One of America’s most conservative female columnists has just called for Sarah Palin to get out of the race for vice-president, saying, essentially, that she is an embarrassment.
Tomorrow we return to the topics of the New Spirituality, as Sunday School All Week continues, but postponed by a day…because today, I have a few stray responses to offer to comments made here on this blog…and a startling announcement to make: One of the nation’s most conservative female columnists — long a staunch spokeswoman for the conservative agenda and the Republicans in general — today admitted publicly and forcefully that Sarah Palin is just not up to the job.
Wow. More below…but first…
On Friday I edited an entry in the Comments Section of this blog in which a person posting as “Loral O” sought to include a commentary on Barack Obama’s religion. The entry repeated the often-made and now 100-times totally proven to be untrue claim that Sen. Obama is a Muslim. I don;t mind repeating this claim now, because I am doing it to outright ridicule it, rather than to state it as a fact. “Loral O” said that Sen. Obama was a Muslim because, even if he himself denied that he was and he repeatedly declared himself to be a born-again Christian, his father and his step-father were Muslim, and, according to “Loral O”, Islam itself declares that persons born to a Muslim are Muslims for life…or words to that effect.
I edited this out of “Loral O’s” entry (along with another comment seeking to connect Sen. Obama with people who are trying to kill us) because it is patently untrue, and it has been proven to be untrue, that Sen. Obama is a Muslim, and I believe “Loral O” knows this full well.
Yesterday in the Comments Section “Loral O” wrote, among other things…

Apparently this being Neale’s blog site allows his management. I wanted to clarify that everything I wrote regarding Obama’s Muslim beginnings, was taken from several different news sites and authors. Nothing I said was made-up and is there for anyone to read. I sent a list of urls where I got my information, but it was not posted.

I would like to gently remind you, “Loral O,” that because something appears on “different news sites and authors” does not make it true. I made a point yesterday to which you did not reply. I said…

A person does not belong to, or believe in, a particular religious tradition simply because a parent does or did — even if the religion itself teaches that this is so. Anyone with a reasonably fair mind would have to acknowledge that a Catholic who changed faiths and became a Baptist is no longer a Catholic…much less is a person who never WAS a Catholic, but was merely born into a Catholic family.
The same would be said of any other person and any other faith.

I can understand why you did not respond to this observation, Loral O, because no fair-minded person could possibly disagree.
But I would truly urge you not to seek to justify your attempt to enter the first comment, the blatantly false statement, about Mr. Obama being a Muslim by saying that, well, gosh, I found it on other sites…and inferring that, therefore, it must be true… Please, please, oh please…
And oh my oh my, did i absolutely LOVE the comment posted by “Deb Reilly”…get a load of THIS…

When the affiliation with a specific faith is openly used as a dig against someone, that speaks volumes about the accuser. What if a fantastic candidate for president WAS Muslim? Would that stop anyone here from voting for them? If so, are you voting on color, sex, sexual preference, age, religion, family background, or ethnicity?

Yippee! Wow. EXACTLY, Deb. You have called it like it is. Then Deb wrote…

The edited version of Loral’s post still offended me, but I believe she has a right to freedom of speech. Couldn’t you have allowed her to speak her piece, and then placed your editorial beneath hers, in bold type if necessary?

No, Deb, no. “Freedom of speech” does not give a person freedom to lie. Telling an outright lie as if it was a fact is not something I am going to permit on this blog–period. I found the comment that “Loral O” tried to post on this blog to be racist and bigoted, but what made me delete it was the fact that it was simply and plainly and blatantly untrue–and I don’t believe for a moment that “Loral O” doesn’t know that.
Now I want to say how much, how very much, I appreciated the commentary of the person posting as “Janel” here, who said in part…

I still hear an underlying voice in this blog that stems from fear of course, but that separates whites from blacks or other races. I hear again and again that its their fault, they should just “get over it”, and its so easy for people to say that if they have never experienced it for themselves.
I can’t fault someone for never experiencing racism, but I don’t think that if someone never experienced it that they just tell someone to get over it. It would be similar to telling a rape victim to just get over it and then later saying it was ultimately her fault because of the clothes she wore.
People can’t blame someone for the actions of others that their skin color has caused. Does this mean that all minorities are innocent—HELL NO. It just means that it’s high time to look at where they are going in this country and what we can do about it to make it better. But just like in an AAA meeting, the first step is realizing there is a problem that needs to be fixed, and the more we fight the fact there is a problem due to pride or fear issues, our country will continue to be the laughing stock of the world and eventually fall apart.

Wow, I could not agree with you more, my friend. Wow. Well said. I loved your analogy about telling a rape victim to “get over it.” There are some things that you might have a very hard time just “getting over,” and lifelong discirmination might be one of them, I should imagine.
Now, as to Sarah Palin…I have been saying here since the moment she was picked (hastily) by John McCain (in a desperate and cynical attempt to revitalize his candidacy by throwing a woman on the ticket at the last minute) that she was simply woefully — and I mean woefully — unqualified to become vice-president of the United State…much less to become president, should something happen to Mr. McCain…
A survey appearing today at AOL.com asked this question: “Do you believe Sarah Palin to be qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?” The response: 70%-No, 30% yes.
But polls are polls, after all, and (except when they show that John McCain in leading Barack Obama) mean nothing to most Republicans. What does mean something to Republicans is the opinion of their own most conservative observers — such as Kathleen Parker, writing in the National Review Online.
Ms. Parker epitomizes the modern, conservative American woman. In her opinion column for the National Review today she says that her “cringe reflex is exhausted” after watching the Alaska governor stumble through TV interviews, and that “it’s become clear to her that Palin is out of her league,” the Associated Press reports this morning.
“‘No one hates saying that more than I do,’ Parker writes. ‘Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does’,” the AP report said.
It gets worse, folks. Parker actually begs Palin to resign, to drop out of the race, to plead family concerns, or whatever, and just get off the ticket, now.
The Associated Press report goes on to say that “Tony Fabrizio, a GOP strategist, told Politico.com that Palin’s recent CBS appearance with Katie Couric was alarming, though not disqualifying. ‘You can’t continue to have interviews like that and not take on water,’ he said.”
And, added Chris Lacivita, another GOP strategist speaking with Politico.com: “I have not been blown away by the interviews from her…she ain’t Dick Cheney, nor Joe Biden, and definitely not Hillary Clinton,” the AP report said.
Hear me, folks. These are loyal Republicans talking.
The AP report today concludes with this: “Writing in her column, Parker said she thought Palin was a ‘refreshing feminist of a different order’ when she joined the ticket, but it’s become clear she doesn’t know enough about economics or foreign policy to be president should that become necessary in a McCain administration.”
The AP report goes on…”‘Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves,’ Parker writes. “She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first’.”
Then the AP report puts the final nail in the coffin. It quotes Kathryn Jean Lopez, also writing for the conservative National Review, as saying that “Parker’s suggestion is ‘not a crazy suggestion’ and that ‘something’s gotta change’.”
If you saw Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric on CBS, you understand why now even the conservative women in the GOP are calling Palin unfit for the job for which she has been nominated.
The interview was embarrassing. It was like talking to a high school senior trying to impress a college board (and not succeeding). It is no wonder that the McCain Campaign is working as hard as it can to keep Palin as far as it can from anyone in the media. One more national television interview like the CBS exchange and Palin will reveal to the whole country what some of us have known from the beginning: she’s a nice lady with little higher education and virtually no understanding of the economic of social issues now facing this country, much less their solutions.
Please, please, no more comments here about how she has more “executive” experience than Barack Obama. Barack Obama, for God sake, is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Harvard Law School and was president of the Harvard Law Review. He served two terms in the Illinois State Senate and then went to the U.S. Senate, where he serves on the Foreign Relations Committee. Please, please, no more entries here trying to convince me that Sarah Palin, God bless her, is equal in qualifications to Barack Obama…or exceeds his qualifications. My gosh, you can’t really believe that if you simply listen to the two of them talk for five minutes…
Wake UP. (As conservative commentators themselves are now doing…goodness.)
P.S. Down below, blog Commentor “Don L.” says that education itself doesn’t matter, and he points to a list of…

Nine Presidents did not go to college:
George Washington
Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Grover Cleveland
Harry S Truman

Am I the only one who notices the obvious….that none of these presidents served in the last 50 years? Does anyone see, for heaven sake, that the times have changed? That the world is not as simple as it once was? That this day and age requires more of a president than it did in the days of Andrew Johnson, for heaven sake, or Grover Alexander…or yes, even Harry Truman? Are we kidding ourselves here with this list? C’mon Don. You can’t really believe that Sarah Palin is ready to be President of the United States! C’mon, Don. Even her one-time most fervant female conservative supporters are calling her an embarrassment. C’mon, Don. Give this one up. She’s an embarrassment. She sounds like someone in a 9th grade civics class…who hasn’t gotten all the questions right on the test…
It is no wonder, as I said, that Sen. McCain wants to keep her off TV and out of the media’s eye. They know, Don, what you cannot find it in yourself to admit: that Sarah Palin simply is not equipped to be vice-president of the United States. Much less PRESIDENT!
And then “John” writes below…

Face it; Liberal Democrats, Your just Plain Scared or should I say Palin Scared. Women Will Vote Like they never have before, and we’ll see.

John, it’s not liberal Democrats who are scared…it’s conservative REPUBLICAN WOMEN….read the news again, above. Read it closely, John. This is a female columnists for the National Review, John….the most CONSERVATIVE magazine in America. (ahem)
So much for who is scared about what….
And tomorrow, back to somewhat more spiritual themes….