Emotions and "character"

It is easy for our emotions and gut feelings to take center stage when considering political candidates. For better or worse, both Shana and I have used words like “smug,” “snide,” and “sarcastic” to describe Sarah Palin. In an article today by Karen Mathews, former New York mayor Ed Koch said, “she scares the hell out of me.” While many others have made similar observations, there are others who consider Palin to be “down to earth” and just an everyday mom. So who is right? I don’t doubt that good intelligent people have come to the exact opposite conclusions, but how? (I’m sure the same assessments of McCain, Obama, and Biden have been made.)

Whatever the case may be, it is clear that judgments concerning character will color everything else about a candidate. I think this is something that we all need to be aware of, otherwise it is likely that we’ll never actually get to anything of substance, we’ll never even be able to ask how we’re going to work together.

At the same time, I have to wonder how much of a candidate’s character we can really know. Palin did not write her own speech, she was carefully prepped and she continues to be shielded from any questions. While all politicians strive to stay on message, whether you wrote your speech or not, it does seem a bit odd that Palin isn’t allowed to speak freely, especially considering the GOP’s focus on character. Are they trying to say she’s a puppet, a “member of the herd” to borrow one of her own, I mean Mathew Scully’s lines.

If nothing else, I would hope that the last eight years has shown us the dangers of a Presidency that is carefully scripted, where information is carefully controlled, questions are screened and preselected, and image (i.e. character) is created. While Palin may scare the hell out of some, another four years of this type of information control scares me even more. (On a related note, one of the single biggest reason I would not support Sarah Palin is that she tried to censor certain books at the library during her stint as Mayor - what does that say about character?)

No questions, please; Palin sticks to her script

Koch: Palin "Scares the hell out of me" - or -
Former NY mayor: Palin 'scares the hell out of me'