Sarah Palin

For those of you who know my wife and me and our (three-soon-to-be-four) children, it's probably not too much of a stretch to imagine why there are things about Sarah Palin which resonate with us deeply.  First of all, she is a mother of five and we of course really appreciate large families.  Secondly, she can shoot, kill and field dress a moose without ever compromising her womanly femininity.   This quality is one of the very first which drew me to my wife Charity! (see the post below).  Thirdly, she has far too little experience to qualify for an elected position in the executive branch of our federal government in the currently popular sense of "qualified".  But I love the idea of a woman who was very recently a mayor of a smaller town being catapulted by circumstances unforeseen into a position as weighty as the vice presidency. 

We are after all a Republic.  So if I remember correctly from Mr. Gibson's 9th grade Civics Class at good ol' Greenville High School, the whole point of a republic is that normal men and women in order to serve their nation, take time out of their regular vocations to go and represent the interests of the people in government for a time.  When that time has ended, another election is held and the power to represent the people is redistributed based on the will of the voters.  The "politician" then returns to his or her prior vocation and continues life more or less as usual.  I really like that idea.  And while I know that occupying an office in the executive branch is a serious and weighty calling, requiring a great deal of skill, insight, integrity, and wisdom, I also believe that there are many people in various walks of life who have the skills, insight, integrity, and wisdom to serve adequately in the role of vice-president or even president.  I'll stop short of suggesting Palin is one of those people, because I simply don't know.  But I'm not in agreement with the line of thinking that says "oh this person hasn't been in politics long enough to have the necessary experience".  In fact, I kind of think that's the way it's suppose to be.