Dear Democratic Women,

Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain announced his Vice Presidential Candidate on Friday. Commentators speculated that McCain would choose a more youthful candidate, perhaps Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (1). However, McCain unveiled what I am sure he regards as his trump card, Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin.

Palin has been the governor of Alaska for almost two years, her anniversary coming in early December. She held office in Wasilla, Alaska for two terms on the city council and for two terms as Mayor before moving on to run the entire state. Outside of the political arena, Palin is your "average hockey mom" to quote Palin herself. She has been married for 20 years to her high school sweetheart and they have 5 children, the youngest being 5 months old (2).

Admittedly, Palin is a great example for women to hold strong careers, yet still be thoroughly involved in their family's lives. Despite this, the choice of Palin as the Vice Presidential Candidate should make voters think twice before falling into McCain's politically correct trap. The decision upon Palin shows that even "straight talking" McCain speaks out of both sides of his mouth.

McCain has repeatedly attacked Obama on lacking foreign policy experience, or rather, experience in general. However, as noted earlier, Palin been in office for about 5 terms (her fifth not being completed yet) and only 2 years of this period has she served at a state level. Please compare this to Obama's 7 years on the state legislature, and 3 years in the U.S. Senate(3).

McCain launched a national television ad that I'm sure you've all seen comparing Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in terms of celebrity status. (Click here to view it). Oddly enough, Palin is the former Miss Wasilla and was a runner up in the Miss Alaska contest in 1984 (5). She has bumper stickers which read "Coldest State, Hottest Governor" and has posed for Vogue (4).

But McCain is not the only one double talking. Palin herself is also quite equivocal. While she is the governor of the state with one of the largest acreages of national parks, she favors drilling for oil in Alaska. She wants to stand up to the "good old boys club," yet stands alongside one of the members (1).

Perhaps one of the greatest strikes against Palin is her recent interview with CNBC (before her designation as the Vice Presidential Candidate) in which she stated, "What is it exactly that a VP does everyday?... We want to make sure that this VP slot would be fruitful type of position especially for Alaskans and for the kind of things we are trying to accomplish here for the rest of the US." (1) I am sure she has a vague recollection of what a VP does, but this distain is a little disconcerting.

Undoubtably, McCain's advisors probably noted that a woman was one of the only choices McCain could make in order to combat the perceived, though unfounded, racial appeal of Obama. Should he have chosen a white man, journalists would have cited him as "good ol' boy" retaining the status quo. Should he have chosen a black man, he would have been accused of choosing his running mate directly to combat Barack Obama's appeal to black voters. However, just as it would be a travesty to vote for Obama simply because he is black, it would be just as horrendous to vote for McCain because his running-mate is a woman.

On a forum which I visited recently, one person commented, "Everyone compares her to Obama, but she is not running for a presidency he is" (sic). This reminds me of an old adage that my tennis coach used to tell me whenever I hit a great serve, "Your serve is only as good as your second serve." McCain might be running for the number one spot, but should anything happen to him (I don't know, maybe a return of his skin cancer or just the fact that he's OLD), Palin is next in line.

And let's not forget to watch Alaskan political news from here on out. Why? In order to find out the results of an "abuse of power" investigation which Palin is under regarding her  former brother in law.

While I might not pull a #75 on the "Stuff White People Like" list, i.e. threaten to move to Canada (6), should McCain/Palin be elected, I will sure as hell will not be happy.

So dear Democratic Women, do not fall for the fact that Palin would be the first female Vice President and "shatter the glass ceiling" that she loves to quote in order to reach out to you. So far, she has not gotten any farther than Geraldine Ferraro did in 1984 - oh yes, when Palin was busy winning beauty pageants.

Sincerely,

Bellevoce

Sources:

(1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7589412.stm

(2) http://gov.state.ak.us/bio.html

(3) http://www.barackobama.com/learn/meet_barack.php

(4) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080829/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_veepstakes_palin

(5) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/

news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4636745.ece

(6) http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/24/75-threatening-to-move-to-canada/

---

Leave a comment...