I am in the midst of a grief cycle right now. I was driving S. to daycare when I realized what Woody and Wilcox on the radio were saying. Our Governor, Sarah Palin, has been chosen to be the VP running mate. The first thing I did was shout, “NO! NO! HE CAN’T HAVE PICKED HER. HE’D BE STUPID TO PICK HER. NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. OH. MY. GOD.” I’m sure S. didn’t appreciate this, but she didn’t interrupt my screaming. So I dropped her off and spent the drive to school going through the other stages of grief. So far, I’ve been through disbelief, anger, sadness, and now, I’m into nausea. Oh, that’s not a stage of grief? Well, it is now.
I’m just shocked. Extreme shock. Horrified. Ugh. I don’t know what this is going to do to our state, and that worries me.
You see, I liked Sarah Palin when she was running for governor, but I didn’t vote for her (she’s a Republican, you see). Then she got elected. So I waited, and she seemed to be working out well as governor. She then did a couple of things that I disapproved of, which made me like her less. And then the scandal hit. She is accused of firing the head of the Troopers because he refused to fire her ex brother-in-law, who went through a nasty divorce with her sister. It looks like the accusations are well founded, and there’s an investigation in the works. I’m surprised that McCain would have picked her in the midst of this scandal. Maybe it’s just small potatoes, but I think it says a lot about her character. I have begun to distrust her in the past few months, so I have a negative opinion of her right now. That’s just my personal opinion, of course.
Anyway, think of me while you watch the news today. And know that I am probably still in shock and possibly sick to my stomach.
Who would succeed her for the rest of her term, or who else is in the running for governor these days? We’ve been out of the state for so long I am way behind on who’s who in politics.
Do you think he picked her to draw the female Clinton voters who are still mad at Obama?
I hadn’t heard about the scandal….had heard vaguely good things about her, and I’m a Democrat. Well, I am progressive and liberal in politics. My first thought was “Oh no! How will this affect things!”
Well, good question. If she/McCain wins, Sean Parnell (Lt. Gov.) would become governor. BUT, Parnell is in a dead heat with Don Young in the primary election for the House. He’s 150-odd votes behind Young, and they’re waiting for 8,000 absentee ballots to come in. SO, if Parnell wins the primary and goes on to win the actual House election, the unknown DISTRICT ATTORNEY would become the governor. How messed up is that?
Yep, she had been doing well her first year, then she made a screwed up decision regarding the Mat Maid plant, then this whole trooper scandal broke about a month ago. I’m so tired of hearing about her “impeccable ethics”– she certainly doesn’t have impeccable ethics. She’s no ordinary soccer mom. She manipulative and definite uses her power to get her way. She’s a little scary. That’s why I told my husband that she’d be a perfect Republican candidate.
First, has this scandal been verified? I ask because our local political scandals have often turned out to be non-scandals after all the facts were in. Typical inflammatory political hearsay. It makes everyone look bad in the long run.
Now, I don’t live in Alaska, nor can I say I’m up on everything, but what I’ve read about Palin (except for the trooper thing) has been largely positive. In other words, I think I’d have to see definitive proof that she screwed up that badly before I’d believe it.
Well, being as I’m from Alaska, we hear a lot more than the rest of the nation from people who actually know her. A lot of people have come out of the woodwork in the past two years who have insights about her personality from firsthand experience. They say she’s manipulative, power-hungry and takes things very personally.
As far as the scandal goes, no, nothing has been proven, but there is an investigation of her right now which has uncovered an audiotape of one of her staffers pressuring the head of the troopers to fire her brother-in-law. He refers to the governor as if she asked him to call the guy. Sarah claims she had no knowledge of this call, but I for one don’t believe her. It’s not that I enjoy seeing the worst in people. In fact, I’ve been a supporter of hers up until about a year ago, when things started to go sour. So, please don’t think I’m judging her too harshly on recent events. There are many things that have happened over the past year that I’m not pleased with. I think they say a lot about her character– I just don’t know if the national media will pick up on those things or if they’ll just see her as some cute, innocent mother of five. I want everyone to know the real Sarah Palin, not the one on the surface. I think everyone deserves to know who she really is and how she’s handled herself as governor before they make any snap judgments.
I don’t see her as cute and innocent at all; I see her as a strong conservative woman with an agile mind who has the ovaries to stand up for what she believes in.
If she were a man ‘cute and innocent’ wouldn’t be an issue. The fact that she’s a woman isn’t one for me, though I know others will love/hate the fact.
Who knows what will happen between now and November… and what facts we’ll be privy to…
I totally agree with you. She is definitely a strong, smart woman who stands up for what she believes in. I sometimes have a problem with what she believes in, though. That’s where I have a problem with her.
I don’t really care that she’s a woman- I don’t think that’s an issue at all. (I mean, I’m glad and all that a woman is on the ticket, but it’s not going to influence me one way or the other.)
Thanks for commenting! I appreciate everyone’s views. It’s nice to finally have an interesting political discussion.
Ain’t it grand to discuss? Makes life insteresting.
Keep reserving judgment. Things looked VERY bad for the mayor here and when all was said and done, he was cleared of supposed misdeeds and secret deals.
[...] August 28th, Mamadance was, in the words of AKM, hijacked by Sarah Palin. I didn’t know at the time that my little obscure mommy blog would almost [...]