Why Sarah Palin Should Scare The Hell Out of You!

When McCain first made this pick, many, myself included, saw it for exactly what it was; a ploy! John McCain decided to gamble and choose an unqualified candidate as his VP pick in hopes of picking up the votes of disgruntled Hillary supporters. They saw the excitement created by the prospects of there being a first Black president and the way people rallied around that. The historical significants of Obama's campaign dominated the media and rallied voter support.

McCain decided to fight fire with fire and say, "So America wants history, America wants change, I'll give it history, and I'll give it change". He then went out and picked Sarah Palin as his vice presidential pick, a woman who was unheard of on the political scene, the Governor of Alaska a state that the United States Census list as having a population of 670,053 in 2006. In contrast, Chicago, the state in which Barack Obama was a senator, had an overall population of 2,842,518. This provided white female voters the opportunity to make their own history, they couldn't get Hillary but they could have Palin.

At first I laughed, I thought Hillary voters were way too smart to fall for such a ploy. I mean there are stark differences between the two; Sara Palin is pro-life, Hillary Clinton is pro-choice, Sara Palin is anti sex education and the distribution of condoms to youth, she believes the Iraq war is God's will and was quoted as saying, "Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,"


To my dismay, the Sara Palin pick gave the McCain campaign a boost. His poll numbers went up and he took a lead over Obama among white female voters. In my mind, this really exposed how much this election wasn't about the issues. Her inexperience was largely overlooked for the fact of her being white and a woman. She was hailed as this God loving, pit bull in lipstick, Hockey mom who manages a career in politics and a family of 5 at home. A lot of professional woman identified with her. To protect her, any charges against her regarding her inexperience was hailed as sexism.

Freedom of the press was completely ignored in Sarah Palin's international debut as reporters were bared from attending her meeting and blocked from asking any questions. The Republican campaign likes to spin any remarks made in opposition to Palin as sexism but were reluctant to do so with the comments made by Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, when he made no mention of anything having to do with her politics and instead called her, "gorgeous" and made references to how nice she was. These are comments you make when you meet someones daughter or wife for the first time, not a Vice president. I also found it peculiar that when a handler from Zardari's entourage said they should keep shaking hands for the cameras, Zardari was quoted as saying, "If he's insisting, I might hug" innocent joke or slight pass? What was Palin's response to his remarks? Smile and say thank you.

Senator McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his VP pick should be considered an insult to the intellectual capacity of American women. This woman, Sarah Plain, is nothing more than a Republican puppet. First they had her come out guns blazing bashing Obama on his inexperience and painting herself as this independent thinker. Now it's been pretty much shut up and look pretty.