Palin in a bikini Whoo-hooo! Check it out!There, now that should garner me about a jillion hits on Google searches. Seriously, this is apparently a big issue out there right now. I mean, I'm not entirely sure why McCain picked her for VP, but it's not an entirely bizarre selection.
Still, if you're looking for reasons to vote in any particular way, I suggest perusing sites like this, rather than trying to figure out whether or not a woman is qualified to help lead the nation based on how she looks in a two-piece. This is just as bad as folks analyzing Hillary Clinton's political prowess based on her hairstyles.
--End--
Ps. Now the fact that she's currently under investigation for the alleged abuse of power in firing her Public Safety Commissioner, and the fact that her 17-year old daughter is five-months pregnant ... those could be considerations in her credibility, reliability and leadership. That is, if you weren't already turned off by her gun-totin', gay rights-denyin', intelligent design-promotin', oil from nature reserves drillin', polar bear hatin' attitudes.
3 comments:
Random thoughts:
1) I'm a fan of politifact.com when it comes to commercials, speech statements, etc.
2) I'm not so much concerned about her daughter being pregnant (you could be a perfect parent and inspire self-worth and teach contraception--not that I think Palin did--and still have your teenage daughter go against the odds and find herself in this situation). I am VERY concerned about Palin putting herself in a national spotlight while her daughter is pregnant (and, for the record, I'd feel the same if it was a dad doing this). Talk about making a hard time for any woman, let alone a teenager, even harder!
3) the firing thing is a major concern--clearly someone (IMO) who abuses power. I'm not sure I want her to have more.
4) I asked a friend from & currently living in Alaska (who was environmentally minded before I even knew much about recycling) awhile back about the ANWAR drilling thing, and she felt the Alaskan population is fairly in favor of it. From their perspective, the oil companies are pretty vigilant about keeping their impact to a minimum. That didn't convince me to be in favor of it (and the "Drill Baby Drill" chants that Guiliani led at the RNC were definitely scary), but I don't see it as the be-all-end-all issue I initially did. I definitely still prefer Obama's position to reduce demand and allow some drilling (most likely off-shore) if it will get efficiency-minded bills to pass Congress.
5) Finally, for your voting readers who don't live in Illinois, a 'present' vote in the Illinois Senate is every bit as much a decision as a 'yes' or 'no'. It's often a lot more about controlling the Senate process than it is about trying to not make any political waves in your home district. I should blog about that...
Whew--I feel purged. Thanks!
Re: #2 I agree that as a parent we can do everything and teach everything and still wind up with a pregnant teen. Still, I question the decision-making ability of someone who is proud of the fact that the teen is going to marry the father. What is this? 1942? Teen marriage is almost invariably doomed, and I don't think should be held up as a paragon of virtue.
Re: #4 Just because many Alaskans are OK with the drilling doesn't mean it's OK generally. Alaskans all get checks from the oil that's being pumped in their state, so they naturally have a vested interest is more oil coming out of the ground. And minimal impact is still not "no" impact.
#2: I guess I'm assuming that getting married was the daughter's idea. I haven't heard anyone suggest the marriage was forced on her, and am willing to give Palin the benefit of the doubt on that. I think I'd council my daughter to NOT take that route, but would support her decision in the end (of course, I'd support any other decision she made as well, which I don't think Palin would necessarily have done).
#4: I didn't mean to imply I thought it was "OK". It's more that those living in AK who are directly affected have more of a say than I do. I think before I felt it was something being forced on AK by the rest of the states who wanted to use up the resources.
On a related note, heard a guy on NPR today talking about how the solution to our oil problems is to use natural gas as our primary transportation fuel. He had a plan on how to make the transfer by phasing out gasoline powered cars. Very convincing argument (will have to do more reading to see what all the parameters/pros/cons are).
Post a Comment