Sarah Palin?

I don't really know anything about Sara Palin (sp??). I'll have to look her up. I do have a theory though...
Originally, the excitement with the democrats seemed to be because we would either have the first woman candidate, or the first black candidate. Now... We'll either have the first black president, or the first female vice president. When Hillary and Obama were competing this was a big deal. Now, everyone's just like "Sara Palin the family woman" and don't even seem to realize that she may be the first United States female vice president. I don't totally understand. She may just be more democratic than most republicans, but I'm only assuming that because she has an autistic son, who may have inspired her to work more with people in need within the country. We'll see.

So I've been trying to do a little reading on Sarah Palin. Most stuff you find on Alaska is more about the people she's appointed and promoted than anything she's doing, so everything I've got right now is from her acceptance speech as running mate.

I don't think I like her... On more of a personal level I guess. She seems to be kind of shoving her family down our throats... She introduces them very thoroughly, and a little too forced. It makes me a little nervous, too... almost too republican perfect: her husband works for an oil company, but is in the steelworker's union?, her son is in the army and will be deployed to Iraq on 9/11 (today), has 2 daughters and a baby boy. I thought she had had an autistic son, but she didn't mention it in her speech. I really don't know about that... I'm not sure if I want someone invested in the oil industry, even if he is a worker rather than an executive. I'm not too confident she'll be spending money on alternative fuels, but then she proved me wrong:

"I was then appointed ethics commissioner and chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and when I found corruption there, I fought it hard and I held the offenders to account. Along with fellow reformers in the great state of Alaska, as governor, I've stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the Big Oil companies and the 'good old boy' network."

"When oil and gas prices went up so dramatically and the state revenues followed with that increase, I sent a large share of that revenue directly back to the people of Alaska -- and we are now -- we're now embarking on a $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.

She says she wanted to cut "wasteful spending" and property taxes for her hometown. I'm not sure what she defines as wasteful spending. Considering her son's in Iraq, I doubt it's defense she wants to cut, which is the budget destroyer. Cutting taxes may not be a good idea right now.. our government needs the money, especially if anyone's going to be implementing domestic aid plans, you know?

Now, no leader in America has shown these qualities so clearly or presents so clear a threat to business as usual in Washington as Senator John S. McCain.

Oh wow... that makes me nervous. I don't like John McCain because he changes too quickly and too often. First he would never follow Bush, then all of a sudden they're best friends. I don't know about McCain, he's the wanna-be-democrat-wanna-be-popular-republican, it just doesn't make much sense to me...

""It was John McCain who cautioned long ago about the harm that Russian aggression could do to Georgia and to other small Democratic neighbors and to the world oil markets."

mmhmm... mhmmm... too bad we already know that Russia isn't the one trying to conquer the smaller countries around it. That would be Georgia... the "democratic" one. This makes me believe that there's a possibility that Sarah Palin and John McCain will want to get us involved in any and every act we can possibly muster up against the used-to-be soviet union. God forbid we actually check our sources and have a real reason to go to war that's not fudged tabloids....
...
anyways...

"It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all."

This is the last part that's worrying me... You don't see Obama playing the race card. I like that. I appreciate that. I respect that. People should vote for someone based on their positions and their ideas, and what they can actually do for their country, not their race. The same thing goes for gender. Palin is going to play that card until it snaps. Obama's going to lose a lot of women votes just because Sarah Palin is a woman. I'll bet that half of the women who end up voting for her know nothing about who she is or what she stands for... just that she's a woman. It's sad, and I worry the American people are going to be too blind to look past it and decide to vote for her based on the politician she is, rather than what genitalia she's got.

Here's hoping...