Thoughts on Sarah Palin

I’ve always shied away from talking politics on my blog because I now how the topic can incite such strong emotions in people, both good and bad.  Now I am by no means a political expert, butI have been thinking a lot about Sarah Palin the last couple weeks and just wanted to share my thoughts.

When she was first announced as the VP candidate, I was very excited.  I admit, I didn’t know a lot about her but was excited because I heard she was conservative and definitely pro-life.  I didn’t put much credence into the early bad press about her because I felt like the liberal media was just looking for skeletons to tear her down because she was showing to be quite a threat against the democrats as indicated by the polls.

After her recent interview with Katie Couric, I was definitely disappointed.  She came off looking bad.  She didn’t answer many questions that were directly asked and seemed to dance around topics the whole time.  I didn’t get it!   This was not the Sarah Palin I was expecting.

But the more I thought about it, the more I put myself in her shoes.  When she was campaigning for Governor of Alaska, she was her own woman.  It was her platform, her candidacy, her rules but this situation is completely different.  What a responsibility she must feel towards John McCain.  He went out on a huge limb to choose her as his running mate.  The running mate is supposed to support the presidential nominee, bolster them up, make them look good, win them more votes.  Considering how hungry the media is for ammunition against Republicans, if she makes one slip-up or says something “wrong”, they will show no mercy in their attack.  Talk about pressure….geesh!  

I don’t know what McCain’s advisers have been telling her or how much they have been controlling her, but in that interview it seemed like she was afraid to stray at all from the McCain campaign’s talking points.  Was this because of a lack of experience or because she is under such pressure to not say the wrong thing. 

So maybe they are controlling her and maybe their not, we don’t know.  But if they are, I wish McCain would just let Sarah be herself!   Can’t they see that by putting all this pressure on her to not say the wrong thing, she ends up coming off poorly and as a result, the media got plenty of ammunition to use against her anyway. 

I think the real Sarah Palin is the one everyone loved when she was first announced.  The one with extremely high approval ratings in her state.  She didn’t (or shouldn’t have to) change just because she was hand picked by McCain.  She should be allowed to have her own opinions on certain issues.  Yes, overall they should be somewhat agreed on the fundamentals but I think it can only be beneficial to have several slightly different opinions in the White House.  If you only surround yourself with people who agree with you, then what chance do you have of learning? 

Anyway…I said a prayer for Sarah this morning and I will continue to throughout the day.  I want her to do awesome in the debate tonight.  I want her intelligence and charisma to shine through so she can shove all the recent bad press right back into her critic’s faces.  Tonight will be a defining moment one way or the other and I will be definitely be praying for it to go her way!