Pale on Palin

I've not said anything about the nomination of Barak Obama, mostly because words have failed me. There is no way I can adequately express what it means to my lifetime of activism to see a Black man nominated by my party for President of the United States. Honestly, although I was not a Hillary Clinton supporter, her nomination would have evoked many of the same feelings in me: a woman nominated by my party. I did not and still do not feel that she would have made the best choice for Vice President. I'm glad that Obama chose Joe Biden. One dose of history-making is enough for me. Additionally, I see Senator Rodham-Clinton as a very strong forceful person who would have been stifled and disenfranchised by the Vice Presidency. She can and will remain a strong and powerful force in the Senate.

All of this simply underlines the insult to women and women's rights that is the selection of Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican VP nominee. She's a woman. And that's where it stops. No other qualifications that count: but she's a woman. Now the Republicans can stand up and say, "see, you didn't choose a woman; we did."

Any women who are won over to John McCain because of the presence of Sarah Palin on the ticket are fools who had better pray hard for Mr. McCain's health. John McCain has been the most consistent opponent of Roe v. Wade in Congress for his entire term. Sarah Palin lives and breathes opposing Roe v. Wade. McCain will oppose legalized abortion and attempt to revoke choice for women in America; Palin regularly places herself in the martyr role, using her disabled child whom she chose to bear as "proof" of the evil of abortion.

If that were not enough, however, it is quite clear that these two will fight any attempts to equalize pay for women, raise the minimum wage, or address the serious and catastrophic issue of global warming. While McCain has voted again and again on the side of big oil and big coal, Palin has promoted exploitation of Alaska's pristine wilderness for oil. Palin will tell you that what she is fighting for is the transference from foreign oil to American oil. That is not the issue, and it should scare the pants off all of us that they do not recognize that the issue is not WHERE we get our oil, but that we continue to use oil and coal in such huge quantities without apparent regard for the destruction carbon-based fuels are causing.

The most potent argument against Sarah Palin, however, is a very sad one. John McCain has served his country with distinction. He is a proud, loyal, and patriotic American. And he is old. He is not in the best of health, no matter what anyone might say. The sad fact is that years of torture, and a serious bout with cancer, have taken their toll. And Sarah Palin, if they are elected, will be closer to that heartbeat away from the Presidency than any other Veep in our lifetime. That should give us serious pause. She has less than one term as governor of a state that is smaller than Chicago, and Obama -- who the republicans say is not ready to lead -- has several years in the Illinois legislature and four years in the Senate. What breath-taking hypocrisy to again and again attack Obama's lack of experience and then name a VP candidate whose resume is as thin as a spring onion skin.

I want the Democrats to bring out the political rottweilers for this election. I want the gloves to off, the wonks to either shut up or learn to talk in ways that move and inspire and inform, and I don't want anyone to let the Republicans go unanswered on a single issue. Palin must be exposed. She may represent a significant number of extreme right wing conservatives, and certainly she is not alone in bringing her religion to her political performance. Democrats must remind people over and over that one cannot serve two masters; and that religion and politics make really poor bedfellows. The trouble with people like Sarah Palin is not that they are believers: it is that they believe they know the right and only way, the one true way, and given the power to do so they will attempt to impose their beliefs on each and every one of us.

I said it in the beginning; I will repeat it. Any woman who votes for John McCain in this election because he has selected a woman as a running mate is a fool.