The Androsko Observer

I feel like I’ve been going crazy all morning. In the history of political stunts, this has to be on the of the loopiest I’ve ever seen. John McCain picked Gov. Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential candidate. I thnk most people will react along the lines of, “Who’s that?”. That’s why CNN has an article titled A Look at Palin’s Past, because no one knows much about her. McCain is hoping to siphon off women from Obama while cozying up to the religous- and far-right wing of his party. Quite the maverick, that guy.

Feministing has a good summary of why, though Palin may be a woman, she is in no way a friend to women voters. As they put it, here’s why “Palin’s political views suck”.

First up, she’s super anti-choice. The forced-pregnancy crowd is thrilled today! (She recently had her fifth child, who has Down’s syndrome.) She’s against marriage equality and supports a federal gay-marriage ban, but has made sure to note that she “has gay friends.” Though she has signed on to same-sex partner benefits. She believes schools should teach creationism. She’s also pretty terrible on environmental issues, and is a huge advocate of drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

As much as I disagree with her politics, I’m sure that some will be happy about her. But an ethics investigation? There’s nothing partisan about breaking the law. From The New York Times:

An independent investigator appointed by a panel of state legislators earlier this month is looking into whether Mrs. Palin dismissed a top law enforcement official in her administration because he failed to fire a state trooper, Mike Wooten, who went through a messy divorce with Mrs. Palin’s sister.

As if Alaska didn’t have enough scandal to deal with their Sen. Ted Stevens, his son State Sen. Ben Stevens, and Rep. Don Young (thanks to Think Progress for the links). But Gov. Palin’s actions get even weirder:

Mr. Monegan told the Anchorage Daily News that Mr. Palin showed him some of the findings of a private investigator the family had hired and accused him of variety of misdeeds, including drunk driving and child abuse.

Granted, he doesn’t sound like a great guy, but hiring a private investigator to find things to fire him for? With a messy divorce in the mix, how pure are the Palins’ motives? And why does her government staff need to be involved? This is from an audio recording that Gov. Palin released as part of the investigation, where Frank Bailey, the state’s director of boards and commissions, is pressing to have the ex-brother-in-law fired.

“Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, ‘Why on earth hasn’t this, why is this guy still representing the department?’ He’s a horrible recruiting tool, you know,” Mr. Bailey told the lieutenant.

Note the veiled threat at the end. As we’ve seen in the Justice Department over the past few years, meddling in the hiring and firing practices of government agencies is just plain wrong. It opens up whole new possibilities for abuse of power and cronyism. At first I though the choice of Palin was weird. Now I see how well it fits into the “more of the same” campaign that John McCain has been running.

UPDATE: Uh-oh. In the short time that we’ve “gotten to know” Gov. Palin, this little gem comes out. From CNN:

“As for that V.P. talk all the time,” she told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow in late July, “I tell ya, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me: What is it exactly that the V.P. does every day?”

I don’t think the McCain camp properly weighed the “experience” argument when they picked her. The Dan Quayle comparisons look ever more fitting.

UPDATE II: I’m almost starting to feel bad about this. Now it seems Gov. Palin doesn’t believe that global warming is man-made. That’s not going to sit well with the young social conservatives that she’s supposed to appeal to. From News Max via Think Progress:

A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I’m not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.

That’s troubling, since her boss seems to agree with man-made causes, as do the vast majority of climate scientists. But science doesn’t seem to be her string suit, what with advocating for creationism and all.

UPDATE III: “Getting to know” Gov. Palin has been quite a trip. I know that all the liberal blogs are trolling for negative things, but John McCain almost seemed to encourage it this morning. Palin gave a shout-out to Gerraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton this morning, then this shows up. This is her speaking to Newsweek, from Think Progress (emphasis theirs):

I say this with all due respect to Hillary Clinton…but when I hear a statement like that coming from a woman candidate with any kind of perceived whine about that excess criticism or you know maybe a sharper microscope put on her, I think you know that doesn’t do us any good – women in politics, women in general wanting to progress this country.