First, I apologize to both of you who read my blog for missing. My company has been preparing for accreditation and I am working long hours.
Now, Sarah Palin was not new to me. I said two months ago that I thought he should pick her if Obama didn't pick Hillary. I like her. She has been a reformer in the corrupt politics in Alaska, and has taken down other republicans in the process. I was only mildly surprised that she was the pick. I told one of my employees on Thursday that I thought it would be Romney, but my dark horse was Palin.
Now, she does have issues that concern me. First is her inexperience. She has been a Governor for only two years. Her previous experience was as mayor of a small town. However, she beat a sitting governor in the primary and then beat a former governor. Do I consider her experienced enough to be President? Not yet. But, after a couple years as VP. This is kind of risky for the country, but not as risky as voting for a president who has less experience. Unfortunately, this pretty much neutralizes McCain's biggest weapon which is Obama's inexperience. She also was Oil commissioner in the state of Alaska and began public office in 1992. So I consider this a concern.
Second, she is under investigation in Alaska for possible ethical violations in the dismissal of the public safety commisioner. The accusation is that her staff put pressure on the commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law (wooton) and when he didn't he was fired. What we know is that members of her staff did put pressure on the commissioner. Palin denies knowledge of this. The commissioner does state that there were only two discussions. The first was during a security meeting, which was background for her security as Governor. She reported that Wooten had threatened her life and her father's life. The second was a discussion where she brought it up and they discussed her keeping her distance from the issue. She released a recording where one of her staff did put pressure on the commissioner. Palin denies knowledge that this pressure was going on.
Now here is the dilema. There was an investigation into Wooten by the state troopers office. During the investigation, it was confirmed that Wooten had tasered his 11 year old step son, drank a beer while in his patrol car, threatened the life of Palin's father, and illegally shot a moose. The result was a 10 day suspension that was later reduced to 5 days. So one must ask, excuse me? Are you serious? These aren't accusations, these are the results of the investigation, and the guy still has his badge? So why wasn't this guy fired? Well, I haven't heard a good explaination. Could you imagine something like this happening in your neighborhood and the guy is still roaming around in a patrol car? So knowing this, it must be assumed that similar situations had occurred across the state with similar results. With this knowledge as a Governor whose reputation is taking corruption head on, what is she to do? If you have a commissioner that allows this to occur in his department, what do you do? Not sure. However, she must state why she fired him and answer the questions. I'm sure McCain vetted her well enough to believe this won't bite him in the ass. But it is a risk.
Other than those two things, I like her. She has the ability to match his reformer/maverick ideals, unite the party who is not all that thrilled with him, and possibly bring in some disaffected Hillary voters. So overall she is a good pick if the ethics investigation comes up empty.
Now, what was the Obama campaign's response? "Senator McCain has successfully taken a mayor of 9000 people and placed her heartbeat from the presidency..." If I was McCain, I would absolutely push this hard. Have these people not learned from the Hillary experience? Are they trying to force the Hillary voters that have come into the fold back out? And exactly who the hell is he to criticize someone for lack of experience? Sometimes I wonder if these people are trying to lose the election. He should be smoking McCain. However, their decisions really leave me scrathing my head. This goes right up there with the spectacle Thursday night. Obama supporters will think it is wonderful and independant voters will be caught up in the emotion. However, I believe that once the emotion dissapates, that independents will remember the spectacle, but not the message. it also plays into the "Rock Star" image that McCain has successfully placed on him. Personally, if I was Obama and someone came up with this idea I would have slapped the shit out of them. I truly believe it will bite him in the ass.
So in short, I believe that the candidate of change who actually has a record of bucking his party and crossing party lines has chosen another candidate of change who happens to be a woman. So yes, I believe it was a good choice.
No matter what happens, this will be a historic election.
