talkingwomen

Many people were disappointed with the USA Vice Presidential Debate this week. Sarah Palin is not the most eloquently spoken woman at the best of times, so with the pressure of a formal debate against a well-informed political elder like Joe Biden many people were expecting Ms Palin to “fall flat on her face”, “freeze like a deer in the headlights”, or have some other “train wreck” moment.

There was no massive singular blunder (hence no sensation) but the debate did prove that Ms Palin’s knowledge on matters of government is very thin.

This is the Debate in full from C-SPAN (running time approx 90 minutes)

Full written transcript is available  http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/02/debate.transcript/

The first Sarah Palin non-sense that left me scratching my head was her strange stance on healthcare:

“ … unless you’re pleased with the way the federal government has been running anything lately, I don’t think that it’s going to be real pleasing for Americans to consider health care being taken over by the feds. “

“Patriotic is saying, government, you know, you’re not always the solution. In fact, too often you’re the problem so, government, lessen the tax burden and on our families and get out of the way and let the private sector and our families grow and thrive and prosper. “

Sarah Palin is saying she doesnt want a universal healthcare program because she doesnt have ANY confidence that a government she (and McCain) would be overseeing would be competant enough to  run the system efficiently . . . it is just mind-boggling to me!

Palin is saying if you vote her in she (and McCain) WON’T be able to manage their government fairly and efficiently. That doesnt exactly instill a sense of confidence in potential voters!

Does she think a creepy wink at the camera can gloss over the fact that she supports further de-regulation of Wall St.

Does repetitively over-using cutie-pie terms like “hockey-mom”, “joe-six-pack”, and “maverick”, suddenly make her so trust-worthy that we would swallow the line about people earning over $250K personal income all being small business owners that would all collapse under the slightest tax increase?

” … you’re forgetting millions of small businesses that are going to fit into that category. So they’re going to be the ones paying higher taxes thus resulting in fewer jobs being created and less productivity.”

 That is a lie!

Most businesses that are large enough to earn more than $250K are structured as corporations where the owners pay themselves a salary. If they opt to pay themselves in excess of that figure they should also pay their fair share of tax.

See the lie debunked in further detail here: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/mccains_small-business_bunk.html

I actually cringed as Palin claimed that living in Alaska made her more of of an expert on climate change because she can SEE the Arctic from her state. It echoed her most famous silly statement of being an expert in foreign policy because she could SEE Russia from her state. A (relatively) close proximity to things does not actually give one any advantage when it comes to diplomacy and forward-planning.

“Well, as the nation’s only Arctic state and being the governor of that state, Alaska feels and sees impacts of climate change more so than any other state. And we know that it’s real.”

Palin had the audacity to perpetrate the myth that terrorists hate Americans because they hate their freedoms, and in doing so she says they hate their respect for womens rights. Highly ironic coming from a Pro-Life, ultra-religious, ultra-conservative mouthpiece. Perhaps the genious plan is the remove the rights of American women so the terrorists wont be jealous of them anymore? It could be a two birds with one stone measure?

Overall Palin knew the details on very little and was obviously coached to drop key words like “reform” and “doing what’s right” to make her seem honest and opposed to corporate greed - its a shame all of her policies promote the wrongful greed and deregulation she is talking about.

Nice try but no cigar!