Readers Write: What the Palin Pick Means for America

By Tana Ganeva and Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet. Posted September 4, 2008.

So far, Republicans have toed the party line on Sarah Palin, obediently parroting the McCain campaign's tenuous claims about her "experience" and "qualifications" to be vice president. At least publicly. A microphone mishap today during an MSNBC news segment revealed what some conservatives really think about the latest addition to the Republican ticket. At the end of the segment the cameras stopped running, but the pundits' microphones stayed on and caught former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and former McCain adviser Mike Murphy excoriating the McCain campaign for picking Palin. When asked if Palin is the most qualified for the job, Noonan stated in no uncertain terms "No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives." Murphy went on to label the pick "gimmicky" and "cynical."

"It's over," concluded Noonan.

Noonan's prognosis is not surprising considering the alarming information about Palin that has surfaced since her nomination -- not just the soap opera stuff about her family life, but serious issues that call into question her skills, judgment and preparedness for national office.

The past day has brought even more bad news for Palin. Consortium News reports that Palin ran her campaign for lieutenant governor from her mayoral office -- a clear violation of campaign ethics laws.

Over the past two days AlterNet has compiled two lists of revelations about Palin, and our readers, much like Noonan and Murphy, have some pretty strong opinions. Many readers have weighed in on our comment boards, touching on everything from sexism to religion. From those who questioned her preparedness to those who think her nomination is an impressive Rovian tactic, here's what our readers had to say about the GOP's VP pick.

Many point out that Palin makes sense on the Republican ticket, since she shares her party's penchant for inconsistency and hypocrisy on matters of morality and religion.

Taxi-driver points to the strange disconnect between Palin's religion and her policies:

How can anyone pray to God for a gas pipeline? How can Palin and others of her ilk call themselves Christian? How can so many Christians go along with this? What Obama needs to do is to talk about true Christian values -- charity, humility, service, even (I daresay) love, and expose Palin and her crowd for what they are: impostors and charlatans who think God should work for gas pipelines in Alaska.

Ydothehatus takes on the absurdity of Palin's abstinence-only stance, especially in light of her daughter's pregnancy. They also point out that for all of Palin's talk about the importance of family, she is exploiting her daughter for political gain:

Palin ... believes in "Abstinence only Education" -- now her daughter is a poster child for this discredited myth ... she is further exploiting her daughter by forcing her to get married at such a young age, and using this pregnancy to rally the anti-abortionist core of the Repuglicans.

Many readers point out that regardless of her beliefs, Palin is simply not prepared for the job.

Badkitty writes:

Has anyone here ever been to a small town city counsel meeting? I have, and being the mayor of a small town in the middle of no place can NOT prepare anyone to be president or vice president! It is ridiculous. Palin knows nothing whatsoever about foreign affairs. We are at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. ... Health care? Home mortgage banking crisis? The economy in general? How about constitutional law? No? They got nothing. Palin's got nothing.

Foreverhope also points out that so far we have not gotten a sense of what -- if anything -- Palin thinks about foreign policy, the environment, health care and other issues that should be at the forefront of the election:

I would like to see her opinions on the illegal wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, what's going on in Pakistan, trade policy (and is Alaskan oil really sent to Japan?), the mortgage meltdown, infrastructure collapse, the economy, taxation, the bloated and unnecessary military ... the environment, especially, if she doesn't believe in man-made climate change or global warming, just how does she propose to address the issues of weather change (drought in the West, melting permafrost, stronger hurricanes, more tornadoes, etc.)?

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