One Scary Lady

I stand corrected. Sarah Barracuda is not entertaining; she’s downright scary. It’s not her soap opera family (though the hypocrisy is appalling: the media are told to stay away from the pregnant teenage daughter, yet the poor girl and her hapless boyfriend are placed in the front row during Palin’s convention speech); it’s the issues. The more I read about Palin, the less I like her. To think that Hillary supporters would ever vote for this woman is preposterous. She stands for the exact opposite of everything Hillary stands for. Sarah Palin is pro-life, anti-gay, anti-gun control. As the mayor of Wasilla she wanted to ban books from the local library and threatened to fire the librarian when she wouldn’t comply. She wants creationism taught in schools. Her answer to our energy problems is simple: Drill, drill, drill for more oil. Nothing about saving energy.

She’s far to the right of John McCain, and disagrees with him on issues where he has taken a moderate stand. For example, she doesn’t think global warming is caused by humans and thus wants to do nothing about it. She wants to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which McCain does not. She is by no means anti-lobbyism; she hired a lobbyist to secure federal funds for the tiny town of Wasilla. She was in favor of the “Bridge to Nowhere” until it was politically convenient to oppose it. Her economic politics are reckless, reminiscent of George W. Bush. I read about this on blogs (but, I admit, not from any “reputable” sources). Apparently, as mayor of Wasilla she turned a balanced budget into a large deficit. She lowered taxes for businesses but raised taxes for ordinary people. As governor of Alaska she wants to hand the state’s surplus out to citizens while borrowing money for necessary projects.

I watched part of her speech at the Republican National Convention last night – I couldn’t bear to watch it all, but I watched enough to see that she’s one tough lady. The blog rumors have it that she’s ambitious, ruthless, and stops at nothing to get what she wants. One of the TV commentators pointed out that her speech brought the culture wars back into the spotlight. Hasn’t John McCain tried to position himself as someone who can work across the aisle and favors bipartisanship? God help us if this woman is elected to the second-highest office in the nation. I hope that the American people will see her extremist views and stay far, far away from her.