Palin alienates independents

After reading the recent opinions regarding the effect of Sarah Palin on the election by Andrew Clark and Matt Ingoglia (“Picking apart Palin, McCain’s wild-card VP,” Sept. 4, p. 4; “Letters to the editor,” Sept. 11, p. 4), I feel compelled to give my opinion as an older, independent, nonpolitical Virginia voter.

I was born and raised by independent parents in South Dakota, a state so red in presidential elections that it has only voted for a Democrat four times since it entered the union. I brought my left-leaning social views and right-leaning fiscal views to the hornet’s nest of politics as I worked on my doctoral degree at GW.

For me, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is little more than a slap in the face. For her and John McCain to look me in the face and tell me she is qualified to become president while Barack Obama isn’t would be laughable if it weren’t such an insult to my intelligence. Yes, she has more executive experience than Obama (a whopping 20 or so months), but she also has more than McCain too. And no, I don’t count her years as mayor of a town of 5,000. Teenagers have been mayors of towns larger and had little trouble, so that piece on her résumé doesn’t make me swoon.

I disagree with many of her social views and agree with many of her fiscal views. However, that is not the point. The single most critical question when picking a VP candidate is whether that person can immediately step in and take control of the country. Your answer is crystal clear when you see the actions of the candidates since the conventions. Obama, McCain, Joe Biden – all on the news programs, giving interviews and answering the tough questions. Palin was nowhere to be found. If she wasn’t ready to step off the stage in St. Paul, Minn., and begin fielding questions on important issues, then she is not ready. It is disappointing and disturbing to see so many people ignore what seems obvious.

I long for the days of the real maverick McCain, the McCain of 2000 or even a few years ago. Someone I could count on to cross the aisle and get something done that was important for the country. But now, as is always the case, he has bowed down to the radical religious right, as all Republican candidates must do to appease the base and secure the nomination. I get it – it’s what he had to do.

Don’t get me wrong, the Democrats aren’t much better. Both parties are run by their loudmouth extremist wings and ignore the fact that most of the country disagrees with them. But instead of appealing to the moderates, McCain chose someone more right-wing and more polarizing, with scant experience at the state or federal levels of government.

This is not the change I want to see. The thought of someone so green at the helm is terrifying. With Palin as his choice, McCain has lost my independent vote. And I don’t see any way he can get it back.

Nathan Bird, graduate student