Hi to everybody...back from my hols now and came home to this news. I don't know whether anybody here is concerned with McCain's choice of running mate, but I am!! If he can't continue for any reason after winning the election, this is the woman who will be the most powerful person in the world...and, in my books, damned dangerous...you couldn't get anybody more right wing than this woman, and she's a creationist...poor Richard Dawkins must be having nightmares, alongside many of us, at the prospect that she may take over one day from McCain. Here's a good summary of her views...it leaves out whether or not she's an End Timer, but might well be...now I really am crossing everything McCain loses, even if I fear for Obama's survival if he wins...
McCain running mate too short on experience
Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, August 30, 2008
Republican John McCain's surprise pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate is hugely cunning, but risky.
The one-time beauty queen, who did a photo spread in December in Vogue, is a head turner. She'll grab voters' attention, which is the first order of business given the U.S. media's obsession with Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
After criticizing Obama's celebrity style, McCain has pocketed his own celeb. And the choice represents a few firsts, just as the Obama candidacy represents a breakthrough for blacks.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain looks on as his vice-presidential running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin speaks at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio Friday.View Larger Image View Larger Image
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain looks on as his vice-presidential running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin speaks at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio Friday.
Palin is the first woman to run as a vice-presidential candidate for the Republicans and the first Alaskan to run on a national ticket for president or vice-president.
Importantly, Palin has no discernible ties to the desperately unpopular Bush administration.
At 44, she'd be there to replace the aging president should he keel over. Heck, she's three years younger than Obama.
Palin also, quite obviously, is a woman -- presumably of potential appeal to all those Hillary Clinton adherents so disheartened when their candidate cruelly collided with a glass ceiling in the Democratic party tent.
But while they have gender in common, Palin likely wouldn't be permitted to join the ranks of Clinton's "sisterhood of pantsuits." She's the New York's senator ideological opposite.
The mother of five is anti-abortion and wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned.
She opposes same-sex marriage and supports the teaching of creationism alongside evolution. In high school, she headed the school Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
When Palin was a sprout, she'd wake up at 3 a.m. to go moose hunting with her school teacher dad. She's a lifelong member of the National Rifle Association and is dead against having polar bears listed as an endangered species. She favours drilling in the environmentally sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which even McCain opposes.
Her 18-year-old son, Track Palin, is to deploy to Iraq in 10 days.
Palin has a reputation as a libertarian, possessed of strong ethics. Since becoming governor in 2006, she has tried hard to clean up Alaska's sometimes shady political practices; one of her first acts was to sell off the gubernatorial airplane.
The Idaho-born Palin, who has lived in Alaska most of her life, is also considered highly knowledgeable about a major issue for Americans -- energy and gas prices.
She chairs the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, the largest interstate organization in the U.S., and is former chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
The only whiff of dirt on her is an unresolved investigation into whether Palin abused her power when she fired an Alaska state worker last month.
It's a complicated tale involving her former brother-in-law, but it's unlikely to besmirch Palin's national standing.
Arguably, her candidacy reflects a cunning political choice. That being said, Palin is a newcomer to the big leagues. Surely voters will have serious reservations about having an inexperienced politician just a heartbeat from the U.S. presidency.
Frightening woman in my opinion....
