Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Ten reasons to be afraid...

The other day I caught the end of a headline: McCain picks Palin as running mate. It was a bold but masterly decision. Everyone loves Michael Palin and his affable, self-effacing temperament would be sure to win over any voters who were put off John McCain's belicose foreign policy. Also, with his extensive knowledge of different countries, Palin could help the Americans avoid the sort of gaffes that made George W Bush such a liability (remember his speech about the Pakis?).


Later I discovered that it is another Palin who has been selected. In an attempt to woo both the far right and more militant Hillary Clinton fans, John McCain has picked an obscure Alaskan politician called Sarah Palin.

She used to look like this:


These days she has a more business-like image:


Today, Sarah Palin is a respectable, 44-year-old 'hockey mom' of five, who also happens to be the State Govenor of Alaska. Like 99.99% of the world, I had never heard of her and wanted to learn more about this woman who could, potentially, become America's first female President.

Here are ten things I've found out about Sarah Palin:
  1. She is a member of the National Rifle Association
  2. She does not believe that global warming is caused by human activity
  3. Palin is pro-life, opposing abortion for victims of rape or incest
  4. She has five children called Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow and Piper (named, I supect, after North Sea oil rigs)
  5. Palin is very religious and supports teaching creationism alongside evolution
  6. She opposes sex education in schools, prefering abstinence-only classes
  7. Her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant
  8. Palin is opposed to same-sex marriages or civil partnerships
  9. She opposes making polar bears an endangered species and wants Alaska opened up for oil exploration
  10. She has been a state governor for two years
Oh dear.

In an ideal world, the American electorate would choose Barack Obama. President Obama would be a force for good both in the USA and the world at large, helping to reverse the damage done by eight years of George Bush. However, the cynical part of me expects Obama to compromise with the more conservative forces in Washington (or run the risk of being assasinated) as Bill Clinton had to, but this would still be hugely preferable to having McCain in the White House.

If elected, John McCain would be the oldest President of the United States and whilst he has displayed a tremendous amount of energy on the campaign trail, the fact remains that there is a very real possibility that he could pop his clogs whilst in office, leaving us with President Palin.

That's a scary thought.

I want to see a woman in the White House, but not this particular one.

11 comments:

  1. Oh, Michael Palin would be so much better.

    I don't really care about No,1 and maybe Willow is from Buffy and Piper from Charmed but I completely disagree with her on everything else. She seems so far Right she meets the Left round the other way - "what we say goes because we know best".

    God, if you're there, HELP!

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  2. all I can see is Deridre Barlow-Rashid after a hot bath

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  3. Well, that does it! I always think of warm American Tan tights when someone mentions Deirdre Barlow - ugh.

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  4. I often think of Deirdre Langton (showing my age with that surname!) because Angela Bruce lives in Lewes and I often see her around the town. She played a waitress called Janice, who had an affair with Ray Langton.

    My mum still angrily describes her as 'that woman who wrecked Deidre Langton's marriage'.

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  5. I went to school with the girl who threw confetti at Sally and Kevin Webster's wedding...it was her big break in television but went nowhere, she ended up touring working mens' clubs and holiday resorts doing gymnastics on a table while someone passed around a pint pot.....sad.

    Mind you, she was a complete bitch in school.

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  6. I love the old Gore Vidal quote: 'Every time a friend succeeds a small part of me dies' (or something like that.

    Conversely, it's quite satisfying when the people you hated at school end up getting nowhere.

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  7. Michael Palin would indeed have been a wiser choice.

    I have my own ideas for the prime presidential candidate however - coming to a blog near you shortly!

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  8. Vidal's companion piece to that quote is: "It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail."

    (My age, bang in the middle of my 30s, determines that I refer to Anne Kirkbride's character as Deirdre Barlow.)

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  9. Michael Palin cannot be vice-president since he was not born in America. The best he can hope for is to one day be governor of California.

    Calfornia politics would be much more fun if he was.

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  10. You might want to look at:
    http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/archive/getfuzzy-20080912.html
    and
    http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/archive/getfuzzy-20080913.html

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  11. I'd like to comment here but then I'll forget where the post was, in case someone replies. Better just continue reading.

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