Turn Left @ hypocrisy.com

You know, I’ve heard people call Sarah Palin folksy, genuine, feisty and even adorable. I’ve got some real-world descriptions for her like ignorant, uninformed, intellectually uncurious, downright nasty and a liar. At first, she may have been amusing, even forgivable. Today, she lived up to her self-proclaimed image as a pit bull with lipstick when she accused Barack Obama of associating with “terrorists” by linking him to a 70s radical who was a founder of the Weather Underground when Obama was a mere eight years old. How is Obama linked to William Ayers, now 63 years old? They live in the same Chicago neighborhood and have met several times. I guess we are to believe that Barack Obama moved there just so that he can associate with a terrorist? The truth is that bomb and conspiracy charges against Ayers were dropped in 1974. Today he is a professor of education at the University of Illinois in Chicago. I’m not surprised this garbage came out of Palin’s mouth. She’s not just feisty, she’s downright nasty.

I guess if you can’t distinguish yourself from Bush-Cheney on the issues, there’s only one way to go, and that’s as low as you have to go to win. That’s where the McCain-Palin ticket is right now. They have regressed to the larval stage. What little attention they were devoting to the issues is now completely gone. And now that she has proven that she can’t answer the types of questions you’d expect a vice presidential candidate to be able to answer, it’s pretty clear that Sarah Palin is only going to be allowed to speak to reporters she is comfortable with. You know, those who won’t challenge her. That pretty much leaves Sean Hannity and Fox Network. It’s also clear what her assignment will be: To smear Barack Obama. If the campaign style seems a bit familiar, it’s because McCain’s campaign manager is a protegé of none other than Karl Rove, and Sarah Barracuda is up to the task.

Some folks are gushing about Mrs. Palin’s debate performance. It didn’t take much for her to look good, given the hole she was climbing out of. It was indeed a ‘performance’; there was nothing genuine about it. To real political junkies, she neither looked comfortable nor natural. She looked scripted and rehearsed. Sarah Palin didn’t answer one question that was asked of her by the moderator. These were questions that the people want answers to. Instead, Sarah Palin conducted her usual three-ring circus, ignoring the moderator’s questions and choosing her own topics. She hijacked the debate and turned it into a shameless stump speech spewing the McCain as Maverick propaganda and touting her record as mayor of Wasilla and Governor of Alaska.

The majority of the time she read directly off her notes, sticking to her talking points which were often not related to the questions Gwen Ifill was asking. When Biden spoke on the issues, she either rolled her eyes or smiled sarcastically. Some may have found that appealing, but Sarah Palin did a great disservice to the American people by not addressing the issues facing them. In fact, John McCain has done a great disservice to this nation and to the American people by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate. It’s John McCain’s job to make sure Sarah Palin is qualified before putting her on the ticket. It’s John McCain’s job to make sure Sarah Palin is well informed about their campaign positions. However, the fact that Sarah Palin does not do anything to educate herself on the issues is because she’s intellectually uncurious. She couldn’t even give Katie Couric the names of publications or books that she reads. It doesn’t seem inconceivable that she doesn’t bother to read.

The repeated winking into the camera was way over the top. The first time she did it, I felt like years of fighting for women’s equality went out the window. It got worse from there. There isn’t one person I’ve spoken to, male or female, that didn’t interpret her winking as a deliberate exploitation of her sexuality. Given Mrs. Palin’s view of what women should be, that doesn’t surprise me either. She got Rich Lowry of the National Review Online so riled up that he posted a supposed review of her ability to connect with the public that read like some kind of perverted soft-core porn. I will not show the post in this article, but you can read it here. The morning after the debate as I stood in line at the supermarket, I overheard the two men behind me talking about Sarah Palin’s winking into the camera. One said to the other, “Man, I’m really tired but, hey, after she winked into the camera there was no way I was going up to bed.” Is this the kind of representation we want in Washington, ladies? Her image doesn’t work for me. I can do without brainless but hot.

That fact that Sarah Palin is a compulsive liar is not new news. In fact, Keith Olbermann pledged to donate $100 for every lie she tells. He donated $3,700 this week alone to the Alaska Special Olympics Fund. At this rate, Olbermann might have to hit Hank Paulson up for a loan. She claims that Alaska has billions of gallons of oil that will help us become energy independent. Alaska pumped 777 billion gallons of oil back in 1988. In 2006, it was down to 225 billion, and it continues to fall. Everyone was warned that the oil supply would eventually be depleted. Yet, Palin continues to feed the American public lies about her state coming to the rescue. This whole ‘drill, baby, drill’ lie is just unbelievable because the math doesn’t work. It’s another lie foisted upon us by the Republicans. America owns, at best, about 2% of the world’s oil supply, but we use 25% of the world’s oil supply. This is basic math. What is it that people don’ t understand about it? She continues to tell the American people that she was against the Bridge to Nowhere from the beginning. This is a lie. Sarah Palin lobbied extensively for this project, until she realized it was a bad political move to do so. Then, she turned against it out of political expediency. Here’s the kicker, she never returned the money. Instead, she built the road leading to the non-existent Bridge to Nowhere. At the Republican Convention, she talked about the Alaska natural gas pipeline, saying, “And when the deal was struck, we began a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.” Come on, Sarah. The pipleline exists only on paper, the application will not even be filed until 2011, and it will take ten years to construct.

Now we come to the issue of her folksiness. Joe Biden broke down as he related the story of losing his wife and daughter in an accident, and the fear he felt being left to raise two gravely injured boys by himself. He was not even sure if they were going to survive. Sarah Palin smiled through the entire story. At the end, instead of expressing some type of comfort, she immediately returned to her notes and began another John McCain as Maverick fantasy. So much for “folksy.” Being folksy means being genuine and empathizing with people. It’s not supposed to be an act, but it clearly is with Palin. Seeing the way she reacted to Biden made me instantly realize that she could care less about the average American.

Sarah Palin is a legend in her own mind. She lives in an alternate universe from the rest of the American public. What America needs is a vice presidential candidate grounded in reality and in tune with the needs of her citizens. America also needs someone with the intelligence and savvy to assume the role of the presidency at a moment’s notice. Sarah Palin may do okay when her talking points are scripted for her, but running the country is never scripted. It requires the ability to think on your feet, analyze the situation and take action that is in the best interest of the American people. Sarah Palin is by no stretch of the imagination ready for this job.

There are a couple of things I’m still not sure about since the Republican Convention, both having to do with the American public. First, are they really ready for change? Secondly, do they even have the stomach to deal with the real issues. This is a discussion for another day. There are, however, two things I am absolutely certain of. The first is that John McCain is intent on winning this election at all costs. To hell with what is best for America. At this point, it’s what’s best for John McCain that really matters. What is his master plan? It’s clear that McCain is going to run on innuendo, distortion and lies. And if he is elected, don’t kid yourself, he intends to lead the same way.

Since the convention where Rudy Giuliani led the faithful in the chant of “drill, baby, drill,” the Republican ticket has gone on a bender of nasty innuendos, subtle distortions and outright lies. I bring up drilling because that’s one of the great American lies - we can become energy independent in a flash if we give the utilities more offshore oil leases to not use. Like his predecessor, our present imperial president, it’s hard to tell when McCain is telling the truth. One of the major realizations I had, however, is that no matter how ill-equipped Sarah Palin is to be vice president, John McCain is equally ill-equipped to be leader of what used to be the free world.

John McCain has sold his soul and compromised what few principles he may have had for the presidency, and anyone willing to do that should never have the job. He’ll twist whatever way the wind is blowing to ensure his victory. He continues on with his ‘maverick reformer’ distortion and even includes Mrs. Palin under that mantle. Sure, he’s clashed with his own party on campaign finance reform and spending earmarks, but most of that has been for show. In the late 80s, he got caught with his pants down in an a savings-and-loan influence peddling scheme with Charles Keating, who just happened to be Cindy McCain’s (then Cindy Hensley) business partner. Now, some conservatives wave this off, calling it “ancient history.” I will mention, however, that he got a small slap on the wrist for his transgression, even though some feel he was the most involved of the five senators who took part in what eventually cost the taxpayers $3.4 million. Do you wonder why McCain had the hubris to choose a vice presidential candidate who was already under investigation for her own ethics violations? Hey, it worked for him.

In spite of his continued bragging about fighting lobbyists and special interests throughout the 2008 election cycle, campaign filings show that McCain has accepted more than $100,000 in donations from employees at Greenberg Traurig, the international law and lobbying firm where none other than Jack Abramoff - who has gone from superlobbyist to convicted felon - served as Senior Director of Government Affairs. A listing of McCain’s top money raisers, released on July 15, 2008, reveal that of one-fifth who have brought in the largest amounts (and we’re talking more than $500,000 each) are lobbyists who work for lobbying firms that the ‘reform maverick’ supposedly disdains. None of this is ancient history. It’s all in the present tense and nobody seems to care. Am I surprised at the mainstream media’s lack of understanding? Hell, no. I gave up on them a few years ago. I am, however, shocked at the American people who have had to endure eight years of the worst lying and cheating ever recorded in modern American history. The fact that they could want more of the same may indicate some type of mass pathological illness.

Enter Palin: The reformer from the great white north

The marriage between McCain and Sarah Palin is like some kind of twisted shotgun wedding. If you think McCain’s idea of reform is sick, wait until you get a load of hers. It was Boston’s Tip O’Neill who coined the phrase “All politics is local,” but it’s Sarah Palin who has carried it to the absurd extreme. Once elected governor, she appointed a high-school friend, Franci Havemeister, as head of the $2 million State Division of Agriculture. Even though Havemeister came from a real estate background, she justified her $95,000-a-year position by talking about her childhood love for cows. This is just one of at least five high school friends she’s appointed to positions they were ill qualified for and at salaries far above what they earned in the private sector.

Rather than work with legislators and mayors when preparing her very first budget as Governor of Alaska, Palin worked in secrecy with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker for BP who is not even on the state payroll. Together, they cut many millions of dollars of legislative programs to bring the budget in on the desired number. I guess this is reform of some type, although I’m not sure what kind of reform. It seems almost ignorant to isolate those who have to live with the budget every day and open the state government’s business to her spouse. The woman simply cannot seem to figure out the difference between official and personal business or, again, maybe she just doesn’t really care that there’s supposed to be a difference.

One of the reasons McCain chose Palin was to appeal to women, even liberal women. That so many women are opening their hearts and minds to this sneering, snarling, inept woman is an amazement to me. I find her attitude insulting, her politics repulsive, and her lack of knowledge quite frightening for the world in which we live. If you are a woman and a supporter, you really have to question your own sense of values. It is very difficult for women who have been raped to come forward, yet not only does Palin expect a woman to bear the rapist’s child, but she also charges their insurance for the rape kit. This goes beyond being insensitive. In a state where the rape rate is 2.2 times the national average and where 25 percent of all rapes result in unwanted pregnancies, it’s damned inhuman. Palin is against abortion of any kind, even when rape, incest and health of the mother is an issue, yet she managed to cut funding for a program that gets teen mothers back on their feet. Most forward-thinking women in positions of leadership are working toward empowering our younger women to think for and respect themselves, but not Sarah Palin. She’s moving back into the dark ages where patriarchy rules.

Continuing on with her ‘reform’ mantra, she stated to Charlie Gibson that Americans do not want “somebody’s big, fat resumé maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state.” Palin was, of course, referring to Joe Biden, but somebody should advise her that the statement just as easily applies to John McCain. For most semi-conscious people, a progressive and truly reform viewpoint as well as many years of experience, both national and international, are not mutually exclusive. It doesn’t have to be about corruption and more of the same old lies. Sadly, this is a leap that the McCain-Palin ticket cannot seem to make.

Like many others, I consider 17-year-old Bristol Palin’s pregnancy a personal family issue. I can see absolutely no reason to drag a child through the mud of a political campaign. However, there is a story here about whether or not abstinence-only sex education works. In Bristol’s case, it did not. It also has not worked for the children of several other people I know. While the abstinence-only approach is advocated by tunnel-visioned President Bush and the nation’s Christian conservatives, the failure to present a comprehensive sex-education approach to America’s youth is doing them a disservice. There was no need for Bristol to have to grow up sooner than her parents had ever planned, as Sarah Palin put it today.

I have an 11-year-old daughter, and I have already started my comprehensive sex-education program at home in the event that her middle school fails to do so. Yes, it starts with abstinence. It is my recommendation, not because the Bible says so, but because I think it’s important that my daughter understand the gravity of the situation. It’s not to be taken lightly. However, my daughter will also be taught about contraception.

This is a world where the fallout from teen sex is not just having a baby. It’s about sexually-transmitted diseases and AIDS. If we are not giving our children the benefit of the full spectrum of sexual education, then we are doing them a disservice and putting them at unnecessary risk. There’s a reason why the majority of Americans are against abstinence-only programs — it’s not the government’s job to dictate how sex education should be taught.

If Christians want to teach their children abstinence-only, then fine. They can keep their children out of any school sex education classes that might offer a comprehensive approach. That is their right. However, for conservative Christians to try to legislate morality and dictate to non-Christians how and what their children should be taught is an intrusive and unwelcome infringement of our rights.

And this is precisely what people like Sarah Palin, John McCain and the rest of the conservative Christians in America do not get: It is not up to you to dictate how or what we teach our children about such matters. If Bristol’s situation is a private family matter, so is how the rest of us heathen Americans choose to teach sex education to our children.  The majority of us prefer a comprehensive sex education program taught at school, with parents providing the moral counseling as we see fit.

I wish Bristol only the best of luck and many years of happiness. However, this is precisely why selecting an ideologically-driven candidate like Sarah Palin is the wrong choice for America. As much as I dislike Joe Lieberman’s politics, I hardly think this kind of personal non-issue would become the focus of a campaign when so much else is at stake.