SARAH PALIN, john mccain and The World

Vetting by the World

Is this fair to Bristol?

This is just opinion. Mine.

Sarah Palin is not a smart choice for Vice President. She majored in journalism in college. She is unknown to the country. And in two months we can vote for her to be second in line to be our President. I heard someone today say that he thinks Sarah should be on the top of the Republican ticket.

Why?

If she was black, surely the Republicans would be saying she lacks experience. If Sarah was black, surely her having five children would be questioned. You know, is she on welfare? Her youngest child was born April 18, 2008. If Sarah was black, there would be a much longer list of negatives and questions being slung toward the fan.

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Sarah Palin at 2:57: "...what is it exactly that the VP does?"
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Palin Derangement Syndrome fever

By Arjun Ramachandran

She's the pro-life moose hunter, the former beauty-pageant contestant who would be the next US vice-president.

Less than a week since being announced by Republican presidential nominee John McCain as his running mate, a media storm has erupted around Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin.

Already intensely caricatured, Mrs. Palin and her family face heavy exposure as the US and international media attempt to fill the vacuum of information about the relatively little-known 44-year-old mother of five.

The most recent revelations surround the announcement that her teenage daughter, Bristol, was pregnant.

The controversy prompted the Los Angeles Times, in a blog, to liken Mrs Palin to Lynne Spears, mother of pop star Britney and actress Jamie Lynn, who became pregnant at 15.

In a statement, Mrs. Palin, who is avowedly pro-life, said Bristol intended to have the baby and would marry the father, Levi Johnston.

Johnston has described himself on his MySpace page as "a f***ing redneck", the New York Post reports. "But I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing, shoot some s*** and just f***in' chillin' I guess," the 18-year-old hockey player wrote.

"Ya f --- with me I'll kick [your] ass."

Johnston also wrote: "I don't want kids."

Some US commentators have held up the example of Bristol's teen pregnancy to say Mr McCain had not vetted Mrs Palin and her family circumstances properly before appointing her as his running mate.

Mr McCain reportedly met Mrs Palin only once before offering her the job as vice-presidential nominee.

"A series of disclosures about Governor Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain's choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket," The New York Times reported.

Much has been written about Mrs Palin's links to the Alaskan Independence Party, a group pushing for a vote on Alaska splitting from the rest of the US and forming an independent nation.

The New York Times said that Mrs Palin "was a member for two years in the 1990s". However, The Associated Press reported that, while Mrs Palin's husband, Todd, had been registered as a member, she had only addressed the party.

Even US actress Lindsay Lohan, often the focus of the media herself, has weighed in about Mrs Palin.

"I've been watching the news all morning, like everyone else - and keep hearing about the issues related to 'teen pregnancy'," Lohan wrote on her blog.

"Well, I think the real problem comes from the fact that we are taking the focus off of getting to know Sarah Palin and her political views, and what she can do to make our country a less destructive place."

Mrs Palin's emergence has also focused attention on Hillary Clinton, who made a historic bid to become the first female presidential nominee before succumbing to Barack Obama.

Senator Clinton, who is now barracking for Senator Obama, has been relatively quiet about Mrs Palin's appointment, other than to say everybody "should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin's historic nomination".

Ironically, McCain supporters have credited Senator Clinton's efforts with paving the way for Mrs Palin.

"Because of Hillary Clinton's historic run for the presidency and the treatment she received, American women are more highly tuned than ever to recognise and decry sexism in all its forms," said top McCain campaign adviser Carly Fiorina.

But Senator Clinton was "galled" that Mrs Palin might try to capitalise on the impact she made among women voters during the Democratic primaries, The New York Times reported.

The paper predicted Senator Clinton would now play a greater role campaigning for Senator Obama as a result.

Conservative columnists have decried the treatment of Mrs Palin in the press. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin labelled "attacks" on Mrs Palin as "Palin Derangement Syndrome", and said there was "selective sympathy" for mothers who ran for office.

A blog, Palin Sexism Watch, has also started "to monitor, and round up, the sexist treatment given to Republican VP nominee, Sarah Palin".

FOXNews reported the top 10 words used by the media to describe Mrs Palin were: "conservative (49 per cent), abortion (44 per cent), brother-in-law (picking up claims that she improperly tried to get her ex-brother-in-law fired) (17 per cent), corruption and oil (17 per cent), risky or risks or risk (16 per cent), glass ceiling (13 per cent), Quayle (10 per cent), exciting (9 per cent), inexperience or "lack experience" or "limited experience" (8 per cent), and bold (8 per cent)".

Meanwhile, the New York magazine has credited Mrs Palin with helping to make politics funny again.

"Last week Jon Stewart addressed the issue of whether Obama and McCain were giving enough material to comedians ... Well, now that we've got a former-beauty-pageant-contestant vice-presidential candidate who was a small-town mayor three years ago, and who has a pregnant, unmarried 17-year-old daughter, do we all know what's funny?"

In a satirical vox-pop about Mrs Palin's nomination on humorous news site The Onion, everyday American "Scott Wise", a line cook, said: "Finally, somebody who can pull in the Alaskan/pro-life/moose-hunting/woman vote."

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

The Palin children's names are Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig, who was born in April 2008.


10 Things You Didn't Know About Sarah Palin

1. Sarah Louise Palin (nee Heath) was born Feb., 1964, in Sandpoint, Idaho. Her family moved to Alaska when Sarah was an infant. Her father, Chuck, is a retired schoolteacher.

2. She attended Wasilla High School where she played point guard on the state champion basketball team. Her nickname was "Sarah Barracuda."

3. Palin graduated in 1987 from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism. She worked briefly as a sports reporter in Anchorage.

4. She refers to her husband, Todd, as the "First Dude." He's worked as a commercial fisherman and as a production operator on the North Slope for BP. He enjoys snowmobiling and has won the Tesoro Iron Dog, billed as the world's longest snowmobile race, four times.

5. Palin and her husband have five children, Bristol, Piper, Track, Willow, and Trig. Trig, born in 2008, has been diagnosed with Down syndrome. Her son Track joined the army in 2007.

6. Her favorite meal is moose stew.

7. She comes from a family of outdoor enthusiasts. Her parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, enjoy hunting and fishing, and have both completed marathons.

8. Palin was named Miss Wasilla in 1984 and was a runner-up for Miss Alaska. In 1996 she was elected mayor of Wasilla.

9. She's a lifetime NRA member and enjoys hunting, fishing, and snowmobiling.

10. Elected in 2006, she's Alaska's first female governor and the youngest governor elected in the state.

Source: www.usnews.com

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Bill Maher on Sarah Palin

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Article on Barack Obama at Columbia College Today

After high school, Barack Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York, graduating in 1983 with a degree in political science. Barack Obama earned his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon after, he returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law.

The resume and experience of Obama and Palin Compared