Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A family friend forwarded this around:

Who Am I?
I am under 45 years old,
I love the outdoors,
I hunt,
I am a Republican reformer,
I was elected governor,
I lead concerted effort to root out corruption and machine politics,

I support efficient conservation of national resources,
I have taken on the Republican Party establishment,
I am a popular idol and a great vote getter,
I have many children,
I have a spot on the national ticket as Vice President with
less than two years in the governor's office.
Did you guess?

I am Teddy Roosevelt in 1900
.

Ok, how much this annoys me aside, here are my thoughts.
I don't care that Palin's not experienced, I think that was always a weak argument. Just being in government for a long time means nothing, our best presidents in my opinion were some of the least experienced ones--T.R. is a great example, and Lincoln. And Cheney and Rumsfeld were some of the most experienced pols you could get. But the McCain campaign has built their argument on the idea that experience is necessary, and that's why Palin's lack of it is an issue.

It's more about her judgment. It doesn't show good judgment to glibly suggest that "perhaps" we should go to war with the world's other major nuclear power. I don't think most of her positions on the issues show good judgment.

Also, as for her "taking on the Republican establishment," it's important to remember that Alaska is basically a one-party state. In order to get into power she had to take on the establishment, and from what I've heard, the Republicans she's "taken on" are all just ones that were either in her way or who had somehow angered or offended her and so she took revenge. I don't really see that as "reform."

And anyone who thought he was talking about Palin when he said "I support efficient conservation of national resources" obviously doesn't know where she stands, since she tried to take polar bears off the endangered species list because they were getting in the way of oil drilling, opposed a measure that would have blocked a mine from polluting wild salmon fisheries, and wants to hunt wolves from the air to cull their population--a population that's only now beginning to come back from centuries of overhunting. I don't really think demanding drilling in a wildlife refuge when there are thousands of acres right next door that have been set aside as a drilling area and aren't being bid on shows support for efficient conservation of natural resources either. Oh and of course she doesn't think global warming is caused by man, so why do we need to conserve anyway.

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