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Wasilla, Alaska City Hall

Like the caption says… this is the City Hall for the Village of Wasilla, Alaska.  This is where McCain claims her experience started.  This is all it takes people, to become Vice President of the United States of America.  The mayor of a town smaller than 90% of the suburbs of major cities across the country.  (For the record, the City of Cedar Hill, Texas has a brilliant new Town Hall.  It looks like the Wasilla City Hall could be entirely contained on the 4th floor of the CH Town Hall…)  So when Sen. John McCain says that “She’s been in elected office longer than Sen. Obama” (http://is.gd/29cd) is this what’s he’s talking about?  Let’s not forget that Obama was in Chicago politics (pretty tough shit there)

But Antwan!  She was Gov. of Alaska!

According to the United States Census Bureau, the STATE of Alaska has only 670,053 people (as of 2006 http://is.gd/29an)  According to this: http://is.gd/29au , there are nearly 20 CITIES in the United States that have a larger population than Alaska.  Baltimore, Maryland is only a few thousand people (statistically speaking, almost nothing) shy of being larger than Alaska, but I don’t put any faith in their mayor to be Vice-President.

Oh yeah, just because she was “Commander in Chief” of the Army National Guard of Alaska, doesn’t mean she can lead the entire armed forces, as much as Barack Obama, George W. Bush, or John McCain can lead them.  (On McCain, just because you were in the armed forces, DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN RUN ALL OF THE BRANCHES!)  It takes someone who can listen to the advice of the Generals and Admirals in charge.  (Something Bush has been doing half-heartedly [Attacking Iraq against the advice of the joint-chiefs]).  

This is the biggest reason why Gov. Sarah Palin is a frightening prospect.  Other than being the tie-breaker in congress, this is the most important role of the Vice President of the United States.  Take over the role of the President in case of any emergency.

She is simply not prepared for this role.  At least Joe Biden has experience in congress.  In fact years of experience.  Should anything (God forbid) happen to Barack Obama, Biden would be able to step in and do the job confidently.  A former mayor of a town smaller than my University (Stephen F. Austin University) is simply not prepared for the task of VP, much less the task of President!

John McCain, I respect you.  Before you chose to run for President, I liked your politics.  I liked the fact that you weren’t afraid to tell partisan politics to go fuck themselves for what you felt was right.  You weren’t on the extreme right, you did what was right for your constituents.  However, in the past year, you have reversed many things that I thought was admirable about your character, just flowing with the official party line.  A quick example: offshore drilling.  Four years ago, you were dead-set against offshore drilling.  Now, when it’s the party line, you jumped to the front of the line in trying to send rigs to the California coast.

This is all coming from a guy whose considered “progressive”.  John McCain, dump your current VP.  If you want a woman VP so bad, get Kay Bailey Hutchinson from Texas (http://is.gd/29Ae).  Built in experience, from a Senator from Texas.  She makes Palin look like the mail room intern at the Hart Senate Office Building.  (Still no match for Obama/Biden, but we would all like an amazing election.  It makes everyone better in the end…)

-Antwan L.
antwan@antwanpayne.com