As is now obvious to all but the most deluded members of the Republican Party, John McCain’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin turned out to be a disaster. (You’ll remember I predicted this the day he announced his choice; having a Ph.D. in political history helps in making such predictions.)
Palin is totally unqualified to serve as Vice President, let alone President of the United States. She is convinced, however, of her own “rightness” and “greatness.” She is the worst possible kind of politician: both unqualified and arrogant.
The campaign has touted her success in getting a contract to build a natural gas pipeline. (Palin herself has said that “God” wants Alaska to build such a pipeline, as well as invade Iraq.) It turns out that the process for achieving this contract was flawed and corrupt, and there is no guarantee of a pipeline ever being built!
Further, she has consciously stirred up hatred for Obama at her rallies among the attendees. There are several videos on YouTube and the web showing McCain/Palin supporters calling Senator Obama a “monkey,” a “communist,” a “socialist,” and worse. Attendees have shouted “kill him” in reference to Senator Obama again and again. All this because she wants to be Vice President. What kind of person, let alone a self-described Christian, can encourage such behavior?
As the campaign winds down, and the likelihood of an Obama victory grows, she has even callously turned her back on her own running mate. She is, therefore, (a) unqualified, (b), arrogant, and (c) ungrateful. She is apparently convinced — as are some members of the Republican base — that she is the future of the party. She has thus begun to rudely shove aside the man that chose to elevate her to national politics before the election is over.
She may well be the future of the Republican Party. If she is, the Republican Party will fade away as nothing more than a fringe party centered around an extreme right-wing faction of the nation; those who, for example, believe that if a young woman is raped by her father, she must give birth to the child.
George Bush “won” the 2000 election after 38 days of political combat and help from the U.S. Supreme Court. This turned out to be a pyrrhic victory for Republicans, as Bush has destroyed the nation and his party. If Palin emerges as a national party leader in some respect, I believe she will prove to be the final nail in the coffin of a once-great party that lost its way.
Here is an excerpt from a CNN article on Palin:
McCain aide: Palin ‘going rogue’
Tensions within the McCain-Palin campaign are spilling into the public. A McCain aide told CNN that Gov. Palin is a ‘diva.’
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (CNN) – With 10 days to go until election day, long brewing tension between Sarah Palin and key aides to John McCain has become so intense, it is spilling out into the public.
Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin “going rogue” recently, while a Palin associate says she is simply trying to “bust free” of what she believes was a mishandled roll-out that damaged her.
McCain sources point several incidents where Palin has gone off message, and privately wonder if they were deliberate. For example: labeling robo calls “irritating,” even as the campaign was defending the use of them and telling reporters she disagreed with the campaigns controversial decision to pull out of Michigan.
A second McCain source tells CNN she appears to now be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.
“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” said this McCain adviser, “she does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: divas trust only unto themselves as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.”
A Palin associate defended her by saying she is “not good at process questions” and that her comments on Michigan and the robo calls were answers to process questions.
But this Palin source acknowledged that she clearly is trying to take more control of her own message, pointing to last week’s impromptu press conference on a Colorado tarmac.
Tracey Schmitt, Palin’s press secretary, was urgently called over after Palin wandered over to the press and started talking. Schmitt unsuccessfully tried several times to end the unscheduled session.
“We acknowledge that perhaps she should have been out there doing more,” a different Palin adviser recently told CNN, arguing that “it’s not fair to judge her off one or two sound bites” from the network interviews.
