The Problems with Palin

Sarah Louise Heath Palin. Palin was sworn in as the governor of Alaska on December 4, 2006, becoming the first woman and youngest person to hold the office. Since Palin is a newcomer to the D.C scene & Executive branch - the #2 position in the entire country, she had best learn to embrace the scrutiny. Palin is vastly inexperienced, and comes with lots of questionable political baggage.

Hates Bears?
In May 2008, Palin objected to the decision of Dirk Kempthorne, the Republican United States Secretary of the Interior, to list polar bears as an endangered species. The State of Alaska filed a lawsuit to stop the listing amid fears that it would hurt oil and gas development in the bears' habitat off Alaska's northern and northwestern coasts. She said the move to list the bears was premature and was not the appropriate management tool for their welfare. I think Palin was more concerned about her ability to go ahead with oil drilling & resource extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Sorry, but when an entire species like Polar Bears is at risk, the responsible thing to do would be to give special protection. Apparently her idea of appropriate management is to foul up and or make their habitat disappear.

Natural Resource Exploitation
In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope. On January 5, 2008, Palin announced that a Canadian company, TransCanada Corp., was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant. In August 2008, Palin signed a bill into law giving the state of Alaska authority to award TransCanada Pipelines $500 million in seed money and a license to build and operate the $26-billion pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Lower 48 through Canada.

Flip-flop on the bridge, but not the Money
The Gravina Island Bridge (also known as The Bridge to Nowhere) was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects Ketchikan, Alaska, to the Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island. Governor Sarah Palin also supported the project, but canceled the bridge when the Alaska delegation was unable to prevent changes to federal funding levels that more than doubled Alaska's portion of the bill from $160M (40%) to $329M (82%) of the bridge's cost.
In August 2007, Alaska's DOT stated that it was "leaning" toward alternative ferry options, citing bridge costs, despite having already received the funds from the federal government. The project was canceled in 2007 by governor Sarah Palin, a supporter of the bridge. Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer.

I don't really care about the Palin family soap opera of unwed teen pregnancy, or the questions about if the 4 month old special needs baby Trig, with Down's Syndrome, is in fact her baby- but instead question & observe we've not seen parents of infants in the Executive branch of government for good reason. Taking care of an infant is a demanding task that requires full committment from both parents- and even moreso with a special needs baby, The whole thing is tinged with varying degress of *crazy*.

All things considered, I am left to wonder- what were they thinking, to choose such an inexperienced, unqualified candidate?