When John McCain announced having Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, on his ticket as Vice President my interest in his candidacy greatly increased. I’ve voted for Republicans before and am planning on voting for Dino Rossi the WA state Republican governor candidate next Tuesday. Maybe a few other Republicans will earn my vote as well. I’m disappointed in the Democrats and Republicans (moreso Republicans admittedly), so it’s usually a lesser of evils approach when I hit the voting booth.

So had no idea who Sarah Palin was or what she stood for but liked the fact that McCain guaranteed that the White House would be different in the next term: either we’d have an African American in the White House or a woman. I applaud this welcomed change.

Some idiots still don’t.

Palin’s first speech (not the one in the embedded YouTube above obviously, I’ll get to that clip shortly) got me even more excited about the McCain Palin ticket.

My faith in both candidates was shaken when both of them voted for the Wall Street bailout plan. McCain could have gone a long way to securing my vote November 4 if only he would have stood up and been against the bailout.

Back to Palin who has screwed up at key points in the campaign since the first week she was announced:

1. Avoided non-vetted media in the beginning. After the infamous Katie Couric interview where Palin appeared completely unqualified to be the Vice President her handlers kept her away from the media. This made me suspicious. Why she didn’t tell her handlers: hands off, and come out and talk to us? By keeping the media out, she helped move the perception that she would only use talking points and carefully prepared speeches. Like. Most. Every. Other. Politician.
2. Taking part in a $150,000 shopping spree while proclaiming she was a typical "hockey mom." She should have told the fools who came to her with the expensive clothes: "Take them back." Like she did with the governor’s jet in Alaska. But she didn’t. Yeah, yeah, the clothes are going to be donated to charity when it’s over. Please. Don’t buy them in the first place! And yet you point fingers at the other side that we should be worried Obama will be overspending?
3. Watch the YouTube video clip (hat tip to Boing Boing) toward the top of this post and clearly hear someone yell the N word in reference to Obama.  Palin should have immediately stopped her prepared speech and scolded the person for the use of that word and asked for security to escort the racist out. Did she? Nope, she kept on talking.  Are we supposed to give Palin the benefit of the doubt that she didn’t hear? Conversely, I appreciate and admire that McCain stopped and corrected one lady at a rally who disparaged Obama.

I could go on and on as there have been plenty more gaffes on Palin’s part — we didn’t even get into the Alaska Troopergate scandal or Scott Horton at Harpers pointing out flaws in Palin’s socialist rant — but the point is my interest in Palin has waned considerably. She’s become a liability for the Republican ticket.

Sidebar: Joe Biden certainly hasn’t helped Obama with his whole crazy "there will be tests" message. Biden is known for putting his foot in his mouth, but that’s not a good excuse. I hope Obama called him up after that speech and told him to put a bigger shoe in his piehole.

Palin might be moving away from the campaign according to CNN:

Several McCain advisers suggested that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin "going rogue."

And:

A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.

"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," this McCain adviser said. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else."

John McCain refutes these reports:

“It is pure, unadulterated baloney that there is any problem,” he said.  “You’ll always get unnamed staffers and will say things that reporters want to hear from time to time.”

Can Palin redeem herself and come out of this with any sort of political future?

I’m not certain she can, but she could do something to show that she’s not like most every other slippery-tongued, actionless politician.

Admit convincingly with heart to mistakes she’s made during the campaign. Not blame her handlers, not blame John McCain, blame herself for her own bad decisions by letting these things happen. If she doesn’t do that, then she doesn’t even deserve to be governor of Alaska. With the whole abuse of power finding if I lived in Alaska it’s doubtful I would be re-electing her anyway.

Leaders are supposed to lead, not be lead by others.

Palin has shown herself more to be a follower than leader. Despite my interest in seeing a female in the White House, I can’t overlook Palin being the wrong one. I’m sure there are other, better female politicians than Sarah Palin in the Republican Party. McCain should have chosen somebody else.

As it stands today a week from the election, I went from excited about the prospect of Palin being in the White House to not even wanting to see her on the guest registry.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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