Sarah Palin...really?

I heard the news about McCain's VP choice, but I didn't have a chance to blog over the weekend. So now I suppose I'll share my initial thoughts about her.

I think she's a sharp lady. To go so far in such a short amount of time takes a tremendous amount of political savvy. I doubt it's as hard to get elected in Alaska as, say, Illinois but Palin really made an astronomical rise to power within her state.

Her personal belief system may help McCain with the far right of the GOP. Even James Dobson, who said he would never vote for McCain - though, as most televangelist types, he was probably exaggerating a bit - called it a good pick. That kind of sentiment on the right makes me want to run from her. On some issues, we agree: drilling in ANWR...hmm, well maybe that's it.

On many more issues, we disagree. Alaska's constitutional ban on gay marriage apparently wasn't quite enough for her, so she has supported a ban on extending state health benefits to same-sex couples. She was a bit too eager to support the teaching of creationism in public schools. She's also a bit too eager to institute the death penalty in Alaska. Perhaps one of her biggest faults is her support for abstinence-only education in public schools. This is especially true in light of the revelation that her unmarried, 17-year old daughter is pregnant. It has been my experience in the past that an event like this can lead a close friend or parent to change his or her views on certain matters. I doubt we can count on that happening with candidate Palin. I hope the media will leave it alone now that the story has broken, but I also hope Sarah Palin will take a lesson from the situation.

Besides disagreeing with her on so many issues, I think the pick was a disingenuous attempt to woo the pissed-off female vote. Ultimately, I believe McCain's poorly thought out strategy will fail. Palin won't win over many of the pro-choice Hillary supporters with one of the strongest anti-abortion stances seen recently. It's probably fortunate that VP candidates do very little to help or hinder the POTUS candidates - both in this race have very obvious flaws.

Finally, McCain's attempt to bring in an outside-the-Beltway candidate also means the experience issue will probably be off the table to a large degree. McCain had a decent argument that Obama had no executive experience, no foreign policy experience and very little experience on the national scene. He ought not raise that again, considering his VP pick was mayor of a small town for a few years and governor for only two years.

Ultimately, the experience factor should matter less than the ideas and core beliefs that drive the policies of a presidency. Sarah Palin's beliefs are less than attractive on the whole. If McCain is elected come November, let us pray that he makes it through to the end.