* McCain met Sarah Palin only once

Before selecting Gov. Sarah Palin as his Vice President, it seems that John McCain met with her only once, didn’t know a thing about her.

Are you insulted by John McCain’s cavalier approach to choosing the person “a heartbeat away from the oval office?”

I am.

Imagine how other candidates on the short list, qualified women as well as men, must feel.

John McCain doesn’t care what Sarah Palin knows about major domestic and international issues. He doesn’t care if she could be a source of advice and counsel to the President. He doesn’t care whether she would be prepared if the 72 year old President, twice a cancer victim, was unable to fulfill his responsibilities.

Here’s Sarah Palin on Iraq. “I’ve been so focused on state government, I don’t know that much about the war in Iraq.”

She doesn’t know anything about Iraq, and she’s not even interested. Do you think someone who is running for VP should at least show an interest?

Here’s Sarah Palin on abortion. She believes it should be “outlawed” in all circumstances, including rape and incest.

As bad as those positions reflect on Sarah Palin, it’s an even worse reflection on the man who chose her.

John McCain has shown his decision-making irresponsibility; he’s shown that he’s unfit to govern.

All John McCain cares about is getting elected by pandering to the ultra right wing evangelist segment of the Republican party.

* McCain’s positions on women’s health issues

Recent polling shows that more than half of women voters in battleground states have no idea where Sen. McCain stands on women’s health issues.

And, even worse, half of the women who support McCain describe themselves as pro-choice, whereas John McCain is clearly opposed to giving women any choice whatever in making the most difficult and private decision any woman ever faces.

Here is John McCain’s record on women’s health issues …

 

AGAINST SEX EDUCATION AND BIRTH CONTROL

·         Sen. McCain has repeatedly voted against measures that would require insurance companies to cover birth control.

·         McCain opposed spending $100 million to prevent unintended and teen pregnancies. 

·         McCain opposed legislation requiring that abstinence-only programs be medically accurate and scientifically based.

·         In 2003, McCain voted NO on legislation to improve the availability of contraceptives for women and to require insurance coverage of prescription birth control.

·         In an interview aboard the “Straight Talk Express,” McCain struggled to answer questions about comprehensive sex education and HIV prevention. 

·         McCain is unsure where he stands on government funding for contraception.  ”Whether I support government funding for them or not, I don’t know,” McCain said about contraceptives.

AGAINST CHOICE

·         McCain supports overturning Roe v. Wade. In February 2007, the AP quoted McCain stating, ‘I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”

·         In October 2007, Sen. McCain said, “I have been pro-life my entire public career. I believe I am the only major candidate in either party who can make that claim.”

 

NOTE:  The above extracts come from Planned Parenthood; more detail can be found at http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977401065  and http://www.ppaction.org/ppvotes/08_antichoicemccain.html.

* Who is Sarah Palin?

This comes from an email from moveon.org (http://moveon.org/).

All of the sources are listed below ….

Who is Sarah Palin?

She was elected Alaska’s governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience. (1)

Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest. (2)

She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. (3)

Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools. (4)

She’s doesn’t think humans are the cause of climate change. (5)

She’s solidly in line with John McCain’s “Big Oil first” energy policy. She’s pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won’t be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska. (6)

How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position. (7)

Sources:

1. “Sarah Palin,” Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. “McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate,” NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-9530517-jAC8xAx&t=1

3. “Sarah Palin, Buchananite,” The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-9530517-jAC8xAx&t=2

4. “‘Creation science’ enters the race,” Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-9530517-jAC8xAx&t=3

5. “Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science,” Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-9530517-jAC8xAx&t=4

6. “McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy,” Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-9530517-jAC8xAx&t=5
“Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past,” League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-9530517-jAC8xAx&t=6
“Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor,” The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-9530517-jAC8xAx&t=7

7 “McCain met Palin once before yesterday,” MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-9530517-jAC8xAx&t=8

* you can play an important role

For many, politics is a spectator sport, but others want to play a more active role.

Pat and I believe strongly that the Obama-Biden team must be elected in November, for many positive reasons, and to avoid 4 more years of disastrous domestic and foreign policies.

We started this blog in order to share our views — and yours — with others who may feel as strongly as we do. We ask for your comments, and we ask that you let others know where they can find arguments and facts to support their positions.

So post your comments, and tell others where to find them, at …

                                           http://lewandpatpolitics.wordpress.com/
 
LEW

* Palin dissed veep job

Mike Allen of politico.com has posted a story with the headline “Palin dissed veep job.” Mike’s story can be found at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12969.html, with an excerpt below.

The entire interview of Gov. Palin by Lawrence Kudlow of CNBC can be found at http://kudlowsmoneypolitics.blogspot.com/2008/08/my-interview-with-alaska-governor-sarah.html.

Here’s an excerpt from Mike Allen’s story …

Count Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as one of the most surprised that she was chosen as running mate for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). In an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn’t seem “productive.” In fact, she said she didn’t know what the vice president does.

Larry Kudlow of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Co.” asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain’s ticket mate.

Palin replied: “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.”

What a choice, John McCain! Clearly puts Alaska ahead of all other concerns. Just the global viewpoint we need.

* McCain’s insulting VP selection

 

Some voters may respond to McCain’s VP choice with the expectation or fear that Gov. Palin will appeal to many woman, because she is a woman.
 
I think this will not happen, particularly if people realize the crass, insulting action McCain has taken.
 
John McCain needs to be attacked for his desperate effort to pretend that this totally unprepared Alaskan woman is even close to Hillary Clinton. McCain has accused Obama of putting his election ahead of national interests, which Obama has clearly not done. Yet McCain’s choice of VP is a blatant example of exactly that.
 
Every woman in America should be furious at McCain’s gross pandering of women, an appalling insult to anyone who understands that this unprepared woman could become the leader of the free world, about which she knows next to nothing. 

Several articles which expand on the theme that Senator McCain has trivialized the office of Vice President and insulted all of us by his desperate choice are listed in the BLOGROLL.

Please carry this argument forward to your friends.
 
LEW