When John McCain tapped Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the 2008 presidential race, that served as a cautionary tale for all of us in terms of the importance of someone unqualified for high office, running for such.
She was then as she is now, nothing more than a vacuous, intellectually uninterested human being. One that wants to be in the spotlight and have everyone hanging on her every word. Before any of you reading this confuse my description of Sarah Palin with that of most politicians, I would argue you are wrong. As I often say, most politicians enter into politics with sincere and genuine motives toward making change. Some politicians are natural born leaders and orators at heart. Their gift for gab lends itself perfectly for speaking to the masses and persuading others to follow them. Others are more cerebral and analytical. Still others a bit of both.
I see in Paul Ryan what I see in Sarah Palin. The only distinguishable difference is I don't believe being president of the United States was ever a serious possibility for Palin. Her aspirations were never so lofty. Ryan however, I believe like many men in the world, has this need to (even in his death) make his father proud.
The issue I have with people like Ryan and Palin is this, Just because you can run for Vice President, does it mean you are qualified to be President?
Let us remember how Palin came into prominence. She was essentially no more skilled or knowledgeable about U.S. government or politics than anyone else. And yet McCain chose her to be one heart beat away from leading the United States of America, the leader of our nation in the event of his death. One must question "Did he truly believe she was qualified to lead our nation?" Or was he trying to (in an election year that was seeing our nations first truly viable candidates in Obama and Clinton) get in on the nationwide emotion of change? Had he won and something happened to him, what then?
We would have had Sarah Palin.....picture this.....Sarah Palin dealing with the collapse of Wall Street. The drop in jobs loss in the early days of the administration when we were losing 800 jobs a month. She would have had to deal with the Somali pirates, Iraq and Afghanistan. She would have been the person calling the shots when we had the devastating BP oil leak or the fires in the West or hurricanes in the South.
Would Sarah Palin had signed the Ledbetter act? Would she have done anything at all to advance our nation toward more equitable and accessible health care. Would she even know where to start? And what would her administration look like? As you walk the halls of the White House under the Obama administration, to a great extent all of his staff represents a snap shot of America in all its diversity. What would a Palin administration have looked like? Would Osama Bin-Laden still be alive? How would she handle talks with Israel, the UK, China and Germany? Would she even care what the rest of the world thinks of us?
Who we choose to lead our nation is serious business. We should not and can not afford to elect people who want to hold the highest office of our land that are not entering into the job fully aware of all the pressures and complexities associated with it. I may be liberal in my political views, but I am not so far left that I can't see right. I listen to what Romney has to say and I can say without any bias, he has not clearly identified for me why he is even running. The words are well rehearsed but there is no heart behind them. People accused Barack when he was running of being to cerebral and stiff. I'll take cerebral and stiff over robotic and hollow any day.
What if YOU were approached tomorrow to run for president or vice president of the United States. Don't dismiss it as an impossibility, really allow that thought to perculate in your mind. What if? Would you agree to do it and why would you? Why did Palin, Ryan and why did Romney? What prevents people who are asked to run for office from saying "No, I'm not up for the task" I get that it is a head trip given the extreme power. But its not a game, millions and millions of lives are in your hands. Your days and nights are never your own. All that you do and say is scheduled. Is having your own government plane, car and mansion truly worth all of the pressure?
When I hear commentators and news people dismiss the importance of who is Vice President or those that run for president - I cringe.
Am I the only one that remembers President John F. Kennedy? Am I the only one that saw in the span of less than 30 seconds the power he had to lead our nation was gone and with his death, leadership fell on the shoulders of his V.P.?
Tell me again how the V.P slot doesn't matter in an election.......We could have had Sarah Palin as President and we could have Paul Ryan.
Can you honestly say you would want Paul Ryan as President of the United States now given all that he would be responsible for.