No, this is not a regular feature here. This is one of those random off-topic posts. I don’t expect many of you to agree with me here, though if you take a moment to read my arguments and understand why I would never support Sarah Palin in any position, maybe you would agree too. I am not a democrat or republican, but am registered independent. I voted for Barack Obama because he was, to me, the better candidate (he seemed to be the only one who actually had any idea what non-rich Americans were going through). I expect some of you reading this are conservatives, and that is fine. Just hear me out.
In a short discussion with a friend at the University of Florida the other day, I brought up that I did not like Sarah Palin. Initially my reasons were that I considered her to be remarkably stupid (and she did a fine job making that case for me in the debates, and elsewhere), but my friend disagreed. She said that Sarah Palin was going through a lot and that she was simply folding under pressure. Why? Because Palin had, apparently, sent her son off to Iraq just prior to heading out to do all those interviews that made her look pretty much unprepared for the position she had been nominated to run for. My rebuttal to this ended the conversation because of a fundamental disagreement between us, but it is this rebuttal that I want to display here.
I do not care whether or not Sarah Palin sent her son off to Iraq prior to running as vice president. Why? Because if she cannot handle that kind of pressure, how the hell does she expect me or America to believe she can handle the pressure of the oval office? What if she had been President? Would we simply give her an out because she was having a hard time in her personal life? No. And why? Because the people who run this country do not have the luxury of allowing their personal lives to affect the way they function as politicians. We have that luxury (we being non-politicians, all the various collars of workers, etc.), and as such, we expect those who make sure the gears keep turning to have the moral, physical, and psychological fortitude to do their jobs (with exception, perhaps, to unexpected serious illness, like a heart attack). If Sarah Palin were President and sent her son off to Iraq, it would not be acceptable for her to act un-according to her position; we would expect her to do the same job she should have been doing before, keeping us safe, enacting policy, etc. A lapse in that, particularly in a time of war or during a crisis, is simply unacceptable. From individuals outside of that position, perhaps it is acceptable. I do no begrudge average mothers being terrified about their sons; I do not find anything wrong with grieving or displaying any sort of emotion. I do, however, have an issue with someone in a sensitive position performing excessively poorly and other people telling me that I have to give them a break. No. If you have your finger on the big red button, I will not give you a break for pushing it in a fit of emotion, nor in any other instance in which other people might be harmed by an inability to do one’s job as President, Senator, or whatever other political position there might be. We expect more of our politicians, or we should.
So, Sarah Palin’s send off of her son, assuming that’s true, is not an excuse for poor quality of action. It’s not. If that is her reason, I don’t care. She had a job to do, and she failed to do it adequately. She lost as a result and was labeled by her actions. And this is not even talking about her pre-mature resignation from the position of Alaska’s Governor, an entirely new issue that demonstrates, to me, why she is not fit for office. Why anyone would look at her and think she deserves a slot in the oval office is beyond me. She quit Alaska. She wasn’t impeached, the position wasn’t terminated without her knowledge (and that would be silly, since Alaska needs a governor), or any other reason. She quit. Just imagine to yourself, if you will, what it would be like if she quit as President. What then? Exactly.
And that is all I have to say about that. Again, this will not be regular here. This blog is about science fiction, fantasy, writing, and things related to that; it is not about politics unless it is directly relevant to the previously mentioned categories. But every so often I have to speak my mind.
Feel free to leave angry messages in the comments. Or argue with me, if you like.
11 Responses
She's not worthy for public office. Privately she may be a very nice lady. I have no idea. But she is not fit for any public service job.
Stace: Any particular reasons for you?
…and Palin is ALWAYS having problems in her personal life. It is a soap opera, and who needs THAT.
A dark cloud seems to follow her, the blame game continues and I am sick of IT and her.
Deo: Exactly. If she can't do her job, then she's not fit. That's all there is to it. Politicians have to make tough decisions every day…
Palin doesn't WANT a job in public service anyway.
Lipstick lines, books, paid speeches, this is what she wants…there was a fork in the road and she took the one marked Ka-CHING.
She keeps up the political pretense to continue to pillage her SARAHPAC account for travel & legal. Her pod people haven't put it together that she CANNOT run for dogcatcher. Her opponant will only have to MENTION that she QUIT her governship of Guam. Period, end of story. Jeez, Teddy Kennedy didn't QUIT, people were screaming MURDERER and he still quietly went to work each day and passed laws that matter.
FACEBOOK isn't a political podium and Palin holds no public office. She ought to send the evil liberal media a collective fruit basket and thank card for even giving a rat's patooty about her twitty twitterings.
It would have made a great ticket…Sarah palin for president and Tonya Harding as Vice president, but it ain't gonna happen. You'd have to be a loon to think it will.
Having an argument about Pallin is absurd. It's not something that's arguable in any reason-based, logical way. She did what she did, her actions went against everything acceptable in politicians to date. The end.
The fact that anyone argues for her smacks as simply a side-effect to having a party system that despise the other. Voting and political beliefs should never be about parties, or party lines, or good/evil, black/white dichotomous labels. We do that, and we defend shit like Pallin, simply because she's on "our team/side/whatever".
Reminds me of that story Gore used to tell, about the Republican he spoke with and who admitted that he disagreed with every single Republican policy currently in effect…but that he would of course still vote Republican. And while Pallin and that anecdote targets the Conservatives, I'm not saying the Democrats/liberals are sinless in this, either. However, conservatives do tend to delineate and stress the two-party war more often than anyone else. Plainly because, for the past 20 or so years, so many of their political goals simply don't jibe with anyone but themselves. Stress an enemy, however, and people will overlook a lot of obvious b.s. so that they can feel protected from those crazy "others" who would change everything and take away our way of life. You know, the way of life we constantly seek to better. But for god's sake don't CHANGE it….
DEO: Oh, no, I don't think you'd be a loon to think she might actually try. But we did elect George W. Bush…twice. I don't put it past the American people to make a stupid decision.
Dave: Yup.
Palin is a symbol of what is wrong with our country. She put her troubled daughter up as a shining example for teen pregnancy after all. I believe that she will try to run for office. She is an idiot with pie in the sky attitude. I really think that if she has anything to do with the USA she will make our credibility suffer and we will fail as a country. A rumor I heard is her daughter is pregnant again! I am rumormongering I know that is bad but she is a very bad person to be in any role that holds any power over people. I see bumper stickers with her name on it quite often at the Veteran's hospital that I go to. So the ability for her to get elected is not as far fetched as many imagine. Obama was voted in, but after Bush messed up very badly, he is having to clean up messes and no one is liking him very much now. That is a sad state. Looking towards someone as vacant as Palin is one of the worst mistakes we can make.
Jodi: Yeah, I feel the same.
Neither is Obama, but a bunch of idiots still voted him into office. This country is going down hill.
Anonymous: Technically Obama is fit for office. You just don't agree with his policies. Big difference. It's one thing to disagree with the policies; it's another to be incompetent to the point of being completely unfit for one of the most important political positions in the world.