My take on Gov Palin

[joelunchbox 0]

I think I reacted much like everyone else when Gov. Palin was announced as the Vice Presidential nominee of the Republican Party. I was dumbstruck. Who was she? Who is she? Who? What? When? Where? She was a shot out of left field and I can safely say that all of us were caught off guard.

I have been chewing on her nomination—not unlike a bulldog—every day since then and here is what I think about it.

Gov. Palin as Reformer? I don’t see it that way. I do see her as “Palin the Enforcer” because she came into office and enforced the laws that were in place. I don’t see that as reformist, I do see it as someone doing their job. And that includes the famous State jet—it shouldn’t have been purchased in the first place. Now, what has she done to preclude those excesses from happening again? That is what reforming is about.

I have read and tried to absorb the information that keeps streaming by me about this nominee and something clicked this morning. She is a person of tightly held beliefs. That is normally accepted as being a good thing on a personal level and I am in agreement there. But, she is generally acknowledged as applying her rigid personal values upon those around her and her electorate. I think this trait demonstrates more than anything else that she lacks the experience and political maturity to be Vice President and more importantly, possibly President.

I would like you to think about someone in your past that had a very rigid values system. Now, what happened when that person came upon something that did not fit their picture of the world? This is how we come by statements like: “Define XXXXXXXX”. Or when something is done unilaterally without regard to others inputs or the results for others involved. Many people have suddenly realized that they have become what they loathe because they began rationalizing their means to get them to some end.

Maturity in life and politics teaches us to have a broad view of the world. I don’t see evidence of a broad view in Gov. Palin’s background. She could be a power in US politics with some maturity and a greater insight into other’s lives. But, at this point, she may just be a bulldog that is focused on the object in her grasp—unable to see what lies beyond. Her inability to even conceive of another point of view on key political points takes her out of contention for me. I still have great difficulty resolving Sen. McCain’s acceptance speech with what I see in Gov. Palin’s background. McCain has much political experience and it shows in his desire to reach out to others. He has managed to hold onto his personal beliefs and yet allows that others will have differing views from him. How am I supposed to reconcile a McCain/Palin ticket? Vote for McCain and pray that Gov. Palin never has to make a presidential decision? By voting for McCain, am I endorsing the narrow world view of Gov. Palin? Will she think I am endorsing her personal values?

What doyou think?

[alienlovechild 75]

Maturity in life and politics teaches us to have a broad view of the world. I don’t see evidence of a broad view in Gov. Palin’s background. She could be a power in US politics with some maturity and a greater insight into other’s lives. But, at this point, she may just be a bulldog that is focused on the object in her grasp—unable to see what lies beyond. Her inability to even conceive of another point of view on key political points takes her out of contention for me. I still have great difficulty resolving Sen. McCain’s acceptance speech with what I see in Gov. Palin’s background. McCain has much political experience and it shows in his desire to reach out to others. He has managed to hold onto his personal beliefs and yet allows that others will have differing views from him. How am I supposed to reconcile a McCain/Palin ticket? Vote for McCain and pray that Gov. Palin never has to make a presidential decision? By voting for McCain, am I endorsing the narrow world view of Gov. Palin? Will she think I am endorsing her personal values?

What doyou think?

The VP traditional role during the election is to attack the other party's presidential candidate and keep him off balance and Gov. Palin has done a great job on that so far. Obama, by your definition, aint' too mature either because he doesn't seem to understand middle American voters. He's always been an outsider. Maturity comes from experience and some hard knocks along the way and Obama doesn't have either. Obama never had to make an executive decision in his life but we are ready to hand him the keys to Oval Office? Why not just make a paperboy president?