A left-wing view of the selection of Sarah Palin for VP.

[Postman]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/paln-a30.shtml

The surprise pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as the vice presidential running mate of Senator John McCain is indicative of a sharp political crisis within the Republican Party.

More importantly, deep divisions within the Republican Party itself have motivated her selection. Other better-known potential vice presidential candidates, including Mitt Romney and Tom Ridge, face stiff opposition from within the party, especially from its politically potent right-wing Christian evangelical wing, where McCain himself enjoys scant popularity.


Among that constituency, which has provided the Republicans with their only popular electoral base, Palin’s selection was celebrated as a major political victory.

While her name was barely mentioned in the extensive media speculation about McCain’s choice, she was a favorite of the Christian right. In an interview with CBS News on August 8, Southern Baptist political leader Richard Land issued a sharp warning that McCain’s vice presidential pick would be “the most important choice he’s going to make in this entire campaign.” There was “no room for error, no margin for doubt,” he added.

If the Republican nominee chose a running mate who supported abortion rights, Land warned, “it will confirm the unease and the mistrust that some evangelicals—and don’t forget this, social conservative Catholics—feel about McCain.”

Asked whom the Christian right would like to see chosen for the position, Land named Palin. He stressed that her “pro-life” credentials had been burnished by her giving birth in April to a child with Downs Syndrome and her public statements that she would never consider having an abortion. Land also pointed to her lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association as a political asset.

Palin has also won support within these circles by campaigning against same-sex marriage and calling for the teaching of creationism in public schools.

[sharesunited]

1. What kooky things does Palin believe?

Ask her over and over and over again, as many times and in as many different ways as possible.

Be tenacious about it. Never let it go.

Just like the right wing carries on about Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers.