The Palin Acceptance Speech

First, I know most folks come here for the pics of the kids and the family updates. But I warned you early on that I'd occasionally be sharing thoughts on other things as well.

I was already writing this post in my head when I stopped by one of my daily reads http:\\ninetexans.blogspot.com and Karen had a post about Palin's speech up as well. What she wrote made me think and flesh out some of my reactions to the Palin acceptance speech.

When I was just old enough to vote, I registered as a democrat. Part of that was being a very liberal young college student and part of it was to support a good friend of my moms that was running for Congress at the time. I tended to vote as a democrat for several years and as I've gotten older I've started voting based more on issues than party affiliation.

The last presidential election was a tough one - I really didn't like any of the choices. This time, once it was narrowed to Obama and McCain I promised myself to keep an open mind to both so I've been trying to read and follow both to get a feel for who is better choice for me.

With that open mind I watched Rudy Giuliani's and Sarah Palin's speeches. Giuliani gave the speech I expected and I agreed with many of his points. I watched Sarah Palin's speech with particular interest as determining whether I can support her as a candidate will play a large part in who I choose to vote for.

She's taken a tremendous amount of heat for being a working mom. I'm a working mom, so I obviously don't take issue with her working. What I do struggle to some degree is that she is embarking on a grueling campaign for the second highest office in the country with a 5 month old special needs child. I'm sure she has a tremendous support system in place and I would like to have faith that it will not impact her ability to parent. Like Karen, I do look at it some what selfishly - having a mother of small children, particularly one with special needs in such a high office could bring new light to issues that are currently ignored. But I do still struggle with whether or not it's fair to her young children even if it ends up benefiting many others.

I disagree with McCain and Palin on some key issues - I unequivocally support a woman's right to choose, they are vehemently pro-life. I think gun control is huge, having worked in a city where I've witnessed shootings, stabbings and other crimes - usually committed by young kids with access to illegal weapons. Palin is a member of the NRA. On the other hand, I also disagree with Obama and Biden on some key issues and I'm not impressed with how Biden presents himself or the issues.

I am definitely part of the soccer mom demographic I think McCain was shooting to reach when he selected Palin as his running mate. I represent that critical "undecided" voter. Since my husband just reminded me that I shouldn't be talking about politics or religion on the blog, I'll leave it that. I truly am still undecided. In the end, I'll have to decide which issues are the most important to me and to my family and vote accordingly.

Now I'm off to go check the swimming pool in our basement so graciously provided by tropical storm Hanna.