Round Up: Sarah Palin

Sen. John McCain's pick for his vice president running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has led to an outpouring of comments from OffTheBus readers. They have written about everything from her experience to her family values to her ties to the Alaska Independent Party. Here is a selection of their comments:

Beverly Davis -- Palin Pregnancy: Mother Daughter Interrupted
"As a mother of a daughter, I question Palin's decision of jumping into the political fray of the most important campaign in the world, knowing that it would put her daughter through the media meat grinder."

Reny Monk -- Baby Mama Drama: GOP Shot-Gun Weddings, Oh My!
"I'm baffled at the McCain camp and the GOP's promotion of Ms. Palin as a commander in chief when there's no doubt that if this were a revelation from a Democratic candidate -- and particularly a black candidate -- imagine the uproar over what a bad example they set for youth and parents of America."

Tracy Saunders -- McCain's VP Recruitment Strategy Leaves Country at Risk
"What does this rushed decision say about McCain's ethics and business practices? And do I have to be an employee of his company?"

Christine Wicker -- Sarah Palin: Family-Values Feminist?
"I don't know any women like Sarah Palin. Most of the women I know became far less ambitious when they had just one child. That one child caused them to see their role in life quite differently. I know many women -- doctors, lawyers, journalists, business executives -- who've given up or postponed or cut back on their careers because they wanted to care for their children. I know a lot more women who desperately want to cut back but can't because their families need the money."

Robert Silvers -- The Real Sarah Palin Scandal
"We've been told by the McCain camp to overlook Palin's thin resume because she's an insurgent pork-busting reformer in the mold of John McCain. We've been misled. Palin was looking for federal handouts just like every other self-interested politician that John McCain excoriates. Take that card away, and what does she really offer?"

M.S. Bellows, Jr. -- Unpacking Sarah Palin: Own Choice, No Choice, Bad Choices
"The narrative airing on cable news today is tentatively heroic: it's about the woman who chose to keep her Down child and who is choosing to support her daughter, who in turn is choosing to continue her own, unwanted pregnancy and choosing to marry the father.

Another possible narrative, though, tells a very different story: that of a woman who (bravely) kept her Down child but (dictatorially) would force all other women to do the same; of an extremely conservative Christian who favors abstinence-only education of the type that appears to have led to her unwed daughter's pregnancy; of a politician who would obligate all American families to make the same choices, and bear the same consequences, that her family has."

Linda Hansen -- McSame's McVeep: A Token of His Esteem ...
"Sarah Palin is, very likely, a nice enough woman. But she's no Hillary Clinton; she's the anti-Clinton. John McCain has cynically trivialized Ms. Palin as a token candidate. This is an ill-conceived maneuver, pandering to American women he clearly believes are so lame-brained that we can be fooled by tokenism. It's downright abusive. It typifies the mindset of a man who simply doesn't get it. Not about smart women and not about national security."

Lisa Solod Warren -- Any Woman In A Storm
"I wholeheartedly decry violence against women and in fact helped start and worked for more than a dozen years for a battered woman's organization in the town where I formerly lived, but one does not use one's political power to fire a former family member. There are other ways to get justice. Especially now that more progressive laws, including one by Joe Biden, have been enacted. What Palin did was a pure corruption of power. If she pulled that kind of stunt less than two years in office, what would she do with the power of the White House behind her?"

Jamila Price -- Sarah Palin Arrived Too Late to the Party
"Today, Republican presidential nominee John McCain revealed first term Alaskan governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. My reaction? Interesting, obviously calculated, but not too surprising. The United States will see a woman on the presidential ticket for the first time, and as a woman, I honestly am not too excited by the prospect. That in itself is amazing."

Kris DiGiovanni -- Afraid of Failin', McCain Picks Sarah "Barracuda" Palin as VP
"The problem Palin will have to overcome is that not only is she a Washington outsider, she's practically a political neophyte. She was elected governor in 2006, after just two terms as a city councilwoman, and two terms as mayor of a town with a population of less than 10,000 people."

Comments

[akindependent]

11:06 PM on 09/12/2008

I am so very, very tired of hearing that she beat the Republican incumbant in the governor's race. Frank Murkowski had a lower approval rating than George Bush does--in the low 20s. My dog could have beat Murkowski...and he has just as much foreign policy experience as she has.

[acidwave]

02:44 AM on 09/04/2008

Troppergate is breaking the law by Gov Palin by firing the head of the department she had asked
to fire the husban of her sister who has acted mean in his divorce according to Palin.The
dept head said that Palin had personal motives and he could only fire the trooper over job related
circumstances.This is abuse of power of one's office so liberally practiced by the republican party.
Failure to prosecute Gov Palin places her above the law and violates our constitution.If Alaska lets
her get away with breaking the law that will show the state's respect for law.If she became vice
president and sworn in to defend and protect the constitution it would be more Bush and Cheney
and denegrate the constitution again.

[diahni]

08:38 PM on 09/03/2008

Eighty percent of American woman want to keep abortion legal. How is this woman relevant?

[steinem68]

05:26 PM on 09/03/2008

Any broad who has the desire to shoot moose , deer and bear in one of America's last true wildlife 's environments, speaks volumes that she is just one more Republican reaper out on the take. Why else does she have a lawyer costing $95,000 for Troopergate, is on the Alaskan payroll for every kid she drops (and look out, there are bound to be more) but speaks of no health care plans for all the millions of poor babies and mothers out there....let's not even talk about the elderly, medicare, etc.
To not teach "condom" because God does not like plastic, is total bs ...the trillions in debt Republicans have scorched this country with will destroy Americans for decades.
We are poorer, less powerful, less respected , less healthy and totally undereducated because of the top 5% and believe you me, they want to keep it that way.
Time to vaccinate us all against the Republican Plague...vote Obama-Biden.

[Criticalthinktank07]

04:32 PM on 09/03/2008

I am baffled as to how they can say she has more experience, and is ready on day one. Yet she has been in seclusion, since the announcement and has not granted in interviews. In additon, they have been briefing her on policy. Why would you need to tutor her, if she is capable and ready to lead this country should anything happen to McCain???

[watchervoter]

02:54 PM on 09/03/2008

I doubt that government leaders around the world would have respect for Gov. Palin if she were to become President. Not because she is a woman, but because she does not have the experience to do this job. She is an international lightweight.

And John McCain -- besides making a poor choice for VP -- he is too comfortable with military solutions.

[swift goat pet for truth]

02:35 PM on 09/03/2008

DO NOT UNDERRESTIMATE GOV. PALIN. She is NO JOKE.

Expect Gov. Palin to do well tonight. She may be new, but she is VERY GOOD.
People like her public image. This is enough to get votes.

They lowered the expectations on her, but she WILL exceed them.
She is telegenic. She knows how to give a speech. She connects with people.

Despite her inexperience, she DID beat sitting Governor Murkowski, and she DID beat Big Oil, partly because they thought she would be easy. She is NOT.

Do not underestimate this woman. She is smart and she is tough.
This is a PBS interview. Not biased.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/insider/politics/july-dec08/carey_09-02.html

And she really knows how get things done.
This is also not Biased. Very informative.
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/09/02/the-case-against-the-case-against-palin.aspx

Watch her tonight. She WILL hit it out of the park, and not just for conservatives.
Know your enemy.

[Pogopaws]

03:03 PM on 09/03/2008

"Out of the park"???
You are kidding, aren't you? Maybe if it was a sandlot....

[SMP]

04:35 PM on 09/03/2008

She and John McCain did a photo opt today at the tarmac....touting the daughters teenage pregnancy like it is the new fad for 2008/2009.............................I dont care what credentials you spout about in your post, Teen pregnanyc is not the new fad for girls, like a sparkled purse would be. Yes, it is a fact, this happens to the best of families, but for John and her to embrace it like "everyone should do this" is disgraceful and disgusting

[JayMaeBee]

02:27 PM on 09/03/2008

This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved.

Let's all remember that it was Sarah Palin's ambition and callousness that put her pregnant unwed teenage daughter in the national spotlight. In other words, me first. Nevermind family first or country first. So, she's not practicing what she preaches. Apparently, her abstinence lessons fell on deaf ears too.

This woman's behavior is cruel and selfish. I don't think that John McCain or Sarah Palin have any COMMON SENSE.

[JayMaeBee]

02:25 PM on 09/03/2008

Let's all remember that it was Sarah Palin's ambition and callousness that put her pregnant unwed teenage mother in the national spotlight. In other words, me first. Nevermind family first or country first. So, she's not practicing what she preaches. Apparently, her abstinence lessons fell on deaf ears too.

This woman's behavior is cruel and selfish. I don't think that John McCain or Sarah Palin have any COMMON SENSE.

[Bitsko]

01:31 PM on 09/03/2008

Linda Hansen's comment, "John McCain has cynically trivialized Ms. Palin as a token candidate" is totally on the mark. The whole thing smacks of desperation.