Sarah Palin the VP | Teen Ink

Sarah Palin the VP

October 28, 2008
By Anonymous

Why would you choose Sarah Palin the Alaska governor to run for the VP spot? I don’t know exactly why John McCain chose her to be his VP candidate, but I do have theories. When I first heard about McCain picking Palin as his running mate, I thought that it was a big shocker. I wonder how he even found out about Palin. I thought that he would have picked someone else as a VP candidate because no one really cares for Alaska. Then it hit me, I thought about the different ways it helped McCain get some more votes.

When McCain had Palin go around the country to meet people, I thought about why McCain wasn’t campaigning with her. Right after that, I thought about the idea of McCain using her as a “shield” sort of thing. Let me explain my theory: when Palin was first introducing herself to everyone, it seemed as if she was winning some more votes for McCain with her great attitude and personality.
So it seemed as if McCain was putting all the attention of Palin instead of him; if you think about it, at first we heard a lot more from Palin than McCain which made it seem as if Palin was running for president and McCain was running for VP. If McCain was really trying to do that, it worked because he fooled me. I do think he actually might need a “shield” because people in our nation don’t want to elect another old man who might ruin our future. For many years, our nation has been run by an old guy who sticks and continues the same thoughts as past presidents, when he should be changing things for us. Even though I’m not old enough to vote yet, the whole Palin thing made me want to vote because all over the news, they were showing things about how Palin was unique and special. Most people think that she is unique and special because she is some lady from Alaska. Most stereotypes of Alaskans are we live in igloos and we go ice fishing all year long, but we don’t and that is why people think that Palin is so interesting. This confused me for a while, until I thought about some reasons why he would choose her in the first place.

One of the reasons why I think that McCain chose Palin as his running mate is because Palin is a woman. If you think a while back when Hilary Clinton was in the race, she basically had all the women of America on her side. That is until, she was kicked out of the race, which made matters seem worse because some of the women of America didn’t really want to vote anymore since Clinton was not in the race. That all changed when McCain announced his running mate. When Palin started to hit the campaign trail, she immediately started flowing the whole ‘girl power’ vibe again. It seemed as if she was the new replacement for Hilary Clinton and that Clinton wasn’t really there anymore. That all changed when Clinton endorsed Barack Obama though. When she came back into the election ’08 scene again, she got back some her supporters, but not all. That was when Clinton decided to get on TV and tell everyone in America that Palin’s beliefs are lies.

The second reason why I think that McCain picked her was because she is a down to earth middle class woman. Before she had the lavish life as governor of Alaska, she was just like us. When she was in high school, she was going to Wasilla high. She served as Wasilla’s starting point guard and after that, she went onto college and worked at KTUU-TV and KTVA-TV. Before she became governor of Alaska, she ran for Wasilla school board member and Wasilla mayor. Right now, her husband, Todd Palin, is working at BP and owns his own Fishing Commercial Company. So as you can see, Sarah Palin had to work real hard to get where she is right now.

Besides Palin relating to middle class and that she is a woman, another reason I think that she was chosen as McCain’s running mate was because of ANWR. ANWR stands for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. ANWR is located in Northeastern Alaska (North Slope) which is where the Alaska Pipeline runs through. Since ANWR is located on the Pipeline, many people want to drill it for crude oil. Why wouldn’t they right? It’s Alaska’s Pipeline…So they should be able to decide whether or not they want to drill it right? Well not exactly. If you paid any attention to what ANWR means, it had National and Refuge in it, which means that it’s not just Alaska’s Refuge, but it’s the whole nation’s Refuge. So that is why Congress has passed a law that states that no one is allowed to drill in that area of the pipeline. Now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with Election 08’ right? Well, this involves McCain and Palin because even though the Nation does not want to drill in the pipeline, the republicans do. So, the Republican campaign is trying real hard to make this happen.

Besides the reasons for why I think that Palin was chosen, I also have theories about her future. What would happen if McCain died because of his age? Do you think that she is a good enough president to lead our nation? In my perspective, I’m not really sure about Sarah Palin becoming president because there are so many pros and cons to this situation. A positive thing about this is that she actually said yes to running as VP. It is an important thing that she said yes because when she did, she knew what decision she making (I know that most people will say yes to that question, but sometimes they don’t know what will happen to them in the future). She knew that if McCain can’t make his full term as president, she will have to fulfill the duty of president. It does matter that she said yes because if she didn’t that meant that she knew she was not ready to take on the challenge. So she must have known what she was doing.

Many people think that a con of Sarah Palin is that she doesn’t have much experience as other governors do, but I’m and half and half in this con situation. I do think that Sarah Palin does not have much experience because of her decisions. Even though she made the right decisions for Alaskans doesn’t mean she could make the right decisions for millions of people in our nation. A big issue to prove this theory is the war. If she did become president, she would be in charge of what goes on in the military. Do you think that she can make the right decision for most of the nation? What if she made the wrong choice? Which leads me to think that she might actually be fine without much experience because don’t you think that Palin has a big heart? That might sound weird saying a big heart, but she does. The tie between Palin and the war is that she has a big heart because A great example is her past experience because she started at nothing and worked her way up to the top. From her running for school board in Wasilla and mayor, she knows what is the right thing and wrong thing to do. Hopefully her little experience will help her if anything happens.

Again let me go back to my original question, Why choose Sarah Palin? I think that McCain chose Palin because she is a unique Alaskan with a great heart. I think that she is unique because she knows how us middle classman feel and live every single day. If she isn’t spending quality time with her family, she is making great decisions for us and for others in the future. Without Palin, Alaska wouldn’t be what it is now. If you think back to the past when Palin first started as Alaska governor to present Alaska, she has made a lot of complicated decisions that we should be grateful for. Without Palin, Alaska wouldn’t be what it is now. So if you get what I am saying, you probably know why John McCain chose Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential Candidate.


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This article has 1 comment.


AKwritten said...
on Aug. 29 2010 at 1:02 am
AKwritten, Anchorage, Alaska
0 articles 0 photos 22 comments
sarah palin was not born in alaska she was born in the Lower 48, her daughter bristol plain was born in alaska and attended wasilla high and she was a horrible governer even if she was the first woman to be elected govner of AK