I know our little corner of the web is devoted to the comings and goings of the Shinn clan, but the news that Sen. McCain has chosen Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential pick is worrisome to me.  If you didn’t know, as an active duty officer, my political speech is circumscribed by DoD Directive 1344.10; however, I believe I’m within the standard set forth by espousing my opinions below. Let me be clear – any view below is purely my own personal opinion and I do not represent the US Government, the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or the United States Marine Corps.

Gov. Palin is inexperienced on the national/international stage. The only reason I had ever heard of her before is that she went back to work 3 days after giving birth to their youngest child, Trig. Impressive.  However, her resume is less than impressive – from her bio page on Alaska.gov “Prior to her election as governor, Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council and two terms as the mayor/manager of Wasilla (here’s an image of downtown).” Also, her squeaky-clean image is soiled by an on-going ethics investigation.  Especially troubling is at the time of airing of this MSNBC news broadcast, she didn’t even know what a VP does.  For more information, read the Huffington Post article by Dee Dee Meyers.

Gov. Palin supports teaching creationism in school. During the race for the Alaska Governor’s seat, she advocated teaching both evolution and creationism.  Yes, evolution is a theory, but creationism is a religious viewpoint.  We should not have public school versions of madrasa Islamias.

While this may or may not make her a creationist in itself, it highlights a personally scary demographic – one that I did not know existed.  While I have not looked at the statistical modeling of the research, the evidence below suggests that, as a nation, the US ranks second to last in believing in evolution with Turkey only coming in below us.  Really?!?

Multi-Nation Evolution/Creationism Demographic, from LiveScience

Gov. Palin is pro-life/anti-abortion. NARAL reports that Palin, a Feminists for Life member, is opposed to abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. [Juneau Empire, "Abortion Draws Clear Divide in State Races," accessed 8/29/08 and Anchorage Daily News, "Governor’s Race: Top contenders meet one last time to debate," 11/03/06.]  The California NOW site has a litany of problems with Gov. Palin.

While I know people have questioned Sen. Obama’s pick, even conservatives have brought forth questions about Gov. Palin’s ability to be Vice President. See also here for another example. While “Troopergate” may or may not pan out, her opposition to the Alaskan Clean Water ballot measure is another story. She took ‘personal privilege’ to speak out against a initiative to keep a mine from polluting an Alaskan bay.

She is, in my opinion, diametrically opposite from my political stance – a big business acolyte, anti-environment, anti-choice, anti-education, and pro-oil.