Politics, Going Badly

A few of the more determined and far left Democrats have shown that for all their bravado about peace they are more than willing to use disgusting (spitting, feces throwing, etc) and violent (rocks, bottles) ways to try and make their point. P.J. O’Rourke once wrote that "the reason there were fewer conservative protests than liberal protests is that conservatives had jobs". It is one thing to make your cause known. Quite another to be stupid about it.

The other part of politics gone badly is the digging on Sarah Palin’s daughter. She is 17 leave her alone. It has no bearing on the election or the nation. If there is a story there, it is the fact that both Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston (the babies father) showed up in Minnesota among all those reporters. You have to give Levi some credit for having the balls to step into that media S-storm, when he could have stayed home in Alaska.

Gov. Palin decided to attack on the “experience” issue. She claimed to have more executive experience than the entire Democrat ticket. That particular angle will come back to bite them in the butt, on so many levels. The very first being that McCain has NO executive experience EVER. The next part is from doing some fact checking regarding Gov. Palin, they may want to back off on the experience aspect and just call that a push for the rest of the campaign. Here are some facts regarding the Governors experience.

A total of 6 years as mayor for a town of less than 7,000 people, She was in charge of a total staff of 25 people. Then less than 2 years as Governor of a state of less than 700,000 people. There are only three states in the Country with less people. Rhode Island (which could be wall-to-wall carpeted for less than $1,000.00) has more people than Alaska. (At 1.1 persons per square mile, and over 70% of the State being owned and managed by the Federal Government. My 3 year old could handle running Alaska).

In January 1997, Mayor Palin fired the police chief and the town librarian. Palin said in a letter that she wanted a change because she believed the two did not fully support her administration. The chief filed a lawsuit; but a court dismissed it, finding that Palin had the right to fire city employees for political reasons. According to Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who observed City Council, Palin found certain book titles "somehow morally or socially objectionable." Palin rehired the librarian after town residents made a strong show of support. (Not sure how far we want to delve into the Fascist side of Government. I think we can all agree; “Book burning” not a good thing).

In 2002, term limits prevented Palin from running for a third term as mayor. Her stepmother-in-law, Faye Palin, ran for the office but lost the election to Dianne Keller after Sarah Palin endorsed Keller, her cousin.

Alaska is one of two U.S. states not bordered by another state, Hawaii being the other. It is the only non-contiguous U.S. state on continental North America; Alaska is thus an exclave of the United States. It is technically part of the continental US, but is often not included in colloquial use; Alaska is not part of the contiguous U.S., often called "the Lower 48". Juneau, Alaska's capital city, though located on the mainland of the North American continent, is inaccessible by land—no roads connect Juneau to the rest of the North American highway system. (You just can't get there from here. Or from anywhere as it turns out.)

The Alaska State Legislature consists of a 40-member House of Representatives and a 20-member Senate. California has 53 members in the US House of Representatives, alone. The US Senate, which any Vice President presides over as their only Constitutional job (other than checking the Presidents pulse every few hours), has 100 members. Half of whom hate you; welcome to the real world of Politics.

McCain is running as the anti-earmark Maverick who selected Palin because she is cut from that same cloth. As Mayor of Wasilla she hired a Lobby firm to obtain $27 million dollars in "Earmark" funds. That works out to $3857.11 for every Man, Woman, and Child in the town. If Palin was, instead, a master of the earmarks (which the numbers from Wasilla suggest), then what does that do for McCain’s argument about her status as an anti-earmark crusader? At a minimum, this gives the Obama campaign some talking points, and at worst, it again raises the question of how well Palin was vetted by the McCain campaign.

If the McCain campaign (And I am not quite sure who is really running it) was looking for a Woman to be on the ticket. They could have done far better with the Governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle. Far more experience than Palin, still pulling from one of our far away States, and a much better place to visit in February.