Palin Derangement Syndrome

Guys, can I be honest with you? You’re being ridiculous. After spending months running defense against the McCain campaign’s central argument that Sen. Obama is too inexperienced to be President, just as McCain himself was planning to take that issue off the table, you’re attacking Gov. Sarah Palin for being too inexperienced — even though she has roughly the same level of experience as Sen. Obama. Now you’re opening up a new can of worms as Republicans counter that she has more executive experience. Think that doesn’t matter? Really? How many senators have been elected President in American history? Uh-huh. And how many governors? Right.

That’s not to mention that it might not be exactly prudent to suggest that their vice presidential candidate is too inexperienced when she’s got about the same level of experience as our presidential candidate. She’s running for number two. If McCain’s judgment is bad because he picked her, what does Obama’s judgment look like for running for President at all? Let’s get back to what we’ve been saying. This campaign isn’t about how many years you’ve been in Washington, and we’ve had some great Presidents who were considered too inexperienced. This campaign is about who can bring the right kind of change to Washington: Barack Obama and Joe Biden, or John McCain and Sarah Palin?

That’s the stupid. Now let’s get to the insane.

The “Palin is too inexperienced” meme is tame compared to the attacks by some bloggers-turned-National Enquirer. The Anchoress has two pretty good round-ups of these doozies — here and here — and yeah, we really do look that bad. Of course there’s the sexist attack that because she’s a wife and mother she shouldn’t be running for Vice President. Yeah, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, right? Then there’s the speculation that she may have been pregnant before she was married. Right, because there’s tons of evidence for that. And unwed mothers are evil, right? That’s definitely the position of the Democratic Party. Definitely. And then there are the attacks on her mothering abilities. Because that will surely help with the women’s vote.

What else? Oh, she was in a beauty pageant. She was a sportscaster. All of this somehow adds up to the idea that she’s an idiot, because of course sportscasters like Keith Olbermann are also idiots and of course there’s nothing sexist about depicting her as an airhead just because she has natural beauty and takes care of her body. Isn’t physical fitness supposed to be smart?

But believe it or not, there’s still some left. There’s the Troopergate non-scandal. This is the one where bloggers and pundits come down squarely on the side of a state trooper who was abusing Sarah Palin’s sister and most certainly shouldn’t have been wearing a badge. But I think the most imaginative one yet it the suggestion that Sarah Palin’s youngest child, Trig, is actually her daughter’s child and that her daughter was a victim of incest — and now Palin is covering it up by claiming Trig as her own. Evidence for this? None. Bloggers promoting this libel? Daily Kos and Andrew Sullivan, among others.

That’s not even all of it. You’d think we were worried or something!

My take on Sarah Palin is that she’s a decent lady and she’s done quite a bit to clean up Alaska’s politics. She’s not perfect, but then who is? I think the experience argument is ridiculous, I think the other “arguments,” if they can be called that, are disgusting and morally offensive. I think Sarah Palin is as good a running mate as any McCain could have picked and better than some.

But she shouldn’t be Vice President of the United States of America.

Why not? For the same reason that John McCain can’t be President. McCain and Palin won’t bring the change America needs to Washington. Yeah, she claims to be a fiscal conservative. But did you know that Sarah Palin left Wasilla, Alaska, millions of dollars in debt because of a stupid legacy-building decision? Just like Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, Sarah Palin can’t manage a budget. She can’t even manage a budget for a city with a population of less than 10,000. That’s the kind of fiscal responsibility Republicans have always offered and it’s what America will get under John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Not to mention that she’s probably the most extreme, ideological person McCain could have chosen. I’m pro-life, George W. Bush is pro-life, Dick Cheney is pro-life, John McCain is pro-life, and Sarah Palin is pro-life — but only one of us thinks that rape victims shouldn’t be able to have abortions. Guess which one? She also thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution even though one is religion and the other science. She supported an Alaskan constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages and civil unions. Will she prove more extreme than McCain and Cheney by supporting an amendment like that to the U.S. Constitution?

There’s a case to be made against Sarah Palin and it’s the same case we’ve been making against John McCain all along. McCain and Palin won’t bring the kind of change America needs to Washington. They’ll bring the same orthodox extremism we’ve been getting for eight years. That’s the case we should be making against her. The experience case makes our own candidate look bad and the disgusting sexist attacks make our whole party look bad. So far there’s no evidence that Palin has any potential to drag women away from the Democratic Party. Let’s not push them away by basically attacking Palin based on her gender.

Explore posts in the same categories: American Politics, Fiscal Responsibility, Social Issues

Tags: abortion, alaska, creationism, evolution, fiscal policy, gay marriage, john mccain, sarah palin, troopergate, vice president, wasilla

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