I'm sure Nixon/Kissinger/Ford might have eased a few requirements here or there, it was hardly an effort to ‘buy off’ the Kremlin by ‘sharing’ militarily useful technologies,” said James Hershberg, associate professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University and former director of the Cold War International History Project. “The Jackson-Vanik Amendment [of 1974] imposed further limitations on economic relations even at the height of detente.”

The restrictions on technology trade were so tough that the Soviets embarked on a massive spying operation designed to obtain such goods. “It definitely was not as a result of some sort of conscious effort by Washington to ‘buy’ Soviet sympathy or cooperation,” Hershberg said.

In fact, when the French government provided the United States with information on what items the Soviets were trying to obtain, the CIA plotted to sabotage the Soviet economy through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions. One devious bit of software sold by the CIA later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural gas pipeline that could be seen from space.

Now this is a slightly more nuanced error than not grasping the historical importance of Paul Revere and I doubt very much that most Americans would be able to articulate the details of our Cold War strategizing. But if you're going to criticize the President for not understanding the historical challenges of our relationship with Russia and making the same choices as Reagan, you really ought to have your own facts straight.

---

 

Time to Get Off the Bus

Excerpted from a post by Kevin Drum at motherjones.com May 31, 2011

I think I've now read at least half a dozen mainstream media figures lamenting the absurd level of coverage that the mainstream media is giving to Sarah Palin's bus tour cum summer vacation cum presidential campaign tryout. Note to the nation's editors: your own reporters think that chasing her around like a starstruck junior high school kid is nuts. Isn't it time to pull the plug and let her tour the United States with the privacy she allegedly wants?

---

Palin's Latest: Signs of a 2012 Bid...Or Love of the Limelight?

Excerpts from an article at motherjones.com by David Corn May 26, 2011

Mark Eliason/Zuma

OMG. Sarah Palin is running for president. Well, it's not official. And unconfirmed. And, perhaps, maybe she isn't. But The New York Times has a front-pager today with a headline proclaiming "Signs Grow That Palin May Run." The signs? She's bolstering her skimpy staff, beefing up her schedule of public appearances, and possibly moving to Arizona. (That's bad news if John McCain wants to be her running-mate.) Politico reports "speculation" of a Palin 2012 race is on the rise. And there's a new pro-Palin film being released in key primary states. Recently, she told her pal Greta Van Susteren that—you betcha—she has "the fire in the belly" for a White House bid.

It may well be that the former half-term governor/unsuccessful vice-presidential candidate is indeed heading toward a dive into presidential waters. But there's another possible explanation: as 2012 approaches, a presidential tease requires more, uh, leg.

At the start of this year, Palin's will-she-or-won't-she act was a large part of the 2012 story. But the months went by—and, not coincidentally, her standing in various polls slipped—and developments nudged her to the side, as other candidates either entered the race or retreated. For a while, Donald Trump sucked up loads of oxygen, as he head-faked a run that would draw upon right-wing anger and resentment (Palin's fuel). In recent weeks, as candidates Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, and Mike Huckabee kept their hats on their heads, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has all but declared, indicating that the Sarah Palin role in the 2012 miniseries might be played by a social conservative woman other than Sarah Palin.

The bottom-line: Palin was starting to look more like an irrelevant sideshow than the main attraction. And that's not good for Palin and Palin, Inc.

If Palin decides not to run, she will not remain a star of the show. She will indeed possess influence, for presumably a Palin endorsement (or anti-endorsement) will have an impact within the ranks of GOP primary voters. But as long as she is a possible candidate, she can command a tremendous amount of attention. Yet at this stage, being a credible possible candidate actually requires her to take certain steps.

So all these actions fanning "speculation" that she might be preparing to stride into the race can also be viewed as actions necessary to maintain her possible-candidate status—which is worth preserving, even if Palin already knows she's not going to make good on the tease. Which means the Palin guessing game is still just that: a guessing game.

 

---

The Rise and Fall of Sarah Palin

Excerpt from a post on motherjones.com by Kevin Drum on May 9, 2011

 

Howard Kurtz says that Sarah Palin is losing her mojo:

16 months after   [Fox] network chief Roger Ailes closed [a $3 million TV] deal in a meeting with Palin and her husband, Todd, the excitement has cooled. Palin’s regular appearances as a commentator no longer move the ratings needle without a promotional push. Palin was supposed to host prime-time specials dubbed Real American Stories, but Fox insiders tell me the idea was shelved early on. The first one bombed, losing a chunk of its audience as the show progressed.

....Between February and April, according to an analysis for Newsweek by General Sentiment, a company that tracks and measures online content, posts involving Palin fell 38.3 percent, to 235,032, over the past 30 days. Social-media mentions dropped in lockstep, down 32 percent over the same period, to 135,421.

Maybe this is due to her Tucson misstep, or her "blood libel" inanity, or maybe her semi-defense of birthers. But I think Kurtz has missed the real reason: Dana Milbank's one-month boycott of all things Palin in February. I joined in on that, and you know what? After 30 days of cold turkey I was pretty much cured. Ignoring Sarah Palin turned out to be a lot easier than I thought, and by the time March rolled around I didn't much care about her anymore. I think I've only mentioned her once or twice since then.

Fame is a fickle thing, I'm afraid, especially when you have nothing of actual substance to be famous about. In that department, it turned out that Sarah Palin's half-life was even shorter than the Kardashian family's.

---

Palin, McCain, and Rolling Thunder

From an excerpt posted by David Corn in motherjones.com May 31, 2011

Have you read enough about Sarah Palin and her less-than-magical mystery bus tour?

There was one intriguing connection that wasn't made in many of the media accounts of her participation in the annual Rolling Thunder Memorial Day motorcycle extravaganza in Washington, DC, this past weekend: Palin was hanging out at an event that used to be enemy territory for John McCain.

Rolling Thunder was started in late 1980s to raise awareness about Vietnam POWs missing in action. At that time, many of its organizers and activists accepted the notion (or conspiracy theory) that the US government had knowingly left behind US GIs in Vietnam, and was covering up this dastardly deed. (See Rambo: First Blood Part II). And for many who believed this, McCain, a former POW, was an enemy, for he would not join their cause and—worse—he co-chaired with Sen. John Kerry a Senate investigation that essentially found that Rambo was wrong. Their probe, completed in 1993, concluded:

While the Committee has some evidence suggesting the possibility a POW may have survived to the present, and while some information remains yet to be investigated, there is, at this time, no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia.

This finding enraged the Ramboists within the POW/MIA community. In fact, John Holland, one of the founders of Rolling Thunder, fiercely opposed McCain's presidential bid in 2008. (Holland also denounced McCain for having collaborated with the enemy when McCain was a POW.)

With the passing years, the Rolling Thunder rally has become less about (nonexistent) POWs and more about itself and motorcycles. And there was Palin, turning the event into a platform for herself. She was mostly well received, it seemed, at this photo-op. But if she had brought her once-partner McCain along for the ride, the picture could have been rather different.

 

Early Life and "Education"

Sarah Palin began her shockingly easy ascent from second place in a beauty pageant to potential second-in-command of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal from her birth on February 11, 1964, a birthday she shares with Burt Reynolds, Jeb Bush, Sheryl Crow, and TV’s Moesha, who also had her share of run-ins with unplanned pregnancy.

Born Sarah Louise Heath in Sandpoint, Idaho, Palin grew up mostly in Wasilla, Alaska, a town that is also the origin of the porn actress April Flowers, star of such classics as Dead Men Don’t Wear Rubbers, Sodomania Slop Shots 9, and 100% Blowjobs 32, 26, 21, and, to a lesser extent, 18. As a student and basketball player at Wasilla High School, she earned the nickname “Sarah Barracuda,” presumably for her powerful jaws, bony web-like fins, and small smooth scales.

In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla Pageant, a feat that sounds a lot more impressive than it is unless you’ve ever met a girl from Wasilla, few of whom have either a full set of teeth or a vacant womb. She then finished runner up in the Miss Alaska pageant, a feat that sounds a lot more impressive than it is considering the state is nearly 75% male.

After attending Hawaii Pacific University for a semester—apparently it wasn’t enough of a party school for her—Palin transferred to North Idaho College and then University of Idaho.  In 1987, she received a BS in communications, with a minor in political science.  That’s right, a poli-sci minor.  VP candidate Joe Biden’s 30-plus-year career as U.S. senator pales in comparison, and anyone who says different is sexist.

Political "Career"

After a brief stint as a local sports reporter for KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Palin decided the next logical step was politics, winning two terms on the Wasilla city council.

In 1996, she ran as a Republican for the non-partisan position of mayor, highlighting such issues as abortion, gun control, and religion, each of prime importance for a town that, at the time, consisted of fewer than 5,000 people who mostly crapped in outhouses.  Palin won. (Wasilla also boasts a 1:6 citizen-to-church ratio.)

As mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin went to work immediately fighting big government by cutting funding to the city museum and shaking up the “Alaska old boy network” by firing the town librarian (who was, in fact, an old woman). Re-elected in 1999, Palin shook up the old boy network even further by working with Ted Stevens’ chief of staff to obtain tens of millions of dollars in federal earmarks. Term limits may have prevented her running a third time, but they didn’t stop her from totally running over her step-mother-in-law in the 2002 Wasilla mayoral election by endorsing her opponent. The opponent won.

Palin made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2002, spewed further offspring, and was then appointed by arctic dick Governor Frank Murkowski to chair the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She repaid Murkowski by unseating him less than three years later in the Republican gubernatorial primary, running on a clean-government platform, opposed to earmarks—like the ones she garnered for Wasilla—and political nepotism—like her appointment to the Oil and Gas Commission.

Endorsed by Ted Stevens, the consummate Alaskan old boy, Palin was elected the first female governor of Alaska, “The Last Frontier.” She was also the youngest governor in state history, as well as the first governor not to be inaugurated in Juneau, the state’s charming little capital, and a city she has spent her entire 20-months in office dismantling by spitefully and systematically moving the state government—by far Juneau’s largest employer—to Wasilla. Incidentally, Juneau is the only blue part of an otherwise very red state.

In her less than two-years as governor, Sarah Palin has yet to engender the type of scorn voters usually heap upon a governor closer to the five-year mark. The important thing to remember about Alaska is that nothing really goes on there, aside from melting permafrost and lots of drinking… paid for in part by the $1200 checks Palin ordered cut to every Alaskan resident. No wonder she boasts the highest approval rating of any governor in the country.

In 2006, after initially supporting it, Sarah Palin ordered work stoppage on Ketchikan’s Gravina Island Bridge, better known as the "Bridge to Nowhere." Interestingly enough, that particular bridge to nowhere—the state has two—actually was to somewhere, namely Ketchikan International Airport. Palin did not stop construction on the road to the Bridge to Nowhere, which, when you think about it, is kind of an even bigger waste of money.

Perhaps Palin’s greatest achievement as governor was firing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan in retaliation for refusing to fire an Alaska State Trooper, who also happens to be her ex-brother-in-law. (Pay attention now, and try to stick with us.) She had originally wanted to fire this trooper in retaliation for a child custody battle he happened to be having with her sister. The scandal has become known as "Troopergate," which, despite not really being all that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, will most likely stick around in the news simply because everyone loves a “gate.”

2008 Vice-Presidential "Campaign"

On August 29, 2008, Republican presidential candidate John McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin’s selection surprised many people, especially because most speculation had centered on Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Tom Ridge, and Joe Lieberman, none of whom have any sex appeal at all. Especially Joe Lieberman.

Reaction to Palin’s nomination was mixed, just the way you’d expect it to be: conservatives were psyched, liberals outraged, and the news networks excited to have something else to talk about after Hurricane Gustav turned out to be a big bust.

Most discussion centered around Palin’s relative deficit of experience, or surfeit of experience, depending on who you ask. Regardless, Palin demonstrated her ability to read a speech someone else had written for her off a teleprompter, and when push comes to shove, that’s really all she needed to be able to do.

Political "Positions"

Sarah Palin’s political views are totally cribbed from the "Focus on the Family" website.  Pro-life, unless you’re talking about the life of a criminal; limited government involvement in people’s lives, unless those people have a uterus or are gay and want to get married; and guns for whoever wants them, as many as they like, unless they look Islamic, in which case they should be detained indefinitely, preferably naked and arranged in a human pyramid.

"Personal" Life

Sarah Palin describes herself as a “hockey mom,” even though only one of her five kids ever played hockey… a long time ago. Her unmarried 17-year-old daughter was impregnated by a hockey player, but that hardly counts.

Palin married her high school boyfriend Todd—a very common dick name—in 1988 when she was 24, and, if you do the math, also knocked-up.  The couple has five children: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig.  Should she birth any further issue—and she very well might—it is entirely possible she will name it Trix Rabbit Palin.

Two days after she was named as McCain’s running mate, Palin announced that her daughter Bristol was five months pregnant, would keep the baby, and marry the teenage father.  After several days of being chewed over by the media, both campaigns decided to make family off-limits.  Off-limits, that is, until she decided to "mysteriously" leak a story that Malia Obama is pregnant, too.  A very attrocious lie.

Post-campaign "Rest"

While it's hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong with John McCain's campaign, most observers would argue the wheels started to come off when his Vice-Presidential candidate's winking became a substantive campaign strategy.

In the months following the election, Palin returned to playing governor in Alaska while everyone began learning exactly how much of a screw-up candidate she'd actually been. At one point in the campaign, Palin apparently went on an incredible shopping spree the likes of which had not been seen since the Big Lots in Wasilla had a liquidation.

During one campaign strategy session at a hotel, she greeted senior officials dressed in a towel, which while perhaps acceptable for a militia fundraising calendar around the holidays, is considered rude and discourteous in many professional circles.

Though most Americans agreed that Palin was unfit for the Presidency, there are still enough salivating, sexually-repressed Republican men out there who can't get enough of her use of the word "drill." Experts point out that this strategy for selecting a candidate is not historically successful, which explains the dearth of county commission seats filled by former Scores dancers.

This led Palin to found SarahPAC, a political action committee geared toward energy independence, financing her probable future campaigns, and bribing her children's baby-daddies.

In a 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference poll, Palin came in third for "who conservatives would be most likely to support for president in 2012" appropriately tying Ron Paul, the only other candidate on the ballot whose supporters are super into shooting things.

Palin also wrote a book released in fall 2009.

If there was any doubt that Palin would eventually be running for President, it was dispelled in mid-2009 during her public "feud" with talk show host David Letterman after some remarks he made about her family. In response to Letterman's supposed tasteless exploitation of her daughter for his own benefit, Palin appeared on nearly every network to tastelessly exploit her daughter for her own benefit.

Pit Bull

During her VP nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin displayed what some might call a sense of humor by asking, "What’s the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom?" Her answer: lipstick. There are at least four funnier punch lines than that. They are as follows:

"You can’t keep a hockey mom chained to a post in your backyard with a bowl of water all day."

"Hockey moms are still legal in some states."

"Michael Vick."

"Pit bulls don’t drive mini-vans. Or wear panty-liners."

Also, here’s another Sarah Palin riddle for you that we came up with: - How can you tell if Sarah Palin is cheating on you with another guy? - Earmarks.

Come on, that’s not bad.

During the Health Care debates right-wing groups begain pushing the myth that health care reform would  somehow kill seniors. One of the most high profile voices pushing this lie was Sarah Palin, who claimed President Obama will institute bureaucratic “death panels.” On her Facebook page, she continued the attack. Though some Republicans have rebuffed this absurd, inaccurate notion — like Johnny Isakson (R-GA), who called such talk “nuts” — others, like Newt Gingrich, have piled on to agree with Palin.

The Worst Vice Presidential Nominee in U.S. History

There was a TV ad for deodorant that said, "Never let them see you sweat." John McCain has shown the world that he was drenched.

In our opinion selecting Sarah Palin as his choice for a vice presidential candidate is perhaps the worst such choice in American History. To be fair, maybe there are worse choices, but I don't know how bad William O. Butler was when he ran with Lewis Cass against Zachary Taylor.

But it's far worse than Dan Quayle, who was a sitting senator. Worse even than Geraldine Ferraro, who at least served in Congress for three-terms. And far worse than William Miller, a choice so obscure when selected by Barry Goldwater that he (honestly) later did an American Express commercial asking, "Do you know me?" And that ad was after the election. But even Miller had been a Congressman for 12 years. And been a prosecutor during the Nuremberg War trials against Nazis. Sarah Palin lists her credits as a hockey mom.

There was a point during the Republican primaries when I was trying to figure out who I hoped got the presidential nomination. Someone so weak he'd be easy for the Democrats to beat, or someone more challenging who at least wouldn't be a disaster for America. I decided on the latter because America has to resolve its serious problems and can't afford risking some glitch where another George Bush got elected. And so I felt that John McCain, for all his weaknesses, was the lesser of all evils and was glad he got the nomination. Throw that out the window. McCain-Palin is an unthinkable disaster.

I completely understand the reasoning behind the decision for John McCain to select Sarah Palin. Absolutely. It's the thinking that settled on Sarah Palin that's missing.

No doubt John McCain will get some women to vote for him who wouldn't have otherwise, and even some independents. But he will also probably lose as many Republicans uncomfortable with a woman on the ticket - let alone a woman with so little experience as Sarah Palin. Not to mention that the choice will cause many undecided Democratic women to be aghast and push them back to following their Democratic beliefs. And further, it will lose all the independents who look at the GOP ticket and say "This is who I'm supposed to give my vote for the next four years to lead and protect America??" It may even appeal to right-wing evangelicals for her strong pro-life stance and get some to vote - but that position and others related to it are specifically what loses even more women voters. And men. Ultimately, the nomination will lose far, far more votes than it gains.

But this is not the reason the decision is so terrible.

It's always said that the most important decision a presidential candidate makes is their pick for vice president. It shows their thinking and judgment. John McCain, in his first decision, has just told the world that he believes Sarah Palin is the most qualified person to be a heartbeat from the presidency. Forgetting all the available men for a moment, if John McCain felt it critical to select a woman in an effort to somehow grab the Hillary Clinton supporters, look at his choice of women he had available: Christine Todd Whitman, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Elizabeth Dole, Susan Collins, even - for goodness sake - Condoleezza Rice. Or Carly Fiorina. Each of these have marks against them, and perhaps some might not have wanted to run, but it's near-impossible to look at the list and suggest to the American public that Sarah Palin is the best choice of Republican women to be vice president. And again, this is ignoring the men he who could have been chosen.

It's not that Sarah Palin is inexperienced. It's that this is gross political misconduct.

Sarah Palin has been governor of Alaska for just a bit over 18 months. Alaska has a population of 683,000. (Though that doesn't include moose.) This would only make it the 17th most populous city in the United States. Just ahead of Fort Worth.

Before that, she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Population 9,000. I know Republicans like to promote "small town values," but this is taking things to ridiculous extremes, don't you think? I'm from Glencoe, Illinois, population 8,762. It's so small it doesn't even have a mayor, it has an appointed village manager. I'm sure that Paul Harlow is doing wonderfully at his job in the village - but I don't expect that he sees himself as even wanting to be a heartbeat from the U.S. President in 18 months. You know what the top news story is on the Glencoe website? "Fire Hydrant Painting Underway." (To be fair, it's the #2 story. The top news is a clarification about displaying political signage.)

Do you know what the first two "powers and duties" are for the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska? Check their municipal code:

1. Preside at council meetings. The mayor may take part in the discussion of matters before the council, but may not vote, except that the mayor may vote in the case of a tie;

2. Act as ceremonial head of the city;

Swell.

If you live in small town America (and I mean really, really small), look around you and be honest - do you see your mayor (or village manager) as a heartbeat from the presidency in 18 months?

But that's not the reason either that the decision to make Sarah Palin the VP nominee is so terrible.

It's one thing to discuss how unqualified Sarah Palin is. That's a national matter and huge. But on a grassroots political level, her nomination takes away the Republicans' ONLY weapon in the campaign - calling Barack Obama inexperienced. They haven't even been trying to run on the issues, or on the eight-year record of George Bush, which John McCain has supported almost 95% of the time. They've only been running on the faux-issue of Barack Obama's experience of 14 years in federal and state government. Yes, Sarah Palin is merely running for VP, not president, but with a 72 year-old candidate with a history of serious medical issues, this is who they're saying is able to step in as president in a heart-beat. She has so little experience that she makes Sen. Obama look like FDR, Winston Churchill and Julius Caesar combined. So, the Republicans pulled the rug out from under themselves. They have no issues. The economy? Housing? The national debt? Education? The Environment? Iraq? Afghanistan? Nothing. All they have is "Dear Democratic women: please pretend our VP candidate is Hillary Clinton. Just forget that she's pro-life. And against most things Democrats stand for."

But that's not the reason the decision is so terrible.

Because if the hope for John McCain is to get women to vote for him who otherwise supported Hillary Clinton - if anything could get Hillary Clinton campaigning in full force and fury...this is it. She likely would have campaigned hard, but it's in Hillary Clinton's best interest to be the leading voice for women, and the leading woman candidate for president in the future, so having another woman as the potential Vice President (and potential President) is a significant challenge to that. The Republicans just opened Pandora's Box and brought Hillary Clinton roaring to Barack Obama's side on the Democratic train. And Bill Clinton, too.

Yet even that's not the reason the decision is so terrible.

What this does in the most profound and grandiose way possible is give lie to John McCain's pompous posturing that he Always Puts America First. And that undercuts the most prominent campaign issue of his entire career, that everything he does is for reasons of honor. There is nothing honorable about making Sarah Palin your vice presidential nominee. Nothing. Unless you define honor as "blatantly pandering."

But that's not the reason either that this decision is so terrible.

But before we get to that, let's look at the actual announcement to make Gov. Sarah Palin (AK - pop. 683,000) the Republican nominee for president, and put the horrible decision in perspective.

First, John McCain stood at the podium, looking up-and-down reading his speech. It's impossible not to compare that to Barack Obama giving his majestic speech the night before that even conservative analysts were admiring in awe.

Second, the cameras were polite enough to avoid it, but there were empty seats in the gym. It's impossible not to compare that to a stadium of 75,000 people that Barack Obama spoke to the night before.

Third, when people around the nation were waiting to hear about Sarah Palin's qualifications and gravitas to be Vice President of the United States, the first five minutes of her speech were spent talking about her husband being a champion snowmobiler.

Fourth, when she finally got around to her qualifications, pretty much all we discovered was that she fought to cut property taxes. And then, she basically stopped there.

She did, however, mention becoming energy self-sufficient - by talking about how she supported drilling in Alaska!!! Perhaps to Republicans this is being an environmentalist, but to most of America, not so much. Then again, she's also against putting polar bears on the endangered species list (which the government did), so maybe her environmental qualifications are more lax than she thinks.

And then, finally, she spent the rest of her time praising John McCain. Fine, that's very supportive of her...except that the one question on everyone's mind was not -- "can you say John McCain is a swell guy and tell us that he was a POW", the question on everyone's mind was - "Who in God's name are you, and please tell us why you should be a heart-beat from the presidency?"

In the end, the only case she herself made for being on the ticket was praising Hillary Clinton! That's it, period. Now, it might be enough to attract some women -- but it doesn't make a case for the ticket. Why? Hint: some women did vote for Hillary Clinton solely because she was a woman. But most women voted for Hillary Clinton because she was a Democrat, as well as a woman, who stood for important Democratic values they seriously believed in. If Sarah Palin wants to praise Hillary Clinton, go for it. But at least understand what you're praising. Because it will likely come back and bite you.

It was a thin, nothing, empty speech. It was a speech to be head of the Chamber of Commerce. Compare that to the speech by Joe Biden when Barack Obama introduced him. Eloquent, soaring and explaining in blunt detail why John McCain should not be president. Joe Biden must have been watching Sarah Palin's speech, in order to take notes in preparation for his debate with her and thought, "This isn't fair."

And all that's not even the reason the decision is so terrible.

The reason is because the election is not about Sarah Palin. Or about Joe Biden. As much as TV analysts want to be excited by the balloons and hoopla, tomorrow the air will be let out, and there are still over two months to go for the campaign.

The campaign is about Barack Obama and John McCain.

Sarah Palin's nomination doesn't change that. In fact, it reinforces it. Nothing about putting Sarah Palin on the GOP ticket changes a word that Barack Obama said in his vibrant acceptance speech - about himself, about his issues, and about John McCain's repeatedly faulty judgment on the critical issues facing America.

What Sarah Palin's nomination does do is focus attention on John McCain's age. Indeed, the nomination was made on his birthday, when he turned 72, the oldest man ever to run for president. As the crowd sang "Happy Birthday to You," you almost sensed that through John McCain's clenched smile, saying, "Thanks for reminding me," that what he was thinking underneath was "Please, oh, please, don't sing the 'How old are you now?' part." And how good a message was it that he's saying he supposedly forgot it was his birthday?

Vice presidents are usually selected as people who are adept at blasting the other side's presidential candidate, because it's only the presidential candidate that matters. Joe Biden has already done that - twice - at length, spoken as someone who knows John McCain well and likes him. Sarah Palin had her first chance...and whiffed. Didn't even try. And it's hard to imagine what she has in her arsenal that will remotely allow her to do so in the future.

The election is about the presidential candidates. And the selection of Sarah Palin now allows Barack Obama to campaign untouched by the Republican ticket. John McCain's only other option is for himself to personally become negative for two months - which is disaster in presidential politics.

Now add on all the problems expressed above. Sarah Palin's inexplicably laughable lack of substance, most-especially on the foreign policy stage. Her taking away the one issue, experience, Republicans were even attempting. Her pushing away voters who might otherwise be willing to vote for a senator with 26 years in the Senate. Her bringing Hillary Clinton aggressively back into the campaign. Her inability to offer anything to off-set Joe Biden. Her standing as supposedly the most-qualified Republican woman as John McCain's first decision.

And, in the end, it all focuses back on Barack Obama, with his indictment of eight years of the Bush Administration and of John McCain's flawed judgment - and John McCain's defense of all that.

Republicans might be dancing, because there was a lot of fun music playing. But the music has stopped. For Republicans, it ended.  Flash! 

SEE SARAH PALINS BABY GATE SCANDAL

SARAH PALIN: TROOPER GATE SCANDAL

SARAH PALIN: FIRST TEN LIES

SARAH PALIN: MORE LIES

SARAH PALIN BABYGATE

SARAH PALIN EARMARKS

SARAH PALIN: PATRIOT OR TRAITOR?

---

Below are all the Gates so far. They link to posts on the subject.

Troopergate
Prisongate
Legal Fund
Ethics
Religiongate
Expenses
Housegate
Wasilla
Dairygate
Pebble mine
Wildlife
Environment
Lawsuits
Babygate
Alaska Natives
Civil rights
Race
Government
Big oil
Alaska Independence Party
Indifference
Special needs
Education
Cronies
Victims
Family

Some posts overlap, but the list should help you navigate through the issues.
 

---

Photos
 

---

Documents and Sound Files from early 2008:

Children's Travel Authorizations

Sarah Palin's Official Schedule Folder with Various Documents for Download

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO SARAH
PALIN TALKING ABOUT THE WILD RIDE
ON APRIL 22, 2008:

---

Useful Links

ACLU
FBI
DOJ
AU
IRS

---

Resources if contacting the above:

Talking Points 1
Talking Points 2
 

Back to the Home Page.