Palin’s Failin’

 A Dangerous and Insincere Choice by McCain

The evidence has begun to accumulate regarding the fitness of Governor Sarah Palin for the second highest office in the nation, and the news isn’t good.

The latest gaffe from the Republican vice-presidential nominee was a stunning expose of her complete ignorance about energy issues.  This video from YouTube shows a flustered Palin giving a completely incoherent response to a friendly audience member regarding energy policy.  Nothing in her statement makes any sense whatsoever, but the candidate presses forward using fifty-cent words in a vain attempt to camouflage her gross ineptitude regarding the topic.  Even Senator John McCain looks concerned about her ardent but utter idiocy in the clip.

From the start, there was reason to believe that Palin was nothing more than empty window dressing chosen solely for her gender-based capacity to lure alienated Hillary voters.  This is more than just insincere pandering to women; it’s an insulting comparison to Hillary.  Further, it’s a clear indication of McCain’s decision-making capacity and his disrespect for the office of the vice-presidency.

Any former Hillary supporter who would vote for this ticket based on Palin’s presence is effectively slapping Hillary in the face and threatening the legitimate advance of women in both the political and business arenas.  Hillary is an enormously intelligent, capable and talented individual who had, and will likely have again, a genuine claim to high office.  Pailin does not, and there are now many reasons to come to that conclusion.   

Energy is going to be the pressing national security concern of this country during the next eight years and beyond.  Both presidential candidates have acknowledged this fact. 

Palin not only overstates her state’s contribution to the nation’s energy supply, she seems to believe based on her statements in the clip that coal and oil are somewhat interchangeable (the kindest interpretation of her blathering), that Congress can dictate world oil trade, something about fossil fuel molecules that I can’t even venture a guess about and Alaskan oil will solve America’s energy demands.  None of the above is even close to being correct. 

She has no expertise on energy issues no matter what McCain might claim.  The fact that oil comes from her state doesn’t inherently make one an energy expert.  The energy field, by the way, includes many types of energy sources other than oil that don’t come from Alaska.  Perhaps it’s Republican blindness to energy sources other than oil that’s the source of the confusion. 

Her refusal to cooperate with law enforcement investigating a charge of her alleged inappropriate use of power was covered in an earlier post.  Palin indicated her complete lack of confidence in the judicial system and seems to be claiming executive privilege before she actually has it.  When a candidate for the vice-presidency believes justice can be hijacked by politics, she’s probably right, and that doesn’t bode well for any American.

McCain and Republicans have repeatedly tried to pad her nonexistent foreign policy experience by saying her state of Alaska is America’s closest territory to Russia.  This doesn’t even qualify as a specious claim, because it doesn’t remotely sound like it makes any sense at all.  By that reasoning, a New Jersey resident like myself is a qualified oceanographer because I can see the ocean.  On the bright side, getting a really good gig within a McCain administration should be a cinch.  I call dibs on secretary of state, because I come from a state. 

Her comments about Russia and the entry of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO during her interview with Charles Gibson on ABC were potentially inflammatory and reckless.  A person in the position she’s pursuing has to be able to respond to a reporter’s questions without giving the impression the United States might be headed to war with a nuclear-armed world power as a matter of policy.  Is this the seasoned foreign policy expertise she gleaned from ogling Russia from across the Bering Strait?  God help us all if it is. A quote like that can set off an international incident if she ever gets into power.

Her main political experience is being mayor of a town of 9,000 people.  In New Jersey terms, this is the equivalent of being the president of a housing development.  For New Yorkers, she had as much power as a building superintendent of a relatively small skyscraper.  How that experience level equates to being president of the United States Senate with such formidable politicians such as Kennedy, Hatch, Clinton and Brownback is unfathomable. 

Her husband’s employment in the oil industry and her clear loyalty to Alaskan oil interests is also most disturbing for a country that must find alternatives to oil.  While the Republican Party talks about alternative energy in their commercials, their public comments are always focused on oil.  There is no reason to expect any progress in alternative energy solutions when the candidate’s focus is always first and foremost on oil.

Palin doesn’t believe the polar bear is an endangered species, which is odd, because the polar bear lives in Alaska.  If she’s an energy expert because oil comes from her state, but is clearly quite uninformed about the plight of a species in the same region, might the latter tell us something about her expertise in the former?  I fear it does indeed.

In an unrelated matter, I’ve decided to move to Seattle.  From my apartment’s vantage point overlooking the breathtaking Pacific Northwest and Microsoft headquarters, I should be able to replace Bill Gates in a couple years.  You’ll wish you were nicer to me then.

P.S. Anyone still wondering how Michael Brown was the FEMA Director during the Hurricane Katrina disaster need look no further.  Mystery solved.