Palin's experience is not her problem

Since Sen. McCain announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate last week, critics have argued that her relative inexperience in national politics and foreign affairs render her unfit for command.

McCain’s opponents have labeled Palin as a lightweight and have insisted that her two terms as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and her 20 months as governor do not qualify her to be “a heartbeat away from the presidency.”

The Palin pick is especially vexing for Democrats who have faced withering Republican arguments for months that Sen. Barack Obama lacks the requisite experience to become America’s next commander in chief.

The reaction from McCain opponents on the left has been to pounce on Palin. This week America witnessed a feeding frenzy of media reports highlighting Palin’s thin public service résumé. But these stories have missed the real point.

Opponents of the McCain-Palin campaign need to remember that government experience is not the most important criteria for judging a candidate’s fitness to lead America. The key quality that we should consider is the candidate’s character.

If Sarah Palin is to be a heartbeat away from the highest office in the land, the relevant question to ask is, “Does she possess the character required of a president?”

Gov. Palin entered politics to improve her community, and her record of reform and public service are as laudable as any Republican I’ve ever seen. She has fought entrenched corporate powerbrokers as well as the corrupt leaders of her own party.

I believe that Sarah Palin has proven she possesses the character of a worthy leader.

What Gov. Palin does not possess is a political agenda any healthier for America than that of the traitorously incompetent and fascistic Bush régime. I respect Palin’s integrity, but I am terrified of the corrosive political philosophy of her Grand Old Party.

Those of us who oppose the McCain candidacy need to ignore Palin’s lack of political experience and focus on her list of political positions.

Palin opposes legal abortions for rape victims, for example, and would like to see schools teach creationism alongside of evolution. The Obama-Biden campaign is pro-choice and believes in the constitutional separation of church and state.

In Alaska, Palin consistently supports the Bush Administration’s policy of abstinence-only sex education, stating in 2006 that “explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support,” according to an MSNBC report. Sen. Obama believes that refusing to teach American youth the facts about safe sex is both naïve and dangerous.

Palin doesn’t believe that human activity has contributed to global warming and has filed suit to halt the Bush Administration’s attempts to list the Alaskan polar bear as an endangered species. The Obama-Biden position is that it’s unscientific and cynical to claim climate change is simply a natural phenomenon.

Sarah Palin has been a decent public servant and is probably a fine mother, but she shouldn’t be America’s next vice-president. Not because she doesn’t deserve to lead, but because we deserve better leadership.