Campaign First

John McCain’s campaign slogan is “Country First.” His argument for wanting to be president is that he is a War Hero, a Maverick, and a Patriot who always puts his country ahead of political considerations. Unlike his opponent, who supposedly has no record of putting country ahead of party, John McCain is a true American who will keep our nation safe and lead us to prosperity. John McCain always puts Country First.

Except, of course, when it comes to picking a running mate. John McCain is 72 years old, making him the oldest first-term presidential candidate in American history. If elected, he would be the oldest first-term president in American history. He is also a four-time cancer survivor (skin cancer, yes, but even skin cancer is potentially fatal.) And while John McCain likes to trot out his 90 year-old mother as an example of his good genes, the fact is his mother didn’t endure five years of torture in a North Vietnamese prison camp, which is sure to shave a few years off your life expectancy.

The point is, of the 43 people who have served as President of the United States, none have been as statistically likely to die in office as John McCain is. Therefore, his choice of running mate is the most important decision any presidential candidate has ever made.

Now, when choosing a Vice President, there are two schools of thought. Some say you should chose someone who will help you govern effectively, like President George W Bush did when he chose Dick Cheney, or former President Bill Clinton did when he chose Al Gore. Others will say you should chose someone who will help you get elected, like former president Kennedy did when he chose Lyndon Johnson, or John Kerry tried to do when he chose John Edwards. But no matter which way you go, making a governing choice or making a political choice, there is one thing you must, must do. You must choose someone who is unambiguously ready to assume the duties of President.

If you choose someone who is not ready to assume the presidency, but who may help you get elected, you have failed to put country first. That is an unconscionable act by any presidential candidate, but especially, ESPECIALLY for a 72 year-old four-time cancer survivor. John McCain put the least qualified VP candidate in the history of American politics one elderly heartbeat away from being a wartime commander-in-chief.

Why do I not believe that Alaskan Governor Sara Palin is unambiguously qualified to assume the duties of President? Let me lay out her resume. First, her education consists of a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Idaho. My 22 year-old sister, by comparison, has a Double Major in Journalism and Communications from Western Washington University, which makes her better educated than our potential future president. I love my sister, don’t get me wrong, but I wouldn’t vote for her to be mayor of Wasilia, Alaska, let alone Vice President of the United States.

Speaking of Wasilia, Alaska, Sara Palin was the mayor of that town of 6700 people before she was Governor of Alaska. Her entire experience in elected office consists of 20 months as Governor of the 47th most populous state in the Union, preceded by several years as the mayor of beautiful Wasilia. Oh, and she was on the PTA for a while too, if that counts. So, six years ago, Sara Palin was the mayor of a town of 6700 people. Now she’s potentially one heartbeat away from the presidency. Think about the town you grew up in. Was it a small town, like Wasilia? Even if it was larger that Wasilia, think of the mayor of that town. Remember what you can about that person. Now, imagine that in six years, that person will be running for Vice President. Can you imagine that person in the White House? Can you imagine that person being one 72 year-old heartbeat away from the Presidency? What would that person have to accomplish in six short years to be worthy of the Vice Presidency?

Here’s what Sara Palin did in the six years between being mayor of Wasilia (where she was almost recalled for poor governance, and where she entangled the town in a legal battle over eminent domain laws that the town is still paying the legal fees for six years later) and today, where she is asking you to vote for her on a national ticket. She was appointed to co-chair an energy commission. She resigned after one year, citing too much corruption on the commission (admirable, I admit.) She than ran for Governor on a platform of reform, and won. She has been Governor for about 640 days. And now she’s the Republican nominee for Vice President.

That resume may sound a little thin, but the skeptical person will ask “what is her record?” Allow me to elaborate. In the 90’s, her husband was a registered member of the Alaskan Independence Party, and she attended one of their conventions (and actively courted their vote during her gubernatorial campaign.) The Alaskan Independent Party is a political party that advocates secession of Alaska from the Union, establishing it as a sovereign nation. It advocates the elimination of property taxes (you know, the taxes that fund public schools) and the return of all federal lands to the private ownership of Alaskan citizens (presumably so that places like ANWR or Glacier National Park can be opened up to oil drilling.) Sara Palin is a registered Republican, but her husband is a member of the AIP, and the AIP calls for the infiltration of major political parties by its members for the purposes of furthering its agenda. Someone should ask Sara Palin if she really is a Republican, or if she is one of these AIP infiltrators. Also, the founder of the AIP famously said that “the fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared the fire of my hatred for the American government.” Someone should ask Sara Palin why she courted the vote of a party that hates America.

Speaking of Sara Palin’s past, let’s talk about her church. As we all know, Barack Obama attended a church who’s pastor famously described 9/11 as “America’s chickens coming home to roost,” and who also said “not God bless America, but God damn America” for the way the government treated and continues to treat minorities. (By the way, did anyone stop criticizing Jeremiah Wright to consider whether or not he’s right? September 11th was terrible event, and a prime example of evil in the world, but does anyone remember that Osama bin Laden organized that attack as revenge for the 350,000 Iraqi children who died of malnutrition and disease after America bombed Baghdad’s water filtration plants and power plants in 1991? Al Queda directly killed 3000 Americans, but America indirectly killed ten times as many innocent children. This neither condones nor excuses the tragedy of 9/11, but it lends some context to the whole “coming home to roost” argument. And I don’t have to tell you what the last 300 years have been like for minorities in America. Long story short, Jeremiah Wright had a point.)

Anyway, since Pastor Wright’s comments have been fair game in this election, let’s talk about Sara Palin’s pastor, and what he’s on record as saying. In 2004, he told his parishioners that if they voted for John Kerry, he “questioned their salvation.” In 2005, he told the congregation that criticizing President Bush was the equivalent of “criticizing your pastor,” and that such an action could “only lead to hell.” Someone should ask Sara Palin if she believes that Democrats are doomed to eternal damnation. Her pastor also described 9/11 and the war in Iraq as battles in “a war for our faith.” In other words, the Iraq War is a holy crusade for Christianity.

I would say that someone should ask Sara Palin if she agrees with that, but we already know she does. Just three months ago, she gave a speech in that church in which she described the war as “a commitment to God’s plan.” So, God’s plan was for 4100 American soldiers and an estimated 125,000 Iraqi soldiers and civilians to die while America spends 12 billion dollars per month occupied a once-sovereign nation in the Middle East? Her pastor once said that while Jesus was a good shepherd, he also kept part of his mind in “war mode.” Funny, I would have assumed that Christ would practice what he preached.

While we’re on the subject of practicing what you preach, let’s talk about Bristol Palin. Bristol is Sara Palin’s unwed 17 year-old daughter, pregnant with a child conceived out of wedlock. Normally, I would say that this kind of family drama is off-limits for political conversation, but it is relevant here. Sara Palin herself conceived her first child out of wedlock, which makes the whole unwed mother thing kind of a family tradition. I don’t disapprove of pre-marital sex, but the Palin’s do, and that’s why this subject is fair game. Sara Palin disapproves of sex-education in public schools, and wants to replace every sex-ed program with abstinence-only education. How can Sara Palin advocate abstinence-only education when both she and her daughter are living examples that people will have sex out of wedlock, regardless of what you teach them? If Sara Palin had used the experience of her own pre-marital pregnancy as a teaching opportunity to explain the importance of contraceptives to her daughter, Bristol would not be saddled with an unwanted child while still in high school. This woman wants to force America to employ a teaching program that has failed in her own family, more than once. It is the height of either hypocrisy or stupidity. Maybe both.

Of course, it is possible that Sara Palin promotes abstinence-only education because she believes that contraception is a form of murder. It’s the logical conclusion of her stance on abortion: she believes that abortion is murder, and that it should be outlawed, even in the case of rape or incest. This is an EXTREME point of view, and if you agree with her, you are one of only 7% of all Americans who do. If she so strongly believes that abortion is murder, isn’t it logical to conclude that birth control in all its forms, from the pill to condoms to RU486 to IUDs, are also forms of murder? Someone should ask Sara Palin if she favors a constitutional amendment banning contraceptives (it would require such, as the Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that such a ban is unconstitutional.)

Now, supporters of Sara Palin will argue two points: one, she has more experience than the Democratic nominee for president, and two, this election is really between John McCain and Barack Obama. I’ll address that second point in a minute, but let me talk first about the comparison between Sara Palin’s experience and Barack Obama’s. First, Sara Palin has been governor of Alaska since December, 2006. Barack Obama has been one of two Senators representing Illinois since January, 2005. Sara Palin was the mayor of Wasilia, Alaska, from 1996 to 2002. Barack Obama was a Senator in the Illinois State Senate, representing the 13th District, from 1997-2004. Wasilia, Alaska had a population of approx. 6700 when Palin was mayor, and the entire state of Alaska is home to approx. 683,000 people. By comparison, Obama’s district in the State Senate was home to approx. 781,000 people, and the entire state of Illinois has a population over 12.8 million.

But, Sara Palin was a Governor! Never mind that the president of the Alaska state senate says that she “isn’t qualifed to be governor; how can she be qualified to be Vice President or President?” Sara Palin has experience commanding the Alaska National Guard! Except the head of the ANG claims she has “no role” in anything they do outside the state, like fighting in Iraq. But what about her foreign policy cred? Alaska is the closest state to Russia, after all. If she ever has to negotiate a fishing agreement with Vladimir Putin, we can all rest assured that she’ll be experienced.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama has been on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for nearly four years; he has traveled to Iraq twice, Israel twice, Germany, France, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and Pakistan. By comparison, Sara Palin landed at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania and promptly told reporters that it was “nice to see another part of the country.” Ladies and gentlemen, our potential next VP, just happy to be in Scranton! To be fair, she has been to Kuwait, Iraq, and Germany to visit the troops. She also claims to have been to Ireland, but it turns out her trip to Ireland consisted of thirty minutes in the Shannon Airport while her plane refueled. Someone should ask Sara Palin why she feels the need to embellish her credentials by bragging about a half-hour of duty-free shopping.

I could go on about Sara Palin’s record (and lack of record,) about her views (and lack of views; she said just two years ago that she “wasn’t paying much attention to Iraq,) or about the various lies and hypocrisies she has been caught in. Maybe I’ll address them in a future post. Since you and I are over 2200 words deep into this, I’ll get to my point.

John McCain did not select a running mate who will help him govern. He did not choose a running mate who is qualified to fulfill the duties of President in his absence. He did not choose a running mate who shares the values and views of the majority of Americans. What he did was chose a person who would potentially help him get elected. He chose a woman, which presumably will attract disenfranchised Hillary Clinton supporters (a ridiculous notion, but I’ll talk about that another time.) He chose a social conservative whose views appeal to the most extreme wing of his party.

And to all those Sara Palin defenders who say that this election isn’t about her, it’s about John McCain and Barack Obama, I say you are absolutely right. Which candidate has the temperament and the judgment to be President? Well, a candidate for President only gets to make one presidential decision before being elected, and that is the choice of running mate. The choice reveals what kind of president the candidate will be. And in that test of presidential judgment, John McCain failed. He chose a person who is dangerously unqualified for the position. He chose a person for purely political reasons. The man whose campaign slogan is “Country First” decided to put his campaign first. As an American citizen, the President of the United States works for me. And I will not accept such recklessness in my White House.