Sarah Palin’s Actions Can be Blamed on John McCain

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To the joy of some and the dismay of others, Governor Sarah Palin continues to be in the news…and we have John McCain to blame for it.

When John McCain selected Governor Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate in the 2008 presidential election, she was the little known Republican governor of the sparsely-populated state of Alaska. When Palin was chosen she was a little less than halfway through her first term as governor and her previous experience was having been the mayor of the small town of Wasilla. Even though there were more qualified and experienced Republican candidates to choose from McCain settled on Palin.

McCain knew that he would be criticized for picking Governor Palin and he knew that he was taking a chance by choosing her but he was willing to take a calculated risk in an effort to court disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters.

 It was no secret that there were many Clinton faithful who were disappointed that their candidate was not chosen to run for vice president after losing the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama. And Senator McCain was not subtle in his actions to persuade her followers to support him.

Choosing Sarah Palin, an unqualified, unknown candidate with relatively no national or international exposure or knowledge, drew the ridicule of many politicians, both Democratic and Republican. She was lampooned in the media and the target of late night comedians on a regular basis.

Since losing the 2008 presidential election, Governor Palin has been making every effort to keep herself in the news. Going to high profile Republican gatherings, making television appearances and even starting her own foundation are all efforts to keep Sarah Palin’s name in the public arena.

Sarah Palin may be a good person and maybe even likable enough but she is not and will not ever be a  legitimate candidate for national office. John McCain’s selection of Palin gave her a false sense of qualification that she did not possess and the American public has had to endure her continual grasps for recognition ever since.

It was painfully clear to everyone who was looking with an objective eye, that Governor Palin was out of her element on the national political stage and woefully uninformed about national and international affairs. The glaring gaps in her knowledge were exposed in her interviews with Charles Gibson (ABC) and Katie Couric (CBS).

Even though these interviews clearly demonstrated Palin was not ready or qualified to be running for vice president of The United States, the Republican Party and John McCain continued to tout her as a viable candidate. This bolstering by the Republican Party and John McCain only served to give Governor Palin more false confidence in her abilities and qualifications to run for the office she was seeking.

Many powerful Republicans were apalled by her evident ineptitude and continue to be irritated by her unwavering efforts to garner attention. 

John McCain put Sarah Palin on a stage that she, very simply, did not belong on. The fact that he put her in that arena gave her the feeling that she belonged there which was not true.

Sarah Palin’s latest move of announcing her resignation from being governor of Alaska on the day before July the 4th was yet another calculated publicity maneuver to grab media attention for herself on an otherwise slow news day. The same media that she claims is always out to “get her”.

Palin’s announcement was called “rambling” by one CNN political analyst and led Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist, former adviser to Ronald Reagan and commentator on CNN to say, Palin’s latest episode made her look like a “kook”.

Governor Palin has been in the national spotlight for almost a year now and doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. Whether you love her or love to hate her, you have John McCain to thank or blame for it.