Al-ask-a, Is She Ready? | Political Op-Ed/The Scribe

Your initial response to reading this article may be “Why not limit the discussion to John McCain? After all, isn’t he the one running opposite Barack Obama for the presidency?” You’re right, but while your thoughts may accurate, consider this: John McCain is 72 years old, and no matter how badly you may want to look past it, there is a chance that this man may not live long enough to fulfill his position as president of the United States should he be elected to lead for the next four years. Argue all you want, but in this case, age does matter.



When John McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate, he may have rationalized his decision by taking comfort in the fact that his choice was a woman. By choosing a woman, McCain may have suspected that he would gain the lead among female voters. After seeing the amount of support Hillary Clinton received from women across the U.S., McCain’s choice of a female running mate must have seemed brilliant in his eyes. Well, Mr. McCain, speaking on behalf of all women- we’re a lot smarter than you’re giving us credit for. If Miss Alaska is your idea of a woman ready to lead, your expectations of an educated female have hit a serious low.

There’s no denying the fact that Sarah Palin wasn’t well known before the announcement of her candidacy, except in Alaska, where they’re apparently very fond of the self-proclaimed hockey mom. For Palin to think that conducting tabloid magazine interviews about her pregnant-out-of-wedlock daughter was the best way to introduce herself to the citizens of the United States is unsettling. It should have been obvious right from the start that she is not ready to lead. This is a woman who publicized her daughter to prove her beliefs against abortion rather than immediately focusing on creating a respectable public image for herself. As if magazine interviews weren’t enough, Palin agreed to what could quite possibly have been her worst decision yet: appearing in a series of interviews conducted by television reporter Katie Couric.

Ultimately, the Katie Couric interviews proved what most were beginning to suspect. Palin is inexperienced and unable to deliver straight-forward, fact-based responses. She doesn’t seem to be able to speak in coherent sentences when put on the spot. Actions such as relating her foreign policy credentials to the proximity of Alaska to Russia helped set Palin up for embarrassingly negative feedback from the media.

When it came time for Palin to take part in the Vice Presidential Debate against Senator Joe Biden, she delivered a surprisingly acceptable performance. Supporters of Palin praised her for a job well done and argued that she “held her own.” I disagree. The truth is, going into the debate, expectations for Palin’s performance were so low that there was nowhere she could go but up. Perhaps supporters are failing to realize that although Palin may have spoken in a few coherent sentences, parts of her performance were not up to par. Her overuse of the word “maverick” and cutesy catchphrases were designed to throw off the audience, while her ability to talk in circles distracted viewers from the point of the questions being posed to her. What could have been the most unprofessional moment of the debate was her infamous and literal “shout-out” to a third grade class at the end of a response regarding her thoughts on education.

With so many odds stacked against Palin this early in the game, imagine what would transpire should she be elected to serve our country as our vice president. Her nomination and the ensuing five weeks have been an insult to our collective intelligence as a country. With a leader who thinks cutesiness and charm are more important than actual coherence and knowledge when making voting decisions, there is only one thing left to do: wait for Ashton Kutcher to pop out of a corner and tell us all that we’ve just gotten Punk’d.