palindrome - (pal - in - drome) - noun-a word, line, verse, number, sentence, etc., reading the same backward as forward, as "Madam, I'm Adam" or "Poor Dan is in a droop."
"Palin" certainly is a fitting name for John McCain's pick for his running-mate, as it shows that if he is elected, the country will be exactly the same going forward in the next four years as it is looking backward on the last eight of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney - we could be looking at the first ever Palindrome Presidency!
In case you haven't heard, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska has been selected as John McCain's second in command. For those of you keeping score, that means if McCain were somehow incapacitated, Palin would be the acting Commander in Chief, the leader of the free world. Is this virtual-unknown ready for such a responsibility? Well, if you listen to her supporters (Palin-drones as I like to call them), you would think she should be the one running for president with McCain as her VP. Of course, for those of us here in reality, these people are really, really stupid; if McCain does win and Palin somehow assumes the presidency during the term, this country will drown. Sarah Palin is simply not qualified for this position and McCain picking her is a slap in the face to every American voter.
Before we dig in, let's rewind for a moment, shall we? A few weeks ago, Karl Rove (McCain adviser, former Bush adviser) was interviewed on Face the Nation and made several remarks about Barack Obama's vice presidential search:
He's going to view this through the prism of a candidate, not through the prism of president; that is to say, he's going to pick somebody that he thinks will on the margin help him in a state like Indiana or Missouri or Virginia. He's not going to be thinking big and broad about the responsibilities of president...
In regards to Tim Kaine, possible Obama VP pick:
With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he's been a governor for three years... I don't think people could really name a big, important thing that he's done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America... So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I'm really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States? What I'm concerned about is, can he bring me the electoral votes...
Again, these were all things said by Karl Rove, McCain's adviser, all while they were hammering Obama on the issue of experience. Well with the selection of Sarah Palin, that claim of experience goes out the window. Tim Kaine was the former mayor of Richmond, Virginia - the metropolitan area has a population of almost 1.2 million people, double the population of the entire state of Alaska. And he's "only" been governor for three years? Palin's been governor of Alaska for 18 months. Just another example of Republicans ignoring their own blatant hypocrisy - but more on that at a later date.
You may have seen a statement issued a few days ago from some guy named Rudy Giuliani (the name sounds familiar...) about how Sarah Palin is actually more experienced than Barack Obama, which is more of a stretch than when your girlfriend tells you she's only slept with three guys because she doesn't count the times she was wearing socks. Let's compare the resumés, shall we?
Sarah Palin
-Finished second place in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant in 1984.
-Received a Bachelor's Degree in journalism from the University of Idaho in 1987.
-Briefly worked as a sports reporter on a local Alaskan television station.
-Joined the Alaskan Independence Party, who want to seceed from the United States.
-Served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska City Council from 1992 - 1996
-Became Mayor of Wasilla (population approx. 5,500) in 1996 and served until 2002.
-Failed run at Lt. Governor of Alaska in 2002
-Elected Governor of Alaska (population approx. 600,000) in 2006 after defeating the extremely unpopular Frank Murkowski
Barack Obama
-Graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in political science from Columbia University in 1983.
-Worked at the Business International Corporation and New York Public Interest Research Group.
-Between 85 and 88, was the Director of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago's South Side. In his three years working there, their budget went from $70,000 to $400,000 and helped create a job training program for those living in poverty.
-Entered Harvard Law in 1988.
-Elected President of the Harvard Law Review in 1990.
-Graduated in the top 10% of his class of Harvard Law in 1991.
-Directed "Project Vote" in 1992, registering 150,000 new voters in the state of Illinois.
-Taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School between 1992-1996.
-Became Senior Lecturer of Constitutional Law from 1996-2004.
-Elected Illinois State Senator in 1996.
-Sponsored bipartisan legislation to reform health care laws in Illinois.
-Re-elected to Illinois State Senate in 1998 and 2002.
-Helped reform the Illinois death penalty in 2004.
-Elected to the United States Senate in 2004.
-Announced his candidacy for President of the United States in 2007
-Raised more money than any presidential candidate in history without accepting money from registered lobbyists.
-Won the Democratic nomination for presidency after beating Hillary Clinton in one of the most hotly contested primary elections in history.
-Accepted the nomination in front of 75,000 people at Mile High Stadium in Denver, CO.
And that's ignoring Obama's US Senate record, which you can read right here.
Now let's put this into perspective. Sarah Palin was mayor of the town of Wasilla, Alaska with a population around 5,500. You could fit over thirteen Wasillas into Mile High Stadium. Some high schools have more students in them than Wasilla. Minor league baseball games have more seats than the entire population of Wasilla. More people are at your average Weird Al Yankovic concert than live in the city of Wasilla. As for being governor of the state of Alaska, it has a population of around 600,000 - more people live in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico than in the entire state of Alaska. This is the person that John McCain thinks is qualified to run the country should he no longer be able to do so.
Now, if you ever encounter a Palin-drone and present these facts to them, they will likely retort with the only argument they have left: "b..b...but, she has executive experience!" Meaning she's run a state as opposed to being part of the legislative branch, well then if that's a qualification for being president, John McCain has no experience. Nope, despite his decades in the US Senate, he has no executive experience. Yes, Palin does have executive experience... of the state with the third smallest population in the country, furthest away from Washington DC, a state that collects no sales or income tax and relies almost entirely on oil production for its revenue. Oh... well now it makes sense - 80% of Alaska's revenue comes from oil and gas - fitting for John McCain whose plan includes nearly $4 billion in tax breaks for oil companies.
Sarah Palin is a joke of a running-mate and would be an even bigger laughingstock as the vice president. She's in way over her head in this election and I will continue to go over more reasons as to why this is the most insulting political move in recent history in the next installment of The Palin Project.
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