Alaska governor Sarah Palin gave a land-mark address to the Republican National Convention tonight as the first ever female republican vice-presidential nominee. You may remember that there was once a female democratic VP nominee, Geraldine Ferraro, attached to the dismal failure that was the 1984 Walter Mondale ticket. As a woman I am at least a little pleased to see another woman who’s made it onto a national ticket. But that is as far as my loyalty to my gender goes. I did not support Hillary for president based on her gender either; I’m interested in the issues.
For me, it is a simple litmus test, and Palin doesn’t pass. I am a fiscal moderate, maybe even a fiscal conservative, but I am a staunch social liberal, and I vote on social issues. I will never vote for any candidate who is not pro-choice, and who does not support gay-marriage.
And Palin is more extreme than most: she even opposes abortion in the case of rape or incest, which are acceptable exceptions for most anti-abortionists. Her extremely right-wing stance on sex-ed, creationism, censorship, and global climate change are shocking. Read more at thinkprogress.org.
Moreover, her record as a “maverick,” which appears to have been a major selling point in her selection for VP, doesn’t hold up well to further scrutiny. On All Things Considered yesterday Elizabeth Arnold reports on her 20 months as governor of Alaska.
Never-the-less, you have to hand it to her: she delivered a knock out speech. Expectations were incredibly high given the continuous dribble of embarrassing revelations about her personal life, and she delivered. With sharp, dry wit and a comedic timing strangely reminiscent of Tiny Fey she delivered jab after jab at democratic her rivals Obama and Biden. Applause answered her as she slyly remarked that “this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state Senate.”
Peels of laughter rang out through the hall as she asked:
“But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot — what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger ... take more of your money ... give you more orders from Washington ... and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world.” (Official Transcipt )
Commentators on ABC called her “one tough cookie” as she left the stage, and they were right. If Obama wasn’t already regretting passing over Hillary Clinton as his VP/attack dog, he surely is regretting it now.
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3 comments:
I've been discussing that question with friends lately: Did Obama make a huge mistake in passing over Hillary? My husband says yes, but others say that their personalities were too at odds and having Bill involved in the campaign would have been more a liability than an asset. But couldn't Obama have found a different woman?
Interesting--Palin gave a great speech but she has not yet given one single interview. How long can that go on?
Well I personally distrust her and wouldn't have wanted either of them near the white house. I wouldn't put it past her to have him poisoned and take his place, although I know that's entirely baseless. Still, it may have been quite a blunder... or rather, a failure of foresight. I wish he had chosen Bill Richardson, personally, because that is who I supported originally.
I also thought Richardson would have been a great choice for bringing in the Hispanic vote. He would have signaled change more loudly than Biden. He was on my short list.
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