2008 Woodie Awards
Conception, deception and skewed perception
Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: Opinion
There have been rumblings in the press this week about Sen. John McCain's pick for running mate on the Republican ticket. Even if you've only been catching bits and pieces of the news from the major conglomerates, chances are you know more about Sarah Palin than you ever thought you would.
McCain's choice of Palin for V.P. designate does more than offer questions about credentials for candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties. It also invites us to look at how we as voters can be distracted from thinking seriously about these credentials (or lack thereof), instead getting swept up by things which have little or no relevance to how these candidates might govern us. It's an opportunity for us to determine which flavor-of-the-week scandals about the candidates are relevant, and for what reasons.
Sarah Palin has been the governor of Alaska since December 2006. Her experience prior to the governorship includes two terms on the city council of Wasilla, Alaska (a town of roughly 6,000 people), from 1992 to 1996 and two terms as mayor of Wasilla from 1996 to 2002. She also served as the chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Committee from 2003 to 2004, doubling as the committee's Ethics Supervisor.
Perhaps what's getting the most attention right now is not Palin's political history or tenuous ties to an Alaskan separatist party, but her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol. Palin announced on Monday that Bristol was five months pregnant. She also said that her daughter intends to marry the 17-year-old father, Levi Johnston. When asked about Bristol's pregnancy, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said, "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits...It has no relevance to Governor Palin's performance as governor or potential performance as vice president."
There is only one strand of relevance that Bristol Palin's pregnancy might have to her mother's performance, and that is the effectiveness of abstinence-only sex education, which Palin has supported as governor of Alaska. In a 2006 Eagle Forum gubernatorial questionnaire, Palin was asked, "Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?" Palin's response was, "Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support."
McCain's choice of Palin for V.P. designate does more than offer questions about credentials for candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties. It also invites us to look at how we as voters can be distracted from thinking seriously about these credentials (or lack thereof), instead getting swept up by things which have little or no relevance to how these candidates might govern us. It's an opportunity for us to determine which flavor-of-the-week scandals about the candidates are relevant, and for what reasons.
Sarah Palin has been the governor of Alaska since December 2006. Her experience prior to the governorship includes two terms on the city council of Wasilla, Alaska (a town of roughly 6,000 people), from 1992 to 1996 and two terms as mayor of Wasilla from 1996 to 2002. She also served as the chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Committee from 2003 to 2004, doubling as the committee's Ethics Supervisor.
Perhaps what's getting the most attention right now is not Palin's political history or tenuous ties to an Alaskan separatist party, but her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol. Palin announced on Monday that Bristol was five months pregnant. She also said that her daughter intends to marry the 17-year-old father, Levi Johnston. When asked about Bristol's pregnancy, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said, "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits...It has no relevance to Governor Palin's performance as governor or potential performance as vice president."
There is only one strand of relevance that Bristol Palin's pregnancy might have to her mother's performance, and that is the effectiveness of abstinence-only sex education, which Palin has supported as governor of Alaska. In a 2006 Eagle Forum gubernatorial questionnaire, Palin was asked, "Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?" Palin's response was, "Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support."
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