Who is Sarah Palin?
McCain’s surprise choice of Sarah Palin is a gamble that picking a solid conservative and non-Washington insider with a bit of a reformist record will outweigh the clear downside: That choosing someone with only two years in high office as back-up president undermines attacks on Obama’s alleged lack of commander-in-chief readiness. By any reasonable measure, Palin’s resume should render it all but impossible to argue that Obama is too inexperienced for the gig of leader of the free world. Palin has been in higher office as Governor of Alaska for exactly half the time Obama has been in the Senate. Before that, she served only two full terms in the City Council, from 1992 to 1996, before running for mayor of Wasilla. To put this in perspective, Wasilla had a population of only 7,738 people as of 2004. By contrast, as TPM’s Eric Kleefeld calculates, Obama’s State Senate district had roughly 210,000 people — about 27 times the number Palin repped in lower office. Nor has Palin been tested
I know that she’s a woman who doesn’t believe in allowing women the right to choose their own reproductive health decisions even if they are victims of rape… but approves of these victims getting billed by the government for the rape kits used to examine them. I know she’s a beauty pageant runner-up who is a gun totin’ extremist in her views on the environment, religion, women’s choice and the separation of church and state. I know she’s a woman who along with John McCain would divide this country while pledging that she and the Senator are “mavericks” who know how to reach across the aisle. I know that as mayor of the small town of Wasilla she increased spending by 63% and left behind a $19 million long-term debt, which was non-existent before she took office. I know she hired the same good-ol’-boy network of Washington lobbyists she says she will fight if elected, in order to secure millions of dollars of earmarks for Wasilla. I know that she’s been found guilty of abusing her powe
Sarah Palin, a former runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty contest, burst on to the political scene in 2006 by becoming both the first female and youngest governor in Alaskan history at the age of 42. She had previously gained statewide attention as a gutsy maverick unafraid to speak truth after whistleblowing on ethical violations by state Republican Party leaders during her time on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. A “soccer-mom” type with telegenic appeal, Mrs Palin is a real life Miss Congeniality — she won the title in the Wasilla beauty pageant back in 1984. But the mother-of-five combines her homely air with a keen grasp of the issues and a formidable campaigning style.
Many who know her say that she is exactly the person that she appears to be. And, yet, no one is ever quite as they appear because they appear to be many things to many people. A person as complex and intriguing as Sarah Palin is certainly not that simple. However, complexity does not imply cunning or deceptive manipulation. A person can be honest, straightforward, and completely without guile and yet still be complex. I’ve been fascinated by biographies and biography writing my entire life. One of my favorite books on the topic is Janet Malcolm’s “The Silent Woman.” Malcolm tries to get to the truth about the poet Sylvia Plath, and in my opinion comes closer than anyone else, by revealing the agendas of the biographers writing about Plath. Every biographer molds the biographical subject to fit a vision or agenda. Recognizing that is key to reading a biography objectively. We sign on to the biographer’s vision, and we allow ourselves to either agree or disagree with that vision. Lorenz
