http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10376463Under those rules, Palin's decisions as a mother are fair game. And she seems to be sacrificing two of her five children - after birth, of course - to her own political aspirations. First, the most vulnerable: the baby. ...
Palin is almost too late to help her other child in need: the 17-year-old girl she apparently taught "abstinence only" but not how to use a condom, just in case. Knowing her daughter would be the center of a media firestorm, Palin uncloseted that skeleton in the middle of a hurricane on a national holiday and then begged for privacy. The governor who cut funding for programs for unwed mothers now is tidying up her daughter's little mess with a shotgun wedding to a self-described "f---in' redneck" boy from back home in Wasilla. "I don't want kids," he wrote on his MySpace page. Mom to the rescue.
Republican Party hacks have wrapped Palin in a cloak of phony feminism to try to deflect any criticism of her choices. They've abandoned the moral majority's tried-and-true litmus tests for their "Trophy Vice."
In one respect, Palin validates everything conservatives believe about feminists. By surrendering her children's privacy and her own time with them when they need her most, she is just like a male politician. That's not motherhood. That's narcissism.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brooks4-2008sep04,0,5675222.columnThe Democrats will tell you to pay attention to party platforms and their endless fiscal policy and intelligence reform plans. Don't you believe those hectoring elitists! You just stick to thinking how sweet it is that Sarah totally stands behind daughter Bristol's "decision" to get pregnant, marry and have a baby at 17. Don't trouble yourself with attending to tedious details, such as Sarah's record of slashing funds for programs to support teen mothers -- or her opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.
It's untrue that Palin has no foreign policy experience, anyway. In fact, she appears to have seriously flirted with the idea of trying to turn Alaska into a foreign country. How many vice presidential candidates can put that on their resumes? Over the years, Palin has actively courted the Alaska Independence Party, or AIP, an organization that supports Alaskan secession from the U.S. To be clear, we're not necessarily talking about friendly secession either: As the AIP's founder, Joe Vogler, told an interviewer in 1991: "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. ... And I won't be buried under their damn flag." ... Share Vogler's sentiment? You can purchase a "Joe was right!" T-shirt on the AIP's website for $25. The AIP's website also provides helpful links to other secessionist groups, including the Southern Independence Party of Tennessee (which boasts of going after "these Politically Correct Liberal Communists"), Ulster nationalists and Chechen separatists. ...
Video footage shows AIP Vice Chairman Dexter Clark describing Palin at the 2007 North American Secessionist Convention as an "AIP member before she got the job as a mayor of a small town -- that was a nonpartisan job. But you get along to go along. She eventually joined the Republican Party, where she had all kinds of problems with their ethics, and well, I won't go into that." (No need to. The Alaska Legislature's ethics investigators are on the case.) Apparently with Palin in mind, Clark then went on to urge AIP members to "infiltrate" the major parties. So what does Palin currently think of the AIP? Hard to know -- she's been keeping mum -- but this year she told AIP members: "I'm delighted to welcome you to the 2008 Alaska Independence Party Convention. ... Keep up the good work!"
Does it make you uneasy to have a possible secessionist sympathizer aiming for the White House? Do you worry that Palin shares AIP founder Vogler's burning "hatred for the American government"? Relax! If so, it will enable her, as vice president, to more effectively bond with foreign leaders she'll meet, many of whom also nurture a hatred for the American government. In diplomatic demarches, finding common ground is always helpful. McCain has always promised that his ticket would show "independence." We just didn't realize it was going to be this kind.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/archive/2008/09/04/187295.aspxIf he pulls it off, McCain will overtake Obama’s “change-agent” status
His diversionary tactics include the appointment of Palin over other more qualified possibilities. It defines his behaviour in new ways. For instance, in the last few days he went out of his way uncharacteristically to pick fights with big media. First there was the weird and nasty “interview” with Time Magazine, without provocation, which was followed by flap over nothing against CNN which led to McCain's cancelation of his appearance on the Larry King Show. The beauty of all of this, from McCain’s viewpoint, is that his made-up media squabble preoccupies the media and blogosphere and becomes the story instead of the Republican record. Next it will be the other bigs, one after another, that these two and their cohorts will take aim at in the hopes that the voters will take their eye off a US$1 trillion unnecessary war, the failure to provide decent healthcare like other developed nations do, the absence of energy policies, the Wall Street bailouts or McCain’s voting record which is 90% in sync with Bush's.
McCain's take-no-prisoners scheme
As of this week, Admiral McCain's war effort is now outed. The “enemies” are many and McCain’s running mate delivered her sometimes strident salvos against the lobbyists, reporters, Congress, the Senate, Georgetown cocktail parties, those who look down on small towns, the unpatriotic, the “sexists” who rejected Hillary and those awful, evil, liberals who vote Democrat. She even indirectly took a shot at the Republicans when she noted that government spending had doubled since 1980. Republicans have been Presidents for all but eight of those years.
McCain’s new battle lines also attack Obama’s two biggest vulnerabilities which are his failure to make a deal with Hillary and his failure to promise to drill everywhere to optimize America’s energy resources. But this contest is far from over. Obama hit 50% in polling for the first time yesterday, days after the Palin controversies, and his convention attracted twice the audience.
It will take 62 more days to figure out whether the wily McCain's war games will be enough to overcome the Republican baggage that, like it or not, McCain must take much responsibility for. Americans must also be weary of wars of any kind, whether in Iraq or at home.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/5982225.htmlTuesday night the convention got under way in earnest with important prime time speeches by actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson and independent, Democratic-leaning Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. But for the viewer, as significant as what was said is what went unspoken.
Before painting a vivid picture of Sen. John McCain's harrowing experiences during the Vietnam War and lifetime of service to the nation, Thompson hailed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a "breath of fresh air" and a "courageous, successful reformer." In this regard he likened Palin to McCain. Thompson said Palin was "not afraid to take on the establishment," and that when she and McCain get to Washington, "they're going to drain that swamp."
Unclear is what constitutes the swamp. For almost eight years the White House has been in the control of Republican President George W. Bush. Until 2007, Republicans controlled the Congress, as well. When McCain-Palin supporters talk about their candidates' willingness to battle special interests, do they mean the business interests that Republicans in Washington have courted for years? ...
McCain and Palin oppose a woman's right to choose abortion; most Democrats support abortion rights. McCain favors an open-ended military commitment in Iraq; Democrats want a timetable for withdrawal. After changing his mind, McCain favors expanded drilling offshore; Democratic leaders oppose it. Democrats by and large want universal health care, by whatever method; McCain, more or less, wants the market to play a role in determining which working Americans get health insurance. Democrats want to increase taxes on upper-income Americans; McCain wants to extend the Bush administration's tax cuts for top earners. These basic issues do not invite compromise. Should McCain be victorious in November, he will have to look for other opportunities to bring people from both parties together — after he and Palin have drained the swamp the nation's capital apparently has become.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122048513733097089.html?mod=googlenews_wsjCritics say Gov. Palin's biggest weak spot as a candidate for national office is her lack of foreign-policy or national-security experience. Defenders have cited her role during her brief governorship as overseer of the Alaska National Guard. When a CNN reporter pressed a McCain campaign spokesman to name any decisions made in that capacity, he didn't offer anything specific -- and Sen. McCain canceled an appearance on the network to protest what the campaign considered a hostile line of questioning.
Gov. Palin has told interviewers that her focus on state government has left her with little time to focus on matters abroad, and her record of public statements bears that out. Gov. Palin's stance on the war in Iraq -- which appears to be the only such issue she has addressed at any level of detail -- seems to have wavered. In March 2007, the newly elected governor told the Alaska Business Monthly in an interview that "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place."
Within months of taking office, she fired the police chief, the finance director, the city planner and other department heads. "I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the City of Wasilla," she wrote to Irl Stambaugh, the police chief. Mr. Stambaugh subsequently sued unsuccessfully for damages for wrongful termination. In his suit, he alleged that the mayor was punishing him for his opposition to a law that would allow residents to carry concealed weapons, as well as his efforts to limit late-night bar hours. Bars in Wasilla stay open until 5 a.m.
Among those Ms. Palin tried to dismiss was library director Mary Ellen Emmons. Within days of her election, Ms. Palin approached Ms. Emmons to ask whether she would resist efforts to censor books in the library's collection. It was general inquiry; Ms. Palin didn't ask Ms. Emmons to remove any particular books, according to the Frontiersman. "I told her clearly, I will fight anyone who tries to dictate what books can go on the library shelves," Ms. Emmons told the paper at the time. Ms. Palin later described her inquiry as "rhetorical" and a way to get to know the city employees. Ms. Palin ultimately allowed Ms. Emmons to keep her post. Ms. Emmons, who has since left Wasilla, couldn't be reached for comment.
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