CleverKitten wrote:
I, personally have a neutral opinion of her. I do not like or dislike her.
But it still somewhat irks me that people make so many hateful comments about her.
Soo... I would like to know the good reasons behind these hateful comments.
I tried to do some research about this hate, but all I got was dumb reasons like:
"Her kids have wierd names."
"She married her high-school sweetheart."
"She won a beauty pageant."
"She has very little experience." (When Obama had less experience than she does.)
Without resorting to personal attacks on her or her family, please state educated and well-supported reasons why she should not work in politics.
Well, I would say that a large part of it could be that her public "persona" was that she was, basically, "trailer trash with a new coat of nail polish and a wardrobe someone else picked for her". I'm not talking about her appearance here, either. She was seen as being of "the wrong class" (and yes, class-ism is alive and well in the USA) for the job. Every time she opened her mouth she reinforced that, from what I got from listening to the people around me talking about her.
She doesn't appear to be particularly highly educated or politically savvy, to my eyes. In my book, that's a strike against her. I want the best and the brightest, and the most highly educated person in the hot seat. At least if they have the "highly educated" card I know they are intellectually capable. Whether or not they're politically capable or have the leadership potential... that's another issue altogether. If a candidate has a long history of leadership and capable management, and appears to be savvy enough politically to handle international issues while juggling internal ones, that would balance out the educational card. Joe Biden had that, as did McCain. If all the candidates were on a level playing field, it would come down to the real issues on the table. But the field was not level. In my mind, "issues" are secondary. "Competency" in a leader is of the first order in importance. It was their second-in-command arrangements that tipped my vote.
I was close to voting for McCain, myself, although I was pretty sure Obama was going to win based on things other than his expertise. It was pretty much a toss-up, which one I was going to vote for, though. They both had some very strong points. There were things that were important to me that both of them said that I agreed with, and there were "gut feelings" about both of them that disturbed me.
In Obama's campaign, for instance, the mantra-like "CHANGE" campaign that they promoted, without the substance of how the change would take place, what it would cost, what outcomes were expected... I found that disturbing. It was bumper-sticker-think, it gave people something to grab onto without thinking any further than the one word. It appealed, I think, to a lot of people who didn't like the existing arrangement, but didn't know what do do other than vote for Obama to say "I vote for anything other than as the status quo stands." I was not comfortable with that. I prefer to know the plan in advance. His whole campaign strategy really left me with a bad feeling, even with Joe Biden there to soften that.
Then McCain named Ms. Palin as his running mate. To me, it was like a bad joke - he picked the only woman he could find who could be seen by the masses as remotely qualified because he needed a woman on the ticket to balance out the minority issue. She had neither the intellectual firepower nor a long and successful career working in the machine of mainstream national politics. In effect, she was the political equivalent of "a trophy wife." I was horrenously insulted that someone would pick a women for a running mate for anything other than her professional abilities - it slams us (women) back about 50 years in our bid for real equality in this country. Once I read much about her and saw her speak, I recoiled in such horror at the though that McCain could have died in office (he had, what a 2 out of 5 chance of keeling over, given his age?) and she would become President of the world's largest superpower.... eeeeee, no. I have a responsibility to the rest of the world, not only my fellow citizens.
My vote went over to Obama/Biden right there, as the only viable alternative.
Does that help?