Sarah Palin: America's Affirmative Action Candidate

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is America's Affirmative Action candidate! Everything opponents of the controversial Civil Rights measure they claim is wrong with Affirmative Action have all but vanished into thin air. With Palin's low expectation passing grade performance during the vice presidential debate, Republicans have complete amnesia about a policy measure they vehemently argue supports someone with Sarah Palin-like qualifications.

Republican adversaries of Affirmative Action say minorities are given chances due to purposefully-set inferior standards to create opportunity. Hence, resentment may come from a more qualified middle-aged white male who is passed over because of political expediency. In this case, Senator Joe Lieberman or former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney -- although both declare they are thrilled with Palin as the most "qualified" candidate for Veep - were passed over. They too support the Affirmative Action move of bringing Palin on to the ticket.

Palin's recent television interviews with ABC News Charles Gibson and CBS Anchor Katie Couric seems to behind her now for the moment. However, the reality is, she still has limited capabilities to be vice president. With mediocrity being celebrated as the 21st century take away in presidntial politics, Palin being a proverbial heart beat away from the presidency should she and McCain win in November is still a scary thought.

Sarah Palin receives social promotion and free passes from Republicans despite her obvious avoidance of answering direct questions because she just does not know. In her debate against Senator Joe Biden, she executed her lines and cute jabs flawlessly. However, when the question was asked if the vice presidency was properly considered a part of the executive or legislative branch of government, it was quite visible she did not know. Palin skipped out on the answer briefly mentioning something about the framers and then grabbed and delivered her life line key message point. Palin is an example of what opponents of Affirmative Action would call someone who has "low level accountability" in her new position. Although the McCain campaign exhaled after the debate, she is still not ready for prime time media.

Palin being admitted to the vice president's slot fills a gender "quota." This is a fightin' word for Republicans. They will step into the ring with you if you use that dirty word! Conservatives would say the Palin pick is plain old-fashioned preferential treatment of a minority. Though she's very ill-equipped to handle the job, Republicans, are nonetheless willing to give her on-the-job training. She is given cliff notes and advanced copies of a mastery test to try and get her qualified. The Palin pick is very sad, but possibly a workable attempt to convince Americans -- particularly women - that to be less than average for one of the top spots in the world is okey dokey...if it's about winning.

If Palin is seen as a quota then her candidacy represents the most severe criticism by Republicans. She represents everything Republicans hate about Affirmative Action, but they are now willing to flip flop to get their gal in. Though this term is now over used, this is an actual example and meaning of what is called "lipstick on a pig" by the McCain campaign.

The Thursday night debate was a huge entrance exam to establish to the American public that Palin can prove she is up to the challenge. Palin verified it by showing us laxity in her statespersonship with cliches and colloquialism. She even used some "ebonics," got a little ghetto and threw a "shout out" to third graders in Alaska after she exclaimed that the education system for our children needed an overhaul - Go figure! Sarah Palin gets a big "You Go-girl,"with Republicans in tow lovin' the new urban-towny lingo style.

The vice presidency of the United States of America is not a game of style, cool vernacular and quit wittedness; all things Palin does exceptionally well. The Vice Presidency is not even about a "breath of fresh air." She looks fabulous. The vice presidency is about substance. It is about having a person who can be taken very seriously by not only American Joe six-pack to have a brewsky with or a hockey mom to curse out the coach for benching their son, but a leader who in a moment's notice can lead the entire world if necessary.

Normally, someone like Palin as the Affirmative Action candidate, Republicans would denounce and wince over -- however, they are willing to help her from start to finish so that if elected, she might be ready for the job some day.

Read more reactions to the Biden-Palin Vice Presidential debate from HuffPost bloggers

Comments

[emerald song]

** Imagine the Reb party reaction if say.. somehow the Miss Alaska 1984 winner, an African American woman Maryline Blackburn... was somehow the VP Dem choice.. and had done the SAME exact performance in the Gibson, Couric and VP debate as Gov Palin had done.. .. imagine! Imagine if they had tried to soften the VP debate to 90 seconds, etc .etc.

The same exact people who now support and champion her: Bill O Rielly, Rush L, Rep party, et. all.. would have torn Dem Maryline totally as the Affirmative Action winner..

Reb party is a hypocrite, pure and simple.

[RGray]

I would agree that Sarah Palin embodies all the negative stereotypes that Whites attribute, incorrectly, to the purpose of and need for Affirmative Action. I would also suggest, however, that the White female and the inclusion of women as "minorities" has always been a feint to dilute the remedies that Affirmative Action was meant to achieve.

[WolfI]

Great article. Sarah Palin is exactly the conservatives' idea of the outcome of affirmative action, while this election embodies the fundamental reasoning behind affirmative action in the first place. A person of color must be so exceptionally better-qualified to be seen as on equal footing with white counterparts. Nothing could illustrate this issue more clearly than the fact that the media are treating this race like a legitimate contest; the Obama campaign and the McCain campaign are nearly from different planets.

[uheardme]

Notice how ALL the WHITE CONSERVATIVES, especially WHITE WOMEN are saying she can "LEARN ON THE JOB" OR "SHE'S A QUICK STUDY."

[johnnycmlately]

Good post. I can see where she's going with it. I must say that during this whole process i keep hearing on the MSM about the vote of the "white woman." Can somebody tell me why this is? I keep hearing "but will he appeal to white women" or "What about the white woman" and it'sa as if no other women are in the country. What about the Latin woman or the Asian woman, or the Black woman? don't they vote too? It's as if the whole world work off of the white woman being happy as if they are all that matters in the world. Get off the pedestal and recognize and understand that it not about the "white woman", it's about "all women" and people. The article, as i see it, has a point. If this were Suzie Wong or Maria Sanchez or Deborah Johnson with the same "un-qualifications" most of you here would write an article just like this one.

[SeanGardner]

Howard Dean made a great point while campaigning in 2003 " a point the vast majority of politicians don't make: American public policy initiatives created primarily for blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans and/or other groups has to also benefit white people if it has any chance of being effectively implemented. Period. So what makes affirmative action any different? White lawmakers had to clearly see whites being able to benefit also in order to sell it to the country. So It"s not that whites don't benefit from affirmative action - clearly white women benefit more than anyone " it"s that the proponents of affirmative action have done a lousy job defending it. Unfortunately, the lies are more prominent than the truth.

Professor Ira Katznelson wrote the book "When Affirmative Action Was White". This book documents how 20th-century social programs (Social Security, the GI Bill, Great Society) benefited mostly white people and were intentionally created to be that way by Southern legislators under "states rights".

But regardless of the facts of affirmative action, a President Obama would certainly "tweak" the program in a dramatic way. He recognizes that America is in the worst economic situation since the 1930s. So he will have to refocus affirmative action, and he should. I have absolutely no problem with sensibly proposed policies to make it more "class-based". Cool. Just don't tell me it should be "class-based" because "blacks, Asian Americans, and Latinos" are taking away "white jobs" - because that's false.

[uheardme]

Well said. Thanks.

[SeanGardner]

I am still waiting for someone to tell the truth about affirmative action. I am not talking about the supposition, conjecture and rampant demogoguery about "blacks and latinos" supposedly "stealing jobs from whites." I am talking about the TRUTH: that white women (yes, white women) benefit from affirmative action more than anyone else. Government data and private industry figures have confirmed this. In fact, the AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (APA), among many other groups, has done an exhaustive, comprehensive study that deals with the facts about affirmative action - (click on this link: http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/affirmaction.html).

Yes, African-Americans do benefit from affirmative action. Latinos benefit from it. Asian Pacific Americans benefit from it. Arab-Americans benefit from it. But as the study clearly says, "Although opinion polls reveal that many Whites believe they are unfairly discriminated against by affirmative action policies, it is Whites who benefit most. This is because of their larger numbers in most sectors covered by affirmative action interventions." A good example of this point is the affirmative action program TITLE IX, which forced Division I institutions to allocate equal funding for female sports programs so they could create volleyball, basketball, raquetball, softball, golf, etc. This program created scholarship opportunities that have overwhelmingly benefitted white women...like Sarah Palin. Posts like yours Ms Davis could be an opportunity to dispel the myths, and present the truth. Here is a good link to start that process: http://aapf.org/focus/episodes/oct30.php.

[fedupinfla]

I hate to admit this but once upon a time when I was much younger and desperate for a decent paying job, I bullsh!tted my way through a job interview that I KNEW I wasn't fully qualified for. I padded my resume and gave all the right answers to the interviewers questions fully expecting to be called out as unqualified. I came across as confident and experienced when I knew in my heart that I wasn't prepared for the position. This was a simple restaurant mgrs. position I might add. Imagine my surprise when I was actually hired and expected to perform the way I claimed I could!! Needless to say, I couldn't and I was fired for "not meeting company expectations". I'm a lot older now and I now have the experience I claimed I did back then. I also have an inate ability to smell the same BS I tried pulling all those years ago....And boy does something STINK about Palin. Its a smell I remember quite well....Unfortunately, once she's "hired", there won't be that same performance review and it'll be 4yrs before she can be "fired". Imagine the damage that she can do in that time!!!

[KNadine]

Ms. Davis, this is by far the smartest article written about Sarah Palin and the total hypocrisy of the Republican Party. Thanks, I look forward to your next.

[RobinL]

Agreed. Very well put--thank you!!

[iyamchazz]

McCAIN / PALIN 08
Same old beef with a flashy side dish of mutton dressed as lamb!

[Poboy]

This is how many White people use their opposition to affirmative action.

They know their opposition is a rouse. This is their argument.

Affirmation action unfairly gives Black people, though they use the term "minorities," advantages against better qualified White men.

They come to this conclusion based on "someone" they know who was denied a position or slot to a lesser qualified minority. The statistics do not bear this out, but all they have to do is say it, like they say a lot of untrue stuff, and that makes it true, and based on their anecdote, they want affirmative action ended. They call this "reverse discrimination." And their Black supporters are ashamed, like Clarence Thomas, and feel tainted by the association with affirmative action.

Here is why their argument is a total fraud and a rouse.

There is no such thing as "reverse discrimination," only discrimination. If these amorphous "White men" were discriminated against, they can use the same laws as Black people to seek redress.

Why don't they use these laws?

Because they know the anti-discrimination laws don't work, and anyone who has ever pursued them knows they don't work, and they were designed NOT TO WORK,

They are just trying to whip up, always just below the service, hostility against Black people.

[Nommo]

A distraction for the unwary. Plessy v Ferguson was their affirmative action. All the Jim Crow laws that were spawned from Plessy made it certain that there would be no competition for employment or education opportunities from Black citizens. Conversely, the only time they concern themselves with the law is when they need to screw us over even further. Do you remember Bakke?

I guess they expect that we should be flattered by all the attention.

[RPLinNYC]

Good post. She's another Clarence Thomas.

[Nexialist]

Nice try, but your arguments are too much a stretch. The better analogy are private country clubs that routinely excluded Jews, blacks, and women from membership.

[FreedomFries]

It is bizarre how a 21st century democracy could find itself with such a candidate. Truly stranger than fiction.

[jusion]

"Sarah Palin: America's Affirmative Action Candidate"
Yeah, just like Barack Obama, whose two years of experience as one of 100 in the Senate before running for President makes him young and fresh and exciting, the right man at the right time to be leader of the free world.
Sarah Palin's two years of statewide executive experience before running for Vice President makes her dangerously unfit to succeed into the Presidency in the unlikely event she would be called upon to do so.
A bit of a double standard on display here, don't you think?

[kjs08]

I don't think that Palin is labeled an affirmative action candidate because of her lack of years in political positions. Barack too has faced a lot of criticism about his lack of years in political positions.

Rather, I think it comes down to whether Palin can intelligently carry on conversations, and know how to address the foreign and domestic issues that face us today. As Palin HERSELF has shown, she doesn't. Barack Obama does. He also does not have many, many years of experience - and he'll tell you that himself - but he certainly has proven himself to grasp the issues and respond to them in a nuanced, intelligent way. Palin, when not scripted, can't even answer basic questions, and her answers shown a stunning lack of knowledge about what is going on domestically and internationally.

Lincoln was in public office shorter than Barack Obama has served before he became President. But no one would look to him as an "affirmative action" President or candidate.

[TubNkeeg]

Look when somebody is not ready, it's obvious. Experience matters to a point but the intelligence of a person and his/her ability to grasp complex concepts matters far more. That is the person that we should elect in order to get our country out of all the mess where in.

Obama is as smart as they come. Palin took 6 years and 5 different colleges to graduate with a Sports Journalism degree. Let me repeat- 6 YEARS AND 5 DIFFERENT COLLEGES TO GRADUATE WITH A SPORTS JOURNALISM DEGREE. John McCain was at the bottom of his naval class. Let me repeat- JOHN McCAIN WAS AT THE BOTTOM OF HIS NAVAL CLASS. And John McCain picked Sarah to be his vice president, at 72.

You need to get your head out of your u know what.

John McCain and Sarah Palin are not smart enough to lead.

[uheardme]

Here's the problem with your EXPERIENCE argument. Experience is not the only thing that is important in this race...intelligence, temperment, and judgment are important. You can have 26 years of experience f*kkking up the country, like McCain has.

Palin is unqualified because she lacks the intelligence, the work ethic, professionalism and experience to be President. Yes, if you vote for McCain for the Presidency, you are voting for a Palin Presidency.