September 3, 2008
As the GOP convention braces itself for Hurricane Sarah tonight, more and more revelations are coming out about how poorly vetted she was and whether she is fit to be on the ticket at all. The vetting question is essential because it speaks to the judgment of John McBush… err, I mean McCain. If he thinks the decision of who is second in line to the presidency is so cavalier, it does not bode well for his other appointments he would have to make as President of the United States.
While we are at it; let’s drop all of the silly defending of Sarah Palin. She has chosen a public life and has made her reputation as an evangelical-family values candidate. Whether or not her daughter chose to engage in pre-marital sex is completely germane to who she claims to be; the supermom who pushes abstinence only philosophies. While it is germane, it is so far down the list of problems with her candidacy that I think it is actually detracting from the more important questions. Questions, like Campbell Brown was trying to have McCain flack Tucker Bounds answer last night regarding the apparent double standard Team McBush employs when slamming Obama for lack of experience and then naming Palin as Veep. It was refreshing to watch a journalist actually not accept the ridiculous talking points and actually pose a follow up question of substance; even if Tucker had no answer for the double standard. Team McBush however did have an answer. They took their ball and went home; punishing CNN for asking such…journalistic questions? Team McBush actually cancelled a scheduled appearance by McCain on Larry King Live, blaming it on the Brown interview, which they claimed, “Crossed the line.” Here is that interview spot where Brown should be applauded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYYiw_y2qDI
Crossing the line? How? Because Brown is one of the few journalists who dare to question Team McBush and their inane talking points? This should be the lead story tonight heading into day two of the convention, that a candidate for president, who prides himself on “straight talk”, spitefully cancelled a scheduled television appearance because fair and balanced questions were being asked by a journalist. The fact is that Sarah Palin has no experience in foreign affairs at all. She barely has any experience in government. She has been Governor less than two years and prior to that was a Mayor of a city smaller than Nantucket, with only 6,700 residents. But Sarah Palin has bigger problems than that.
Sarah Palin also took advantage of the earmark process that John McCain pretends to deride so much. Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for that small town of 6,700 people. Hardly the courageous reformer the GOP has been pimping the past few days. But it gets worse. There is a little ethics investigation underway that could have doomed her Governorship, let alone candidacy for vice president. It seems that Governor Palin is being investigated by Alaska’s legislature over allegations arising from the firing of the state’s public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, who was fired earlier this year. It’s alleged that Monegan was removed because he refused to fire a state trooper who was the governor’s ex-brother-in-law. A sign of how troubling this is for Palin is that just today her lawyer is demanding that the case be removed from the assigned special counsel and assigned to a state personnel board. The little problem with that is all three members of this board were appointed by Palin herself! That doesn’t sound very ethical to me! The Special counsel, Steve Branchflower, has revealed that there are more than 20 documented calls, emails and other communications from Palin’s office to employees at Monegan’s Department of Public Safety that implicates Palin and her staff of putting pressure on Monegan to fire her brother-in-law. Given the ethical violations of the GOP over the past eight years, it is not wonder Palin has impressed them so much.
Even beyond the Troopergate and earmark problems, it seems that Sarah Palin has her very own Jeremiah Wright. Wright of course was Barack Obama’s pastor for many years and caused great distress for candidate Obama after someone combed through his sermons over a 20 year period and finally found one that was offensive. The linking of Obama to Wright’s sermons was ridiculously unfair not to mention greatly distorted but since that is the bar the GOP set; some have decided to take a look at the preaching of Ed Kalnins, Senior Pastor at Wasilla Assembly of God since 1999, Palin’s former church. The sermons reviewed should give Christians pause as much as those of Reverend Wright. During the Kerry-Bush 2004 presidential election Kalnins said:
"I'm not going tell you who to vote for, but if you vote for this particular person, I question your salvation. I'm sorry."
You should be sorry Pastor Kalnins. This is an obvious abuse of authority and scripture. To question the salvation of people you have been entrusted to leading spiritually because of their political beliefs is heresy; plain and simple. Several months later however Kalnins bristled at criticism of President Bush in the horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:
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