McCain vs. Palin

Sarah Palin has been the focal point of much ridicule. Not only has the main street media try to portray her as unqualified for the VP seat, but Saturday Night Live has called Tina Fey to come in and portray Sarah Palin, and Tina does and excellent job. Despite the lack of long term experience in any sort of executive branch of government, Sarah Palin does brings some great things to the table.

Ruth Marcus is an editorial columnist for The Washington Post. Marcus has been with The Washington Post since 1984 and specializes in American politics, campaign finance, federal budget, and taxes. Marcus writes an article entitled “McCain vs. Palin”. With McCain’s very impressive resume, Marcus doesn’t understand why he would pick Sarah Palin to be his running mate. McCain has served in the Navy for 23 years and has been a US Senator since 1983. Marcus writes she has a continuing mystification over McCain’s chose. With McCain’s amazing knowledge of history and his experience in war, why would he pick Sarah Palin? It doesn’t seem to be a good match. I agree that this should be McCain vs. Palin, instead of Biden vs. Palin, seeging a big difference within the Republican nominees.

Marcus seems to believe that Palin does not have enough foreign policy experience. Marcus points out Palin’s interview with Katie Couric. When Palin was asked why she barely received her passport only two years ago, Palin suggest the way she has learned about the world is through education, books, and through mediums. I do believe our next Vice President must have some form of world travel and experience in dealing with foreign relations. If McCain’s campaign is based on that he has the experience and background to get the job done, why then would he pick someone who just got her passport two years ago? In McCain’s book “Hard Call”, he explains why knowledge of history matters, "Great statesmen who have been praised for their ability to see around the corner of history knew their history before they looked beyond it, and they understood the forces that drove it in one direction or another." Sarah Palin hasn’t arrived to this understanding and the future looks scary with Palin as our next Vice President.

Marcus’ audience is definitely geared towards the Left Wing Democrats who insist that she is not qualified to be the Vice President nominee. She wants the readers to see that this is not Democrats vs. Republicans, but rather McCain vs. Palin. She writes to persuade the reader to see the lack of Sarah Palin’s knowledge of history, foreign policy, and that McCain’s criticism on Obama’s lack of experience has been contradicted with his own decision.

I must say that I agree with Marcus. Even though Sarah Palin has a remarkable way with connecting with everyday people, I feel she is not ready to be our next Vice President. Maybe with a little more experience in foreign relations, and in her current Governor position, we could possibly see her again in 2012. I do believe Sarah Palin has a big political future, but she needs to get her hands a little more dirty. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/29/AR2008092902661.html