Sarah Palin has many things going for her. She is attractive, has a decent family, and is ambitious. She also had to be able to influence and develop personable skills any good politician needs to get to the next level. After all she went from local town politician to governor of Alaska.
The problem with Sarah is what is wrong with a majority of Americans. She doesn’t have any good knowledge of things a Vice President of a country needs to have to be qualified for the job.
It is pretty sad when someone like me, who is extremely interested in politics, knows more than the chosen candidate for such a prestigious job as Vice President of the United States.
You know the job held by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, founders of this country, Teddy Roosevelt who built the Panama Canal and created the National Park system, and Lyndon B. Johnson, who improved civil rights for minorities and helped the poor.
Palin is like most Americans who have no clue what goes on outside our borders and knows little of important history like Supreme Court cases.
I don’t think she’s stupid or uneducated only that she is ignorant of the stuff a high elected official ought to know before they get the job.
The proof is she doesn’t have pat concrete answers to basic questions like what newspaper or books she reads. She also couldn’t name another Supreme Court decision she disagreed with besides Roe v Wade. Knowing her evangelical religious background one would think she could instantly name Abington Township School District v. Schempp (1963) which ended state sanctioned school prayer.
Then when her ignorance is saved on video tape and in print she excuses it as an attack on her by the “elite liberal media”.
Right. Showing your ignorance is their fault. Yep that is also an average American response – “It’s not my fault its their’s.”
Bob Cesca wrote in his article on The Huffington Post:
The presidency, as we’ve learned the hard way, matters. An incompetent chief executive, no matter how he or she has been packaged, tends to breed disaster. There was a time when we could rest assured knowing that, even if the president wasn’t all there, he was surrounded by competent people who could grab the wheel if he blacked out. But those who are supporting the Republican ticket based on superficial appeal need to ask themselves: since when has the word “competent” been used to describe the current batch of operatives surrounding John McCain and Sarah Palin? These are the same handlers who camp up with the laughable “Alaska is right next to Russia” line. Put it another way, the man who first coined that line was Steve Doocy.
In the real world — a world in which America needs serious people making our most serious decisions — Alaska’s proximity to Russia has less to do with national security experience than a ’78 Nova without its back windshield has to do with a truck. It’s just not. Likewise, Joe Six-pack, while qualified for many decent jobs (governor of Alaska, too, I guess), is simply not qualified for our highest national office. Sorry, Joe! And sorry, Sarah. You’re just not up for this, regardless of what you’ve tricked yourself into believing.
Just as I don’t want Joe Six-pack doing brain surgery, I don’t want Sarah Six-pack one heartbeat from the Presidency.
Why is it, in any other profession, experience is seen as a positive- people are paid more, more highly sought after, and become the leaders in their particular area? Yet, in politics, and, it seems, specifically in national politics, being experienced makes you an "insider", a "career politician" or "out-of-touch"? I'm not saying these things aren't true of some politicians at every level. I'm just concerned with the idea that ignorance of your position equates fellowship with the "average citizen". I've seen the average citizen, would consider myself pretty close to the average citizen, and would not want myself or the vast majority of the people around me as President. Granted, I would have the ignorance of the role of the Presidency thing down, but, as Groucho Marx once said, "I would never want to be the member of a club that would have me for a member". It just amazes me that one of the things voters seem to believe qualifies a person for national office is ignorance- not stupidity, but just a lack of experience and understanding. I would expect this is the only job in the world where ignorance is not only prefered, but sought after- with the possible exception, apparently, of bank CEO.