Watch out for personality

I wish I had written this.  Instead I post if for all of you with admiration of the author (a close friend of mine):

This election is way too important to remain silent.  If I had a blog, this is what I would write on it, but since I don't have a blog, I am sending a mass e-mail hoping that you all will consider these thoughts surrounding McCain' choice of Sarah Palin as V.P. before casting your ballot - especially those of you in battleground states.  

As a female voter, the choice of Sarah Palin for Vice-President offends me.  I am offended by the incredible disrespect to the intellect of all women in the presumption that Ms. Palin’s selection will sway our vote merely because she shares our gender.  The Republicans chose a grossly unqualified woman because she could rally their extremist base with her ultra-conservative views.  Do they seriously think that women who supported Hillary can’t tell the difference between Sarah Palin’s political positions and Hillary Clinton’s or that they will disregard the polar opposite differences between these two women and see them only as their gender?  Women have been fighting for years to be viewed as more than their gender.  In one rash choice for a Vice-President, John McCain has told women to forget those struggles as he presumes that we engage in group tho ught with one common brain of a woman.  We deserve more respect than that and our children deserve a much better future than the one offered by John McCain and Sarah Palin. 

 

Eight years ago, the Republican party sold the American people a “personality” – a guy you’d rather sit down and have a beer with than Al Gore.  This “personality” had a haphazard resume and little political experience, having been the Governor of Texas for a few years before being selected by the Republican party for his perceived ability to sway voters with his down home – just like you – charisma.  This “personality” took a surplus and turned it into a deficit.  He took a peaceful country into an unjust and unwarranted war.  He displayed an amazing incompetence in responding to a national emergency in New Orleans.  He presided over an economy that saw the rich get richer and many of the middle class lose the ir homes – all while the CEOs of Fannie May and Freddie Mac made $12.2 million and $19.8 million in 2007 just before asking for, and receiving, a government bail out in 2008.  His administration was a disaster and left the American people with less prosperity, less security, and less freedom. 

 

Now, eight years later, the Republican party has again found its “personality” in a woman who has a haphazard resume with little political experience, having been the Mayor of a town so tiny it couldn’t hope to fill 20% of a baseball park and having been the Governor of Alaska for the past 21 months.  This woman preaches against the evils of corruption while currently under investigation in her own state.  This woman preaches against government earmarks but hired a lobbyist to gain $27 million of those earmarks for her own tiny town.  This woman preaches about accountability and character while herself telling a boldface lie to the American people about her support for the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, which she in fact expressly supported during her gubernatorial campaign.  This woman makes fun of community organizing efforts aimed at getting people jobs and developing after school programs for children – shame on every single American who laughed along with her.  Ms. Palin opposes gun control, she opposes environmental protection, she opposes alternative energy development, and she will sign on to John McCain’s economic plan which calls for making permanent the Bush tax cuts he once referred to as “unconscionable” – the same economic policies that have resulted in the ever-widening gap between the extreme rich and everyone else.  Ms. Palin has plainly admitted that she hasn’t paid much attention to the war in Iraq.  Ms. Palin has refused to answer unscripted questions by the media and her campaign has the audacity to suggest that her record and judgment are immune from scrutiny simply because she is a woman.  Americans deserve substance, not more fluff personalities who are way out of touch with the rest of America.  Ms. Palin has no answer for how she or John McCain will alleviate the skyrocketing costs of college tuition and healthcare and provide real solutions=2 0to the problems that Americans face.   This woman, like the “personality” from 8 years ago, is simply not an appropriate choice to lead the free world.  Voting for the cool kid 8 years ago was a mistake.  It would be an even bigger mistake to do so this year. 

 

Barack Obama graduated from Columbia University and turned down the high paying Wall Street opportunities waiting for him in Manhattan.  Instead, he took his degree and skills to the south side of Chicago to make a difference in the lives of Midwestern Americans less fortunate than himself.  He then went to Harvard Law School, but again, turned away from the prestigious and most lucrative legal jobs to work as a civil rights lawyer before he was elected to the Illinois Senate and began teaching Constitutional law at one of the country’s top law schools.  Of course, he was elected to the United States Senate in 2004 where he has served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Senate Committee on Vete ran Affairs, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.  Do we want to elect a United States Senator and Constitutional law scholar who uses his skill to help ALL deserving Americans or do we want to elect those “personalities” who will keep on helping the rich get richer at the expense of the remaining 95% of us?  This isn’t high school and we can’t afford to cast a vote for a “personality.”

 

John McCain should have more respect for women and American voters than to presume Sarah Palin’s “Hockey Mom” bit would make us forget his George W. Bush voting record.

Finally, on a personal note:  I don't know Michelle and Barack Obama personally, but many of my neighbors and professional colleagues do.  Barack Obama worked for a civil rights law firm with lawyers I do know.  The Obamas' children play in the local soccer league with many of our neighbors' children and attend school with some of our neighbors' children.  They are not the=2 0wierd, unknowns that some of the right wing have made them out to be.  They are two lawyers with two beautiful daughters who live on the south side of Chicago.  I know another family of two lawyers with two beautiful daughters who live on the south side of Chicago...granted, these lawyers are FAR LESS accomplished!!!  (But their daughters are certainly as darling, if not more so!).  

If you're still reading at this point, thanks and I promise this will be my one and only mass e-mail of the election season!  

Megan