Palin's Pummeling

First things first, I have to thank my man Johnny Jones for being my first ever commenter. If I had a prize to give out, you'd get it, but I must say, at this point your campaign is going better than VP hopeful Sarah Palin's.

So over the long beautiful weekend, we've all been hit over the head by story after story about Gov Palin's politics, record and family, oh and apparently she supported some party that has the "call to vote on the succession of Alaska from the union" as a central issue. All of this and she's only been the official VP candidate for ONE weekend!

First off, I'd like to condemn any one who's attacking young Briston Palin herself or the Palin family personally (read: Bossip). Just as you wouldn't want Larry and'em down the street going hard at your family for whatever reason, there's no need to personally go at them.

Now on to the politics of it. Gov. Palin is pro-life, I mean REALLY pro-life, to the point where she's against birth control pills because she believes it's a form of abortion. She's against abortion even in the extreme cases of incest and rape (hello Mr. Dukakis). She's also an advocate of teaching abstinence in the home (which isn't bad) but she's against sex ed in school and is against condoms. The problem with this stance is it's been proven that teaching abstinence alone does not help in the prevention of teen pregnancy. I have news for people, and it may be surprising but, teenagers have sex, a lot of it. It's a natural thing and humans have been doing it for a long time. I'd love for my future children to wait until they were old enough to understand the consequences (read: wanting more and more often) but if they're going to do it, I'd much rather then know the ends in and outs AND to do it safely. I don't need to be a grandfather at 42 (I'm 25 now if you cared) so I want my kids to get the best sex education a school can give them and even give them condoms for free so they don't feel embarrassed to buy them at the local CVS. All of these factor into the decline of teen pregnancy we've seen over the years. Now I'm not saying Gov. Palin would be able to implement her abstinence polices as VP, especially if the Democrats keep control of congress, but it's something to think about.

There's also the hypocrisy of the GOP who always look down there noses at unwed teenage mothers, especially in the urban communities, but celebrate the fact that Gov. Palin is sticking up for her own and even use it to show how strong her conservative values are. I thought the Christian right damned those mothers, but will now champion one because she's on your side of line and her mother is the VP candidate?

Secondly, it's being reported now that Gov. Palin was a supporter of the corruption maestro himself Sen. Ted Stevens who's famous for two things: 1. the Bridge to Nowhere and 2. "...the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes.". Sen. Stevens is also under investigation for receiving services from certain companies in return for getting them money from earmarks. Apparently Gov. Palin was for the bridge to nowhere (to get elected) before she was against it (to get elected). Now politicians change their mind like the wind blows and the sun sets, the problem here is, she denies ever being a support of Sen. Stevens, EVER. The second problem with all this is that she's being touted as someone who is against earmarks, but in fact had earmarks funneled to the small town she was mayor of and has requested plenty of earmark money for Alaska as Gov. She was also using bridge funding for other projects. Is this a deal killer? No, once again plenty of politicians do this and it's no shocker, but as this and other stories culminate, it's starting to turn the narrative on Gov. Palin that she is a say/do anything to win politician.

Lastly, there's a new movement out saying and trying to prove that Gov. Palin was actually a part of, or at least supported a party that advocates the voting on the right for Alaska to succeed from the US. If THIS comes true, I think it could be WAY more damaging than anything else. Sen. McCain's current McCampaign motto is "Country First" and, where this claim to be true, this would seriously throw doubt on Gov. Palin's stock in whether she puts country first on Alaska first. The blogosphere is already (maybe unfairly) questioning whether Palin is putting country first over family, does the McCain campaign really need the narrative to be does Palin put Alaska before country before family? Because if that's the order, I don't think that'll fly.

Couple all of these weekend mini-controversies or "miniversies" (C) Cannon with the McCain campaign manager Rick Davis now stating that "This election is not about issues" and you've got yourself a bonified quagmire for a convention that's only half started because of Hurricane Gustav's unfortunate actions. Saying that this election is not about issues is like tossing a giant rubber band ball at a kid swinging with a metal bat. The Obama campaign is likely going to blast this all over the wire and claim that the McCain campaign does not care about the issues and what government needs to do, only that you, the people, like them enough.

I don't know who's driving the McCain McCampaign or what message they're trying to push but I will be waiting and watching to see how the GOP turns all of this around. I'm really wondering what kind of convention bounce McCain can have realisitically.

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