On the most recent Saturday Night Live, McCain appeared in the opening skit where he and running mate Sarah Palin (a.k.a. Tina Fey) sell campaign memorabilia on QVC. His appearance gave him the opportunity to poke a little fun at himself.

In less than 5 minutes, McCain and Fey manage to poke a little Saturday night fun at Obama's 30-minute infomercials, Palin's $150,000 wardrobe, the various Joe's of the campaign (Joe the Plumber, Joe Six-Pack and Joe Biden), McCain's proposed vetoes of pork-barrel spending, Palin's potential run for President in 2012, McCain's maverick status and Obama's many celebrity endorsements. Whew...that's a lot of much needed satire in a presidential race that is becoming more tiresome by the minute.

What would you do with 150 thousand dollars? Better yet, what should a political party do with 150 thousand dollars? Obviously, the Republican Party thinks it is best to spend it on the wardrobe of their Vice-Presidential nominee. I am not writing this particular blog as a diss to the Republican Party, or any party or person for that matter. I am just trying to wrap my head around the facts and what I believe is right and/or wrong with the spending of 150 thousand dollars on a person’s wardrobe.

To be honest for one second, I shop. In fact, I shop a lot….probably more than the average person. However, when I shop, it is done with my own expenses. I believe my main argument against the spending of donations on Palin’s wardrobe is primarily wrong because it was done with donations through the Republican National Committee. Especially since in 2002, McCain put his name on a campaign finance law that barred any funds from being used for personal expenses such as clothing.

Furthermore, the committee has spent more on Palin’s wardrobe in the last month than the average American spends on clothing a year. None of this is what upsets me the most. The United States Congress recently voted on a bailout plan worth billions of dollars in order to “save” Americans while we are in a recession. Just three months ago, gas prices were at the highest they had ever been. States such as Texas and Atlanta were recently struggling to find gas at all due to damage from natural disasters and the Republican Party has money to spend on clothing? I am shocked and appalled.

The committee is trying to use the fact that the clothing will be donated to charity after the election as a positive spin. However, with Americans currently losing jobs on a daily basis, I am sure many people would rather love food on their tables versus $1500 suits stitched by Roberto Cavalli for Neiman Marcus. Is this the party that I want ruling the country?

And it really gets me that Fox News is trying to use excuses such as Palin looking good, sexism, and new anchors constantly getting freebees as a justification, but that would be an entirely separate blog in itself.

Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin demonstrated her lack of knowledge on foreign policy in her interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric. Standing outside of the United Nations, Palin defended herself when Couric asked why she had just recently applied for a passport. As a working woman, she claimed to be limited in her ability to travel outside of the U.S.; instead, gaining all of her knowledge on foreign countries and policies from education, books and other various mediums. Obviously, her limited experience has stunted her mental capacity to understand any policy that does not include “values” or “Alaska.” Seeing that on those two topics, she comes across as intelligent and quite endearing at times.
Nonetheless at one question involving Alaska, she failed yet again. When Couric offered to give Palin a chance to redeem her position concerning Russia’s close proximity to Alaska giving her foreign policy experience, Palin still sang the same tune. “Our next-door neighbors are foreign countries,” Palin said. She continued to state that Alaska and Russia trade together and that Putin enters the fly space of Alaska.
When asked about the economic crisis, Palin asserted that people were waiting to see what McCain would do, not Obama. When Couric insisted that Obama’s rating with the public has increased with the current crisis, Palin balked at the poll numbers claiming instead that Americans look at track records. However, her lack of knowledge on McCain’s track record of commerce regulation left her clambering for an answer when Couric insisted on “specific examples” of McCain “pushing for more regulation” in the last 26 years. With a smile on her face Palin said, “I’ll try to find you some and I’ll bring ‘em to ya.”
Palin has done wonders for the Republican ticket, boosting poll numbers and attracting media attention. She is pretty, down-to-earth and fierce at times; even so, she is beginning to look like the caricature political cartoonists have drawn her to be. It is obvious from this interview and her “track record” that she is not ready to fill in for McCain if he were to take office and croak. Perhaps the McCain advisors and staff should begin preparing her for her next interview, or better yet for the debate on Thursday night.


The SNL parody of the interview was hilarious.

The 2008 Presidential Election has come to be an election about race, age and gender. And while I have tried to stay away from commenting on my feelings about Sarah Palin, I have finally decided to make a declaration. I have no feelings about her at all. Conversely, the Newsweek article, “From Seneca Falls to…Sarah Palin,” has given me some opinions about what she stands for and symbolizes for women. It is obvious that women voters will play a big role in this year’s election. Women have always been a strong force to reckon with when they rally together and they have decided to rally around whichever female emerges. But isn’t it a shame that the female is Sarah Palin?

As a female, I love everything Palin stands for. She is feisty and a real caricature of what today’s Renaissance woman is. She is a career mother who has not only “taken care” of a family but has also managed to control communities and run a city. Hilary Clinton also played this role within the Democratic Party. Both of these women have dispelled the beliefs of the women who voted during the Regan era. Today’s woman is no longer intimidated by the possibility of a high ranking woman as the article states. We have come together to support each other and rally behind what we believe in. As I look at all the women that I consider to be a “modern day” woman, I realize that today’s woman has decided that it is okay to shatter and stomp on preconceived notions and roles of what women should be.

While I am very much an advocate of a strong woman, I am not an advocate of Sarah Palin. While she is good a electrifying a crowd, is she ready to take on the responsibilities of a Vice President? While so many women are getting caught up on the fact that we have a woman for a Vice-Presidential candidate, they are forgetting to ask themselves can this particular woman run the entire United States if McCain were to not be able to fulfill his duties (I mean, he is like 100 years old people!!). As Time Magazine stated, Palin has no national experience and very little experience at even the state political level. And while she has a family, are they really presenting themselves as a well managed and directed family? I believe that Palin has potential and she has definitely brought attention and inspiration to millions of women across the country. Maybe over time, Palin could be a political powerhouse. But right now I believe she still has a lot to learn.

Religion was a definite factor in the 2000 and 2004 elections, and seems as though it may be even more important in this one. President George W. Bush was very outspoken on his religious views and faith in God during his election, as was Sen. John Kerry. However, Bush and Kerry are Christian and Catholic respectively.
There has been much discussion of Sen. Barack Obama's religious views over past weeks. He has been linked with Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism, and in his book said that he has studied Hinduism, as well as Greek, Norse and African mythology. While to some it would seem useful that Sen. Obama is well versed in many religions, others seem to look down on the senator because of it.
While Obama is a now a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ, his ties to Islam are causing an uproar, especially in the Southern Baptist south. Though both his father and step-father were Muslim, one considered himself an atheist and the other was a lapsed Muslim who followed beliefs of other religions as well. And yet, these ties have lead many southerners to view Obama as a terrorist sympathizer and have looped him into the negative view many Americans have of Muslims.
Gov. Palin's religious views have also been discussed at length, especially considering her strong social conservative views and the pregnancy of her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol. Palin was raised under the Pentacostal Church, which, according to Time follows "a strict moral code: no tobacco, no alcohol, no social dancing." This portrayal of Palin's religious background easily explains her social conservatism, however, the preacher of her former church is of the typical, and contraversial, hellfire and brimstone variety.
Palin now attends a nondenominational Baptist church and has not been outspoken on her personal religious beliefs, but I am sure they will surface soon. It will be quite interesting to see how the religious views of the candidates will affect the perceptions of the voters come November.