EDITORIALS
BIGOTRY ON DISPLAY
In a recent letter to the editor published in the Austin American-Statesman, the writer said she could not
vote for Sarah Palin because Palin “appears to believe in Armageddon, the apocalypse and the rapture.”
The writer did not explain how any of that relates to the presidency. None of those things is under the
control of the Executive Branch of the United States government. There is no precedent for the President
ordering up the apocalypse.
Also, it would have been interesting if she had said whether she could vote for candidate who believes God
forbids eating a lobster and commands the circumcision of male babies. She was equally silent about a
candidate who believes a little wafer of unleavened bread can be transformed into the come the flesh of
Jesus Christ through the divine power vested in a priest.
What is clear is that this is the kind of bigotry we’ve learned to expected from people who claim to practice
tolerance
PALIN HAS THE RIGHT EXPERIENCE
Sept. 9, 2008 - Some people are simply impervious to irony. Among them are those supporters
of presidential candidate Barack Obama who claim – with a straight face – that Sarah Palin, the
Republican vice-presidential candidate lacks the requisite experience to hold an office that could
propel her into the White House should 72-year-old John McCain become incapacitated.
In fact, Palin is better equipped to step into the Oval Office than either Obama or his running mate Joe
Biden. Unlike Obama and Biden, who are both U.S. senators, Palin has never held a Federal office. But
she is the governor of Alaska and has been the mayor of a small city. Both of these are executive positions,
as is the presidency. That’s why it’s called the Executive Branch.
Executive experience is more relevant to the office of president than Federal experience in some other
capacity. Neither Obama nor Biden can claim a single day of executive experience.
Should she ascend to the presidency she will join a long list of presidents who went from the state house to
the White House (or the vice-presidency) including Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. These two presidents
pursued widely divergent political philosophies but there was no question they were effective. In addition
there were both Roosevelts (any Democrat want to tell us what a colossal failure FDR was?) – Woodrow
Wilson, and Herbert Hoover. Not to mention – but we will – Jimmy Carter.
Aside from her alleged lack of experience, her opponents have resorted mainly to personal attacks, that
barely rise to the level of tabloid gossip. Typical was the claim that her youngest child is really the child of
her oldest daughter. Her daughter’s pregnancy has been used against her as though teenage pregnancy
were something rare in America and indicative of Palin's inability to serve as president.
Blogging on the Huffington Post, Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, warns us that, "Sarah
believes in God." New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd referred to Palin as McCain’s “trophy vice.”
Ensler needs to be reminded that most U.S. presidents believed in god. As for Down, someone should
feed her a saucer of warm milk.
The reality is that Saray has retrieved the base for McCain and put him ahead in the polls for the first
time. Her selection is helping a lot of Republicans overlook McCain’s stance on several issues such as
immigration, his support for cap-and-trade legislation to combat “global warming,” his disregard for the
First Amendment in pushing campaign finance legislation, his vote against the Bush tax cuts.
Sarah Palin is the last best hope of avoiding an Obama presidency.
