Palin and personal integrity

One thing I don't like about the political Christianity types is that when push comes to shove although they expect everyone else to abide to some high moral code they don't seem any more moral than anybody else - in fact I'm tempted to say they appear to be just the opposite.

Sarah Palin said in her big Republican speech that "In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change." But then there are also those who use their position to further their own personal interests.

Now Sarah Palin, whom we are assured has been vetted by the McCain camp, seems to be a complete disaster area as a VP candidate. Her terrible politics will play well with some (although they're clearly divisive and have only minority appeal) but her personal abuses of power are genuinely going to hit the McCain campaign hard - in fact I wouldn't be surprised if McCain's recent slip in the polls was caused by the revelations surrounding Palin's selection.

I'm not talking about the alleged affair - that doesn't interest me, although I suspect it wont play well with her religious base. If she did have an affair it makes her a hypocrite - but doesn't particularly influence how she might behave in office.

However, as we've already seen she used her political position to get her sister's ex-husband fired, and then pressured others over the firing and then lied about it. This is corruption, pure and simple.

We've seen something approaching the forced marriage of her daughter when abstinence only sex education failed to do the only thing it was designed for. Which isn't just ruthless of her, it shows she doesn't care who gets hurt in order to fulfill her own ambitions. Once she's Vice President that tendency could end up with extremely serious consequences.

But now we have an official ethics complaint against Palin. What enemy of the Republican cause has done this you say? Why it's Sarah Palin herself! Could it be that even she believes her ethics are well below the required standard?

Well, she probably does, but that isn't why she's initiated the enquiry. You see if she pre-empts the complaints others have waiting in the wings and puts in process the official system herself due to her current political position it means that *she* gets to appoint the 3-person board that deals with the ethics investigation and, she argues, supersedes any other body conducting investigations into her ethics, or lack thereof.

Pretty neat trick, but is this the kind of person that decent minded Republican voters want running the country? I doubt it frankly, you'd have to have a pretty low opinion of Americans to think that's what they want in a Vice President.

An ethical politician would not only be in this position in the first place - but they'd never stoop to stitching up an investigation for their own personal benefit in this way. As time goes on we will begin to see just how corrupt the hard right of the Republican Party can be, embodied in McCain's choice for VP.

I'm even getting the feeling he may well dump her before the election as the complete liability that she is.

Incidentally, McCain made an interesting point in his conference speech where he said that his appointment of the fresh faced Palin showed he was looking forwards, whilst Obama's choice of the experienced Biden shows he's looking backwards. Doesn't that mean that come November when Americans go to the polls that everyone who votes for McCain is looking backwards and everyone who votes Obama is looking to the future?

Yup, I think it does. Thanks for that thought Senator McCain, thanks for that thought. You can donate to the Obama campaign here.

Check out this fact file (thanks Scott)
And thanks for the badge Bo Beau D'Or (thanks for the reminder John)