I am sending the email below to people I know, and am posting, in case you want to do the same.
I want to note a couple of things, first. I felt compelled to put this together because the media is obsessed with Sarah Palin's daughter, which is a non-issue in my mind, and is only stopping an examination of many more important things - real issues that I fear will receive no scrutiny, nor be presented to voters that really do go to the core of McCain's judgment in this case.
I wrote this email and no one is forced to send it if they don't like it. Everything is backed up. I have not included anything that the McCain camp is disputing. In fact, I just edited it last night when Republicans proved Palin was never a formal member of the Independence Party in Alaska.
Finally, I chose not to put anything personal in here. There are zero references to her daughter, nor are there any derogatory references to her being a "beauty queen" or anything like that. I am not interested in personal smears - only her record, quotes, and facts.
With that, here is the email, which you can cut and paste if you like, or ignore if you don't want to pass on. (Please excuse the links getting cut off, I don't know how to paste in links that don't get ellipses-ized)
SUBJECT: How much do you know about Sarah Palin? More than John McCain.
BODY:
In what is the first presidential test of any candidate – the selection of a VP nominee – John McCain recklessly gambled with America’s future, and fumbled.
News reports have found that McCain made an impulse decision, and selected Alaska’s Sarah Palin as his running mate without even properly vetting her. In fact, McCain only met Palin once, and talked to her on the phone for a few minutes, before selecting her.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...
This led TIME Magazine’s Joe Klein to observe, "The Palin pick reflects the most dangerous tendencies in McCain's foreign policy--the tendency to react, to overreact, to crises, without thinking it through. It also reflects a defiant, adolescent "screw you" attitude toward governance."
http://www.time-blog.com/...
So what did John McCain possibly not know (or not care) about Sarah Palin, before he decided she should be one heartbeat away from being leader of the free world?
- Sarah Palin wooed a political party that wants Alaska to split from America, a party her husband was a member of for years, the Alaska Independence Party. It has been described as "a fringe group advocating that the 49th State declare itself a sovereign nation," and its chairman once said, "I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions," and "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government."
http://www.akip.org/...
http://www.youtube.com/...
http://community.seattletimes.nwsour...
http://www.akip.org/...
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmem...
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpoi...
- Sarah Palin has shown a troubling pattern of rash firings for personal, not performance-based reasons. She is under state investigation for abuse of power as Governor for the firing of the Commissioner of Public Safety, which has become known as "Troopergate." As Mayor, she faced a recall effort for two firings. She also fired a long-time friend, apparently for dating a separated wife of her husband’s friend.
http://ap.google.com/...
http://hatthief.blogspot.com/...
http://www.andrewhalcro.com/...
- The person she chose to replace the Public Safety Commissioner was a subject of sexual harassment charges, and received a letter of reprimand. Palin was forced to admit that she knew of the charges when she appointed him, but claimed she didn't know he was disciplined.
http://www.adn.com/...
- Sarah Palin didn’t know enough about the war in Iraq to answer a question about it, and admits she doesn’t know what the Vice President does.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.co...
http://www.politico.com/...
- On a radio program, Palin laughed as the host mocked a cancer survivor as a "cancer" on the state, and a "bitch." The largest state paper denounced the performance, and a columnist in the paper noted it was "one of the most unprofessional, childish and inexcusable performances I've ever seen from a politician."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
http://www.adn.com/...
- Sarah Palin did not tell the truth about her support for the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" pork project in her first speech to America, and has been a champion of Federal pork spending. Palin even hired a high-powered lobbyist as the part-time Mayor of the town of Wasilla, to grab Americans’ tax dollars for her small town.
http://www.usatoday.com/...
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
- Despite all the pork, as part-time Mayor of a tiny town, Sarah Palin’s fiscal bumbling led to a $20 million dollar debt, equal to about $3000 per resident.
http://www.politico.com/...
Is this the kind of person that you would put one heartbeat away from being leader of the free world? If not, you’re not alone. The two major papers in her state expressed shock that John McCain would even consider her, and called her ‘unqualified.’
http://www.adn.com/...
http://www.newsminer.com/...
Even a leading REPUBLICAN in the state of Alaska says Palin has no business being Vice President. Lyda Green, the Republican State Senate President said, "She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?"
http://www.adn.com/...
If this is the kind of judgment John McCain has shown in his first presidential decision, can he really be trusted to make wise, not gambling and impulsive, decisions if elected?