Posted on 09/12/2008 1:30:58 PM PDT by missanne
This was supposed to be the year that a woman achieved the White House. Problem is, we've got the wrong woman. It was supposed to be the year for a woman of the caliber of Hillary Clinton, tested in the halls of learning, of law, in 12 years in the governor's mansion, in two terms as First Lady, in the policy trenches, in politics, in the media, in the Senate, in foreign affairs and in numerous presidential debates. She's been tested, tested and tested again.
I desperately wanted a woman for president, but not the untested former small-town mayor and beauty pageant princess, Sarah Palin, who got her first passport in 2007, has spent two years as Alaska's governor and was mayor of a town of 7, 025. As I watched Palin at the Republican National Convention describe that big old untraveled world out there as "dangerous," I was left with one feeling: fear. Oh my God, she sounds like a teenager. She's too politically immature, too unschooled, too lacking in depth. I wanted to give her an iPod, not the keys to the White House.
At a time when we need foreign affairs experience the most, we've got a woman who seems more like a neophyte beauty queen ready to answer what she would do about world peace than a serious candidate for vice president, or, God forbid, president if the 72-year-old McCain, who's had two bouts with cancer and almost six years of torture as a POW, dies in office.
There are so many other concerns about the barely vetted Palin that I hardly know where to start. Let's begin with her ethical problems and misrepresentation of herself as a reformer and outsider.
While she claims to have championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress, as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she hired a lobbyist to annually make the case in Washington to support earmarks to the town totaling $ 27 million. And in her two years as governor of Alaska she has requested nearly $ 750 million in special federal spending (the largest per-capita request in the nation ), according to The Associated Press. While she says she rejected plans for the so-called "bridge to nowhere," she did so only after the plan was ridiculed as such.
McCain's ridiculous claim that Palin has been in charge because she has primary responsibility for national security as commander of her state's National Guard misses the point that governors lose charge of their units to the Defense Department once those units are called to military service.
The "ever-so-thrifty"Palin is also relying upon $ 95, 000 in state taxpayer money to defend herself against attacks that she fired her public safety commissioner because he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced her sister. They're calling it "Troopergate. "And that governor's jet she put on eBay ? The state had to pull it off and sell it at a $ 600, 000 loss to a brokerage firm.
And let's look at her "family values"record and right-wing credentials. For me they don't come close to making up for her lack of foreign policy experience, but apparently they do for social conservatives who seem only to care that she's anti-abortion and pro-guns.
For this crowd, it matters little whether an asteroid is ready to strike the Earth. As long as Palin is an "avid hunter and fisher, " and even better," shoots machine guns," she passes muster for the chairman of the state highway commission from Siloam Springs and delegate to the Republican convention. In fact, as far as social conservatives are concerned, it doesn't matter if the war in Iraq becomes the war in Iran as long as Palin meets their family values criteria. For these folks, being smitten by Palin is apparently reason enough to vote for McCain for president, even though they don't like him.
The family-values crowd may be comforted by reports that Palin apparently follows the same messianic philosophy as George W. Bush, but that's what got us into trouble in the first place. She was online (her church has pulled the video ) telling ministry students at the Wasilla Assembly of God that the United States sent troops to fight in Iraq on a "task that is from God," according to The Associated Press. During an address last June, she urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $ 30 billion natural gas pipeline in Alaska because it was "God's will."
To such remarks as this, Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said," I miss the days when pastors delivered sermons and politicians delivered political speeches... The United States is increasingly diverse religiously. The job of a president is to unify all those different people and bring them together around policy goals, not to act as a kind of national pastor and bring people to God."
Palin's inexperience impales McCain's presidential aspirations. She needs to spend at least enough time outside this country to get college credit for a semester abroad before vying for such a high-stakes position. Bottom line is, just four in 10 Americans think she has enough experience to be president, according to a Sept. 4 ABC News poll.
I'll say one thing for McCain. He likes them significantly younger and beautiful (first wife Carol Shepp, famous swimwear model, whom he divorced for Junior Rodeo Queen of Arizona, Cindy Hensley, after Shepp underwent at least 12 surgeries following a car accident ). Now comes Palin, the potential future president of our country, former Princess of the Fur Rendezvous, Miss Wasilla and runner-up for Miss Alaska.
For the sake of the nation, let's pray fervently she's also the runner-up in this presidential contest. --30-- Barbara Warner is a former congressional press secretary and White House appointee at the U. S. Commerce Department. She lives in Siloam Springs and writes a monthly column for the Benton County Daily Record.
“Problem is, we’ve got the wrong woman.”
NO...
You have TH RIGHT WOMAN, and that is the problem for these lib media morons.
She came out of NOWHERE (to them, anyway), and she has upset the coronation of “THE ONE” that these same media libs have been building up.
Tested???
What the hell has hillary really ever done?
Road the coattails of a man and puts her name on legislation that others do the work on(obama needs to learn this trick)
I would argue Palin has more real decision making and leadership experience than hillary!
“Bottom line is, just four in 10 Americans think she has enough experience to be president, according to a Sept. 4 ABC News poll. “
Look at the polls lately?????
Hilarious. How much stock in being the first lady of arkansas and the first lady of POTUS 43. As if that counts for something. Then acts as if campaigning is significant experience. What a joke the Left has become.
This from a state that has been a haven for political crooks since its inception. That this dreary hag has it in for the exemplary Gov. Palin can be chalked up to jealousy and a bad case of PDS.
Ooops, 42
Sorry everyone!!! I forgot the BARF ALERT!!!
If McCain's candidacy is impaled with Sarah, it means that it is impaled on victory.
The more the MSM and DNC try to either smear, besmirch, or twist this good woman's words, the more people all over the country will be drawn to her.
It's because of something the left and the elite cannot understand and are blind to.
Sarah connects with everyday people. She was mother who wanted to make a difference in her community and joined the PTA and it went from there. She didn't need an ivy league degree in Political Science, she didn't need a law degree, she didnt need rich connections, she just needed honesty, integrity, her faith, and a desire to serve.
She didn't seek wealth, power, or high position...it just happened and that connects with most Americans of all stripes (outside of the leftists and elitists whom she threatens) who in their hearts want to try and help their communities and improve things for their kids.
Sounds more like Ms. Warner is more jealous than anything else. Someone should ask her, “What’s in your resume?”...............
What a bitter bitch!
What the???????? What state was Hillary! the governor of????? Two “terms” as First Lady???????? Barbara shouldn't be hittin the hookah before she writes these columns.
Liberals are hilarious.
It almost makes me embarrassed to be from the Ozarks.
But, there are a lot more of “us” than “them.”
"This twaddle was in our local paper"
I can't think of a better place for it. Most people in Fayetteville, AR probably hunt and fish. This columnist seems to be doing her best to help elect McCain/Palin.
Can ya believe that? This lib must have “forgotten” BC using the state troopers to get him “chicks”.
Good point!
Ask to write a rebuttal. Freepers will help you with research, but you can probably find everything you need right here on your own.
Why don't you & Hillary jet down to California? There, you & Hillary and Lindsay Lohan & ??? can have a double lesbian wedding.
Sold to Canada, at a profit.
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