Thread: The Sarah Palin corner of the Sandbox!

Originally Posted by CingularDuality

Man, are you guys serious? She was the only thing I really liked about McCain's campaign. She seemed like a real person instead of some elite Washington-groomed politician.

I guess it must come from my perspective of wanting to see regular, everyday normal people filling political offices instead of career politicians.

Yes, I'm serious. She might have been a real person before McCain's ticket picked her up, but they did such a rapid grooming job that even Alaskans didn't recognize her much anymore. The New Yorker ran what I thought was a very honest article on this, and her, in September.

I honestly don't know Palin that well, I don't think many people do, and so can't say too much about her. What I can say is that the American experiment with a 'normal person' in the White House did not turn out very well. I'm talking about George Bush, whose political career (with the rather large exception of his family tree) wasn't much different from Palin's except that he had been a state governor for slightly longer. In 2000 Bush appeared as a straight-talking outsider without any broad agendas, religious morals, willing to listen, wanting to bring America together. While some may still embrace those aspects of his character (and with good reason), his presidency will go down in history as one of America's worst - at least if the state of the nation is a bellweather.

I'm not at all saying that all presidential candidates (and politicians) need be well-groomed Washington insiders. If you look at the House of Representatives and even some in the Senate, you'll find this actually isn't the case anyway. In terms of the White House, though, the country needs a leader who has the qualities of both an insider and an outsider - and knows not just the differences but the similiarities between the two. I think that Palin was the only candidate this time around who completely lacked that quality.