Out of Left Field

So, I know it has taken me a while to get back to you all, but that is due to my internet connection being down at my house, and let's face it: I do my best rambling when I am not in a public setting.

Sarah Palin has been getting a lot of attention lately, and with an obvious reason. But the topic of this post will be why I feel she is an unfit candidate for the office of Vice Presidency.

She has no experience. Now, I know she was the mayor of the town of Wasila, AK (Population approx. 9,000) and she was the governor of Alaska, and these are important offices. But, just because you lead a state doesn't mean you are ready to lead the country. I honestly wouldn't want Kathleen Sebilius (the current governor of Kansas) to be nominated for a VP spot for the same reason. (Contrary to what I may have said at some point during the vetting process). And some people will say "Obama doesn't have much experience either," but he chose a VP who can help in that area. Some people call that dirty politics or whatever: I call it smart.

Now, I am not a woman, but if I was I would feel pandered to, and insulted. To me, it seems like McCain decided that if he chose a woman for this position, even one who wasn't qualified, then all of Hillary's supporters would immediately jump ship and swim over to the U.S.S. McCain. I got a newsflash Mr. Maverick: Sarah Palin does not equal Hillary Clinton. Plain and simple. And if you think that the American public will buy into that, I hope you are wrong.

There are a few other things I find settling about Ms. Palin, but I don't know the whole story, so I am going to mention them, but not go into detail.

• She gave a speech at a Christian church saying our mission in Iraq was a mission from God. (Not quoted directly, but you get the idea).
• She belongs to an Alaskan sepratist group.
• The whole Bridge to Nowhere ordeal.
• She was the states Oil and Energy Comissioner (not a verbatim title) before she was governor, and supports drilling in ANWR. (I see a Big Oil puppet...)

So that sums up my opinions on Sarah Palin. I will say, however, that her daughter should never be used as political fodder. If we want to attack someone on the issues, thats fine...just don't bring their family into it.

So, to end this wonderful little post, I leave you with a quote from JFK:

"Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain."

My "Independence Day"

Welcome to my little experiment. I have always been a fan of politics, and given the current political environment, I decided to jump right in and write down my thoughts. I hope this will help me in my career, as I want to be a High School Government teacher, and if it doesn't, oh well. I hope to run for a State senate seat some day if I see it necessary, but I hope that day isn't for a very long time.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a sophomore at Baker University in Kansas and have lived in Kansas all my life. I am a registered Democrat, although I am under the impression that all politicians, regardless of their party affiliation, are politicians, so anything they say needs to be taken with a grain of salt. I lean to the left on most social issues, and am more moderate when it comes to financial issues, but I am still trying to figure out where I stand on some issues. Maybe this will help with that.

I am a strong believer in the rights of people, whether they are the right to express themselves religiously, or the right of people to say things that I may not agree with. I believe the Constitution was written for a purpose, and that while we can amend it (which is a great thing) we should not throw around that word lightly. I also believe that everyone has the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (within reason, of course). But I believe that we must move away from the Bipartisanship in Washington, D.C. today in order for our country to survive.

That about sums my views up. So feel free to leave me a comment or two or start a friendly debate, and I may bring it up in a later post. Understand however that if you are commenting just to argue and want to bring no intellectual capacity to this table, then I will probably ignore you...and no hate speech, slander, or anything. Let's keep this civil.

I look forward to reading your comments and debating issues further! I will end each post with a famous historical or political quote, and for this inaugural post, I leave you with this from Machiavelli's The Prince:

"From this arises an argument: whether it is better to be loved than feared. I reply that one should like to be both one and the other; but since it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking."