What I Love About Sarah Palin

Believe it or not, I am a Sarah Palin fan. Especially after watching her interview with Charlie Gibson.

SP definitely is a woman of great courage and vision. She conveys the strength that one could easily follow. I like her for that. I like her for standing up to public scrutiny and believing in her self. I want to be like that. I am in some ways. And in the ways I'm not, I am challenged to forge on. (I'm also curious about her inner dialogue. Does she ever doubt her self? Does she ever think she can't make it in the face of criticism, criticism that says "you're not good enough"?) Sarah Palin inspires me because she is a woman who has and continues to stand in sectors historically occupied by men.

For all of that I say, "Go Sarah! Uh-huh! Go Sarah!"

But that is where it ends for me. I love Sarah Palin the figure, but would never want her to represent or govern the United States of America on a international level. She knows about Russia because she can see it from Alaska. Well, what does she know? She already backed herself into a corner committing our country to war against Russia should they invade Georgia. Which they did. Crap. Another tough talking saber-rattling leader.

She thinks we can march right into Pakistan without their consent or cooperation if we have reason to do so. Yikes. Now we're warring with Pakistan too. Think of it. What if Russia, her next door neighbor, brought their military right into Alaska in pursuit of someone they were hunting ineffectively for 7 years with all of their military force destroying homes, infrastructure, civilian lives - rounding up "evil doers" and holing them in Russian prisons - all with no regard to our wishes. We are all spooked because Russia is doing military exercises with Venezuela. How does she think the rest of the world sees us?

And then there are the bureaucracies and efficiencies. What? I could talk in such generalities about what our government should do.

So my objections are not to her. I really do kind of like her. I admire a lot about her. The problem is she is ignorant when it comes to national domestic issues and international issues.

My husband always likes to use the phrase "The Peter Principle" - when one rises to their level of incompetency. They work their way up to increasingly larger stages - say, PTA pres, small town mayor, governor of the least populated state in America - and because of their success they get an opportunity to do something for which they are imminently unqualified. SP fits the description, wouldn't you say?