Sarah's Choice

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as VP candidate has Karl Rove written all over it. It was never an attempt to reach out to disgruntled Hillary supporters, who can smell pandering a mile away.
Republicans know they can't run on their record, they can't run on the war, the environment, the economy, most Americans are also coming to realize their drill-and-burn energy policy has no future in it; what happens when we use up all the oil in the off shore wells and the Arctic refuge?
What Sarah Palin does is bring the "values" issues front and center. She is the Republican male's wet dream, a non-threatening beauty queen who likes to hang around and do guy stuff, she hunts and fishes, her husband is a roughneck, and races snowmobiles; a right religious woman, who kept her baby, even though he was diagnosed with Downs Syndrome. Hillary supporters aren't impressed, but look at how she is polling among working class men.
Instead of following the red herring, Dems would do well to take a play out of the Rove book, and challenge Ms. Palin on her "strengths." Her weaknesses will manifest themselves. And there are weaknesses: lack of experience, lack of preparation, no foreign policy, a brewing abuse of power scandal to name a few.

She is a reformer, who took on corruption in her own party, big ouil, and the "old boys network?"
Bravo! This is the minimum we expect out of our politicians: they govern competently, and keep their hands out of the till. She is a welcome change from the culture of corruption we have seen in Washington the last eight years, but is that really enough when she still supports the same failed policies of Bush/McCain. Praise her for her integrity, but keep her feet to the fire on the real issues.

Her son is in Iraq. Commendable. More politicians kids should be in the army. But does she have a plan for ending the war in Iraq? Or does she support the Republican policy of endless war?

She carried her Downs baby to term. Wonderful. She made the right choice for herself. She had lots of support while making this choice, from her family, her church. Pro-choice supporters never maintain it is an easy choice. Women agonize over this choice, which is as it should be. In addition to questions of faith and consciousness, women consider their financial and health care situations when faced with a Downs pregnancy.
With five children, Sarah Palin was out of the work force for months at a time. I don't know what kind of health care she had as mayor of a small city (I assume she had coverage as governor) but one of the rocks she could rely on was her husband's good paying, union job, with a living wage and health care benefits. So, how does she feel about the Bush/McCain health care plan? Does she support their anti-family, anti-worker, anti-union agenda?

This challenge can be done without resorting to the Republican character assassination. Just hold her feet to the fire on these real issues, chip away at her neo-con cred, then let her fall on her face in a debate with Joe Biden, and she will be history.