Back from the RW&B

So, I’ve been on a vacation of sorts for the last 12 days. I made a last minute visit to my family. I’m typing up a bunch of stuff while on the plane ride back to Japan, so you’ll see it a few hours after I get back.

The big news, Sarah Palin. A hockey-mom from Alaska, governor for the last 20 months and former mayor of a small town in the same state. She bolsters McCain’s credit with conservatives, but the main goal of the choice was clearly to go after Clinton’s followers. While he will deny it, it has been obvious in both of their speeches, with references to several of Hillary’s statements and/or speeches. The one I found startling, or even amusing, was that Palin claimed that by her being elected VP, with McCain as president, that she would essentially crack the “glass ceiling” that Hillary could not. Last time I check, Hillary wasn’t willing to settle for the number two spot on the ticket. Even if the Republicans win, that ceiling will still be in place.

Right after the RNC, it came out that her 17 year-old daughter was pregnant. Of course this should pose a problem for a conservative pushing for “family values.” Her removal of a police administrator who refused to fire a police officer who divorced her sister has become a hot topic as well. Also, her involvement with the indicted senator Ted Stevens is being questioned, along with her running of his 527 political action group. The last piece I will talk about, is her experience, or more precisely, the lack there of.

She has less experience in all of her years in various government positions that Obama, but they still are saying that he is inexperienced. One reason I heard for this, was that she had experience running a government, being in charge. Well, being in charge of a state for 20 months and spending at least two months of that on maternity leave isn’t a whole lot. I had 3 years of experience managing a team at Starbucks. By the Republican standard, I should have almost as much experience as Palin.

I heard a great excuse to cover her foreign policy shortcomings, she’s close to Russia. Jon Stewart said it best, “by that logic, she’s close to the north pole so she must know Santa Claus.” The idea that she would have foreign policy experience by being close to another country is ludicrous. The idea that they complain about Obama’s experience is even more so. We shall see how they’re attacks change, and how Palin finally handles an interview when Charlie Gibson talks to her on Wednesday. Hopefully ABC will be less biased than the last Democratic primary debate.

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