Sarah Palin's Resume for Vice President

by Anonymous

Should we look beyond 30 second sound bites and the Pink Cloud of Sarah Palin's newness on the National Scene?? We know she's pretty and smart, but is that enough?

Remember the (pure fantasy) resumes for president referred to at the Republican National Convention? Here is a version of (the real) Sarah Palin's Resume for Vice President. (Or President-if God forbid, John McCain should be elected President and have some tragedy befall him.)

Experience:

1. Figurehead mayor in a city of 5,000 (at that time). After threat of recall, Sarah Palin was pressured by her party to hire a city administrator who did the day to day work of running the city. (This may mean that Obama has more city experience than Sarah Palin, since he actually did the work of being a city organizer himself.)

2. Governor of a state which is smaller than some cities. (Alaska has 670,000 residents)

3. No military command experience.  The 49th Missile Defense Battalion is stationed in Alaska, but Sarah Palin has had no command role.  When she calls up the National Guard in national disasters or in defense of homeland security, Major General Craig is responsible for administrating her call.  She has called up the guard once to fight wildfires.

4. No legislative experience except city council.

5. No foreign policy knowledge (due to proximity to Russia).  Sarah Palin has never been to Russia.

6. Washington outsider due to no national-level experience in Washington.

Reformer of government waste and anti-pork history

1. Sarah Palin's reputation for being "anti-pork" was developed when as governor of Alaska, she publicized her line-item vetos.  Many of these vetoed projects were later restored due to public outcry or by the legislature. Some felt that she had not done her homework to learn why the proposals had been initiated.

2. As Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin had her hand out to Senator Ted Stevens for pork as much as other mayors.

3. While Sarah Palin has been governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, the largest per-capita request in the nation.

4. Sarah Palin's biggest project as mayor was a community athletic center.  Anyone who knows a little about real estate knows that you must first get clear title before proceeding.  The city's failure to do so wasted at least 1.3 million in legal fees.

5. The state airplane Sarah Palin sold did not actually sell on e-bay because the bids were too low. As it turned out, the state of Alaska lost about 600,000 when a broker sold the plane to a buyer who had been a Palin campaign contributor.

6. Fiscal conservative??-In her 6 years as mayor, city spending increased 33%.  At that same time, city taxes increased 38%.  The city of Wasilla had no debt when Sarah Palin took office but owed $22 million when she left.  Projects had included cost to remodel city hall and redecorate Sarah Palin's office twice. Sarah Palin spent Alaska's state surplus (which was due to oil profits) and borrowed for expenses like repairing roads.

Pro Tax Relief for citizens

As mayor, Sarah Palin lowered tax for businesses and increased sales tax for residents on all sales (including food).

Environmental champion and record of achievement

1. Has questioned that loss of ice in Alaska is due to global warming

2. Wants to drill in the Arctic National Refuge

3. In Alaska she has supported delisting polar bears as a threatened species

4. The national gas pipeline Sarah Palin talks about is not even close to becoming a reality.  The legislature, at Sarah Palin's request, passed an incentive bill for the project.  There are no contracts and federal regulators have not approved it.  No building has begun and completion is years away (if the project is brought to fruition).

Open and transparent, compromiser; ethics reformer

1. One of Barack Obama's demonstrated strengths is bringing diverse parties to the table to discuss and compromise.  By contrast, Sarah Palin is not tolerant of divergent ideas.  People who fought her banning of books in the city library are still on her list of enemies.  She fights ideas not generated by her staff. (Humm! Sounds like George Bush)

2. Sarah Palin wanted the Police Chief to fire her sister's ex-husband.  He refused. She fired the police chief. She wanted to replace the chief with a man she knew had been censured for sexual harassment. Champion of women's issues??-Don't think so.

3. Sarah Palin's standard operating procedure is to put ideas out into the public domain as a trial balloon.  If they are popular, she takes credit for them.  Sarah Palin did not oppose the "Bridge to Nowhere" until national attention to the project made it clear that it was not in her interest to support it. She decides what side she is on based upon public reaction.

4. Sarah Palin's manner of ridiculing at the Republican Convention was not new to her.  Of course, in that situation, sarcasm was all McCain/Palin can depend upon since their positions are really unpopular with the bulk of the populace (as evidenced by low popularity ratings of George Bush and the war.)  Sarah Palin seems proud of her pattern of belittling, backbiting, ruthlessness and sarcasm, for which she earned the nickname, Sarah Barracuda.  Way back in high school she demonstrated her true colors.

5. Sarah Palin's reputation as exposer of ethics violations was played up when she was the Chair of Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation.  She disliked the job, so in order to get out of it smelling like a rose, she exposed the ethics violation of a powerful commission member.

6. Open and transparent or secretive?  Sarah Palin kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for 7 months.