A couple of weeks ago, I turned on my television to tune into the Sunday
morning news shows hoping to get a glimpse of Sarah Palin in order to learn
more about her. I remember hearing from Bob Schieffer that McCain's campaign
manager Rick Davis had said, "Palin won't do many interviews until she is
treated with respect and dignity." I thought I heard wrong. Thank G-d for
Tivo. I rewound it and played it again. Then I didn't know whether to laugh
or cry.
Dignity and respect??? Someone should tell McCain's campaign that dignity is within the individual and respect is something that has to be earned!
We are already seeing the continuation of the Bush-Cheney reign of secrecy
with the cloistering of Sarah Palin. The McCain campaign wants to keep her
in hiding [along with his medical records] and shelter her from rigorous vetting. This woman is running for Vice President of the United States! Don't they feel the American people
have the right to know what she thinks??? This is a democracy not a
monarchy! She's not the Queen! When you run for the second highest office in
the land, you better be ready to answer questions from the press and the
American people. The public needs to see her and hear her, to read about her
so they can judge her and cast an informed vote on Election Day.
This reminds me of the movie business. When the studio knows it has a dud on
its hands, they ban reviewers from seeing it beforehand.
And these ridiculous claims of sexism. When you are a woman running for Vice
President, you are in a male domain, playing on their field. You don't get
special treatment and you shouldn't want special treatment. You want to be
treated equally. You are open to praise and attack and you need to be
prepared for both. Just like Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton,
you need to hold press conferences and answer tough questions about the most
pressing issues facing our country, like the economy, foreign policy, and
the Iraq war.
Recently, Palin met with world leaders at the United Nations. Initially,
the press was only permitted a photo op and not allowed to question Palin
about her meetings or her opinions on foreign affairs. After a number of
news organizations objected and CNN pulled their camera crew from Palin's
first meeting, the campaign agreed to let reporters in, but were then
escorted out after a mere 40 seconds! And in response to the anger over her
being sequestered, the McCain campaign has agreed to only a few major broadcast interviews as a result of the pressure...certainly not enough to
get to know her as a candidate. In her interview with Katie Couric, Palin
fumbled badly through a series of questions on critical national and
international issues. When Couric asked Palin to explain how Alaska's
proximity to Russia enhances her foreign policy credentials, Palin
responded with "Well, it certainly does because our next-door neighbors are
foreign countries." Is this the foreign policy experience that is going to
aid Palin in her dealings with Putin and Ahmadinejad??? This really makes
me worried about McCain's judgment to have picked someone so blatantly
unqualified.
John McCain didn't fare any better this week either. In the wake of the
country's economic crisis, he decided to suspend his campaign and not show
up for the first debate (does that mean he can't handle more than one issue
at a time?). He wanted to "rush" back to Washington DC to work on a Wall
Street bail out plan with Congress...a debacle he is partly responsible for.
And then, it took him 22 hours to get back to DC.after doing an interview, a
speech and spending a night out in New York. When McCain finally got to
DC, he sat silently at the White House meeting, failing to put forth any
type of plan to help lift the country out of its economic woes.
In his latest Time magazine interview by James Carney, McCain was quoted
as being "prickly," "abrasive" and "determined not to stray off message" as
he arrogantly refused to give answers to many questions, stating "read my
books" instead.
How can these two people be trusted to rebuild America's diplomatic
relationships abroad? Can we trust McCain, who has been known to lose his
temper quickly and erupt in anger at the drop of a hat, to have his finger
on the nuclear button? I know I don't stand alone when I say...I don't want to
find out!