Palin as VP
Grabbing the spotlight after the Democratic convention, Republican presidential candidate John McCain
announced his choice for VP - Alaska's governor Sarah Palin. A former beauty pageant winner, Sarah is
not only a fresh face but a beautiful fresh face. She is friendly to big oil companies, unfriendly to
environmental issues, and shares McCain's anti-abortion platform. She has far-right credentials, without
question, so would thus be pleasing to the evangelical vote McCain fears losing. She even advocates
teaching creationism in public schools. But is she too far to the right? There are many problems with this
VP pick, which the media has just begun exploring, like potentially creating a problem with the Jewish
vote which Lieberman as a VP choice would have immediately firmed up. But then, Lieberman is
pro-choice and would have offended the evangelical vote. One must make choices, it seems. Oops,
McCain has potentially offended the Jewish voters.
- Palin a 'Far-Right, Pro-Life Zealot'
August 29, 2008
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/
- Jewish Democrats have started to hit Sarah Palin hard for her association with former
presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, which seems to have amounted to her being seen
wearing a Buchanan button in 1996.
Then there's the issue of experience, an issue the Republicans are always emphasizing when complaining
about Obama. Palin is very inexperienced, with less than two years as a governor and beyond that only
her experience being a mayor of a small town - Wasilla, Alaska, population 8,471. Alaska itself has a
population of only a half million, whereas large metropolises in the US are typically composed of several
million people each. Oops, there goes the Republican argument on Obama not having experience.
McCain has been behind Obama steadily in the national polls, and losing on a state-by-state electoral
count in state polls. What to do to shake up the race and gain the upper hand? The choice of Palin as
VP was immediately seen as an attempt to grab disenfranchised Hillary fans. According to polls taken
ahead of the Democratic convention 30% of Hillary fans are thinking of voting for McCain. This may or
may not prove true come election day, but 30% of 18 million votes is a huge number. McCain
obviously went for the gold.
- McCain Gambles on Inexperienced Conservative
August 29, 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/47d245e6-75f1-11dd-99ce-0000779fd18c
- The choice represented a bid by Mr McCain to win over disgruntled former supporters of
Hillary Clinton, undercutting Democratic efforts during the convention to reunify the
party. Ellen Malcolm, president of Emily's List, a pro-Democrat group that supports
women candidates, challenged the notion that Ms Palin would appeal to former Clinton
supporters. "McCain clearly sees the power of women voters in this election but has just as
clearly failed to support any of the issues that they care about," she said, highlighting Ms
Palin's support for overturning the Roe v Wade ruling that legalized abortion.
Early reports indicate that woman are offended by this choice of just any woman to replace Hillary, who
fans saw as competent and earning her place on the national stage. Then there is the issue of Palin's
opinion that women who are the victims of rape or incest should be denied access to abortions. Not
exactly a woman friendly position. Oops, offended the Hillary fans, and women voters in general!
- Palin: You're no Hillary Clinton
August 29, 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/palin-youre-no-hillary-cl_b_122479.html
- None of my pro-Hillary female friends are falling for this obvious GOP pander. To the
contrary, McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his VP is drawing hoots of derision. Once
they learn that Sarah Palin opposes rape and incest exceptions for women seeking
abortion, they completely write her off. One female friend said: "Sarah Palin is to the
movement for women's equality what Clarence Thomas is to civil rights. She's an extremist
and an enemy to the cause that has been fought on her behalf. Someone should stand up
and say: 'I know Senator Clinton. Senator Clinton is a friend of mine. And Sarah Palin is
no Hillary Rodham Clinton.' "
Then there is the issue of calling attention to McCain's age and poor health. Voters nervous about
McCain's numerous senior moments on tv and frequent bouts with melanoma skin cancer were
reminded of all this by his pick of a very young inexperienced person for VP. If McCain falters in the
presidency, who will take the reins? Oops, spotlight on the age and cancer issue again, reminding voters.
- McCain Gambles on Inexperienced Conservative
August 29, 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/47d245e6-75f1-11dd-99ce-0000779fd18c
- The pick could be suicidal by undermining Republican attacks against Mr Obama's
inexperience and drawing attention to the health concerns surrounding Mr Mc-Cain, a
cancer survivor who would become the oldest first-term president if elected. Mr McCain's
vice-presidential pick was considered more important than usual because of his age, which
increases the likelihood of his vice-president having to take over.
And last, but not least, we have a Palin scandal for the media to chew over and explore - Wootengate.
Here's the story in the words of an Alaskan blogger.
- What is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan's Perspective.
August 29, 2008
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/what-is-mccain-thinking-one-alaskans-perspective/
- Sarah Palin's sister Molly married a guy named Mike Wooten who is an Alaska State
Trooper. Mike and Molly had a rocky marriage. When the marriage broke up, there was a
bitter custody fight that is still ongoing. During the custody investigation, all sorts of things
were brought up about Wooten including the fact that he had illegally shot a moose (yes
folks this is Alaska), driven drunk, and used a taser (on the test setting, he reminds us) on
his 11-year old stepson, who supposedly had asked to see what it felt like. While Wooten
has turned out to be a less than stellar figure, the fact that Palin's father accompanied him
on the infamous moose hunt, and that many of the dozens of charges brought up by the
Palin family happened long before they were ever reported smacked of desperate custody
fight. Wooten's story is that he was basically stalked by the family.
After all this, Wooten was investigated and disciplined on two counts and allowed to keep
his position with the troopers. Enter Walt Monegan, Palin's appointed new chief of the
Department of Public Safety and head of the troopers. Monegan was beloved by the
troopers, did a bang-up job with minimal funding and suddenly got axed. Palin was out of
town and Monegan got "offered another job" (aka fired) with no explanation to Alaskans.
Pressure was put on the governor to give details, because rumors started to swirl around
the fact that the highly respected Monegan was fired because he refused to fire the
aforementioned Mike Wooten. Palin vehemently denied ever talking to Monegan or
pressuring Monegan in any way to fire Wooten, or that anyone on her staff did. Over the
weeks it has come out that not only was pressure applied, there were literally dozens of
conversations in which pressure was applied to fire him. Monegan has testified to this fact,
spurring an ongoing investigation by the Alaska state legislature. But, before this
investigation got underway, Palin sent the Alaska State Attorney General out to do some
investigative work of his own so she could find out in advance what the real investigation
was going to find. (No, I'm not making this up). The AG interviewed several people,
unbeknownst to the actual appointed investigator or the Legislature! Palin's investigation
of herself uncovered a recorded phone call retained by the Alaska State Troopers from
Frank Bailey, a Palin underling, putting pressure on a trooper about the Wooten
non-firing. Todd Palin (governor's husband) even talked to Monegan himself in Palin's
office while she was away. Bailey is now on paid administrative leave.
As if this weren't enough, Monegan's appointed replacement Chuck Kopp, turns out to
have been the center of his own little scandal. He received a letter of reprimand and was
reassigned after sexual harrassment allegations by a former coworker who didn't like all
the unwanted kissing and hugging in the office. Was he vetted? Obviously not. When he
was questioned about all this, his comment was that no one had asked him and he thought
they all knew. Kopp, defiant, still claimed to have done nothing wrong and said to the
press that there was no way he was stepping down from his new position. Twenty four
hours later, he stepped down. Later it was uncovered that he received a $10,000 severance
package for his two weeks on the job from Palin. Monegan got nothing.
So what do the Zetas say about this choice and what does it say about McCain's judgment and chances
in November?
ZetaTalk Analysis 8/30/2008: Did John McCain shoot himself in the foot with his VP choice? Big
time. He was losing, and desperate, as the private polls his campaign had been taking revealed
the gap between he and Obama to be far larger than the public polls reveal. Obama has
energized voters, so that many young people and people of color have registered to vote. The
count of new Democratic voters far outnumber new Republican voters, by a factor greater than 4
to 1. These new voters are not included in the polls of likely voters - those who voted in the past
two presidential elections. Then there is the enthusiasm gap, where Democrats are more likely to
make it to the polls in November. Given that the arguments the McCain camp were making were
not making any headway against Obama, they were desperate for a game changer. Seeing the
significant number of disgruntled Hillary fans making claims they would vote for McCain, this
seemed like the largest voter block that could potentially be swung to McCain. So what is wrong
with this choice?
First is that he has offended Hillary's strongest block - older women who had been discriminated
against during their lifetime - and treated them like second class citizens. Standard fare, after not
being given equal pay and opportunity for equal work, is being thrown over for a younger
woman. McCain has already been branded for this tendency by his history of running out on his
first wife, a former beauty queen who was crippled in a car accident. McCain then took up with
Cindy, an unspoiled beauty. Now with the VP choice he has selected another beauty queen far
younger than McCain. Regardless of all arguments, the element of being dismissive of women's
true qualifications for office and chosing women only for their beauty, is obvious. This is
intuitively obvious to the older women voters McCain hoped to attract. Standing next to McCain,
Palin seemed like his mistress, a reminder of McCain's age and that his attitudes toward woman
are from a different era. Obama has a wife who is a strong woman, competent and even earning
more money than he at her day job. McCain now stands in contrast to Obama on this issue, and
is losing on this issue to an extent not yet evident in the polls.
Second, McCain has gone beyond his tendency to surround himself with lobbyists and to be
susceptible to money interests and plunged himself into a new and very fresh scandal - abuse of
power. The Keating 5 scandal is in McCain's past, wherein he went to bat for Keating during the
savings and loan crisis, trying to get regulators to go easy on his friend Keating. This is far
enough in the past to be put aside by most voters, but what does his choice of Palin as VP say
about his judgment and tendencies? She is embroiled in a controversy, an investigation, that
could result in impeachment proceedings against her in Alaska. Without question she wanted to
fire her former brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper and insisted, in person and through
intermediaries, that this be done. This in and of itself would be considered a lightweight scandal
in scandal-prone Alaska, but when she fired the highly competent head of the Department of
Public Safety simply because he refused to do her bidding she crossed the line. This is not only
criminal. This is grounds for impeachment and reflects badly on McCain's judgment.
Video Clip on ZetaTalk Accuracy
The Zeta Report 22 - ZetaTalk Accuracy. Why should you take the Zetas seriously?
Their astonishing accuracy with their predictions and statements is the reason.
Click on the image or click Here to watch.
You received this Newsletter because you Subscribed to the ZetaTalk Newsletter service. If undesired, you can quickly
Unsubscribe.
|