THE PALIN PROBLEM

THE PALIN PROBLEM

Kenneth Hacker

October 4, 2008

When John McCain picked Sarah Palin (governor of Alaska for nearly two years), he must have thought that she would somehow strengthen the ticket. Now the advisor that recommended her must be feeling like the Dukakis advisor that told Dukakis he would look cool riding around in a tank. Bad calls like this can sink a campaign.

The Palin Problem has many angles. Yes she is a hardworking mother with a pretty face, but what else is there? Americans are still wondering and the persona is getting filled in with stories about lying, trying to get people fired for personal reasons, not being the anti-pork crusader she claims to be, and saying some bizarred things about the holy nature of the war in Iraq.

Ironically, the woman chosen to save the McCain candidacy may be the person who ends it in defeat. No serious voter or political analyst can take her seriously as a President and the possibilities of her taking over after John McCain are not small. McCain is old and has health problems and he may not be able to serve a second term, thus leaving her to run as an incumbent. This is frightening to many voters who see her as a smily mother who became a governor and has only the most shallow of comments to make about almost all subjects.

We would expect a person calling themselves a born-again Christian to have some commitment to truthtelling, but like Bush, Palin and truthtelling seldom meet. If the public gets a sense that she lies so often, she will rapidly nosedive on evaluations of sincerity and honesty.

She says that she visited the troops in Iraq; she has never been to Iraq. She says that she has visited Ireland. Her plane refueled there only (MSNBC News, 9.18.08). She says that she was opposed to earmark (“pork”) legislation in Alaska but had a major role in getting it both as mayor of Wasilla and governor of the state.

Palin has said that her state, Alaska, provides 20% of the energy for the United States. This is far from the true number which is 3.5% (Washington, Post, ).

Can it be any wonder that 60% of Americans do not trust Ms. Palin? (ABC News poll, 10.2.08). It cannot be surprising that less than half of American think she understands the complex issues facing the nation (ABC News poll, 10.2.08).

The debate with Joe Biden was not a smashing success for Biden but it did provide closure to the argument that Palin is not ready for prime time. She gave more evidence of her shallow view of politics, government, and the crises facing our nation. She said nothing profound or even slightly insightful to note. She is wisdom-free and deception-abundant. Once again, she was trying to deceive people about Barack Obama.

While Dick Morris and his fellow Republican activsts on FOX News try to spin a bad debate peformance into a clobbering of Biden (watch Hannity spin out of control on this one...), the fact of the matter is that Palin did not gain any points for the Republican ticket. You cannot count on winking to convice the American people that everything is peachy with an economy in crisis.